Ahoy Point Nemo!

This Wednesday, Giancarlo Pedote is making headway some 300 miles to the south of Point Nemo, the most remote point on the globe and the furthest point from any landmass. The legendary Cape Horn is slowly looming some 1,700 miles further down the track, but the Pacific Ocean has not finished playing tricks on the sailors competing in the Vendée Globe. Indeed from tomorrow, the leading group, of which the skipper of Prysmian Group forms part, will have to contend with a secondary low-pressure system that is set to generate strong winds on the approach to Tierra del Fuego. As such, steeped in maritime history and mystery, the famous headland is likely to live up to its formidable reputation. Set to make the rounding this coming Sunday through into Monday, it will doubtless be a marker in the career of the Italian sailor. Point Nemo is a legendary passage, which stirs up the imagination of sailors everywhere. Taking its name from the famous captain of the Nautilus, created by Jules Verne in his novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, it is referred to as the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. This is evidenced by the fact that the nearest islet is Ducie Island, an uninhabited atoll situated some… 2,688 kilometres away. “Even though the weather situation right now is complicated due to the numerous squalls and really short, choppy seas, which require a huge amount of concentration, the fact that I’m close to Point Nemo gets you thinking. It’s a symbolic reference for absolute remoteness and inevitably that fact alone does not leave you indifferent”, commented Giancarlo Pedote, despite being shocked to find out that the point is also a space dump. Indeed, due to its remoteness, a large amount of space waste is ‘buried’ there with between 250 and 300 end-of-life spacecraft believed to be located in this area, including the Soviet space station Mir and the remains of the first Chinese prototype space station Tiangong-1. “It’s depressing to know that man has had the lousy idea of using this point as a graveyard for space objects. Today, with the technology we have at our disposal, we could surely look into crashing them into the desert and then recovering them rather than leaving them to pollute the seabed”, added the skipper of Prysmian Group, who is always very concerned about safeguarding the environment. The end of the austral tunnel Right now, the famous Cape Horn is just 1,700 miles ahead. This volcanic tooth at the southern tip of Chile is always a sign of deliverance for the sailors, who have been ‘hidden away’ for over a month in the austral tunnel that encompasses the Indian and Pacific Oceans. “Frankly, I cannot wait to round Cape Horn. I’m looking forward to making the climb along the length of Argentina. The men are tired and the boats too. Returning to the Atlantic is bound to be a thrilling ride. We’ll rediscover the sunshine and slightly more human temperatures, whilst escaping the humidity and the cold a little. It’s bound to be a morale boost”, assures Giancarlo, who is nevertheless preparing for a bracing not to mention boisterous approach towards Tierra del Fuego, since westerly winds of between 35 and 45 knots, gusting to 55 knots with 6 to 7-metre waves are forecast in the area for the weekend. “We’re all set to be under a bit of pressure with the storm, so we’re likely to find it hard to make the most of the moment we make the rounding, but either way, I know it’s going to be awesome”, explained the Florentine, who reckons he’ll round the third and final cape of his circumnavigation of the globe between 3 and 4 January, barely a day astern of the leader. That’s quite an insignificant deficit at this stage of the race and bodes well for a thrilling climb up the Atlantic. The wonderful adventure continues!