A Dip in the Bucket

What’s on your sailing bucket list? If Gallup took those sorts of polls, we’d expect to see high numbers for America’s Cup skipper, round the world racer, Olympic sailing and world championships in various classes.

But what about a guy who has achieved all of those things — and more? Is there anything left that could possibly be on Paul Cayard’s sailing bucket list?

Turns out the answer is yes, and in January he got to check it off the list when he voyaged to Antarctica.

The two-week trip was as a guest of friend Joey Kaempfer aboard his magnificent 180-ft Perini Navi ketch Rosehearty. Yes, it was a bit less ‘roughing it’ than the last time Cayard sailed to 63S as skipper of the 70-ft Pirates of the Caribbean in the 2006 Volvo Ocean Race (and the 60-ft EF Language in an early version of the same race in 1998). But the ‘Rosehearties‘ sailed more than 200 miles farther south than those events — in fact, all the way to the Antarctic Circle (66.5S) and back, exploring several of the islands and archipelagos at the bottom of the world before returning to Ushuaia, Argentina.

And how does one celebrate an Antarctic Circle crossing? “With Shackleton’s Whiskey and cigars, outside, on the upper deck,” says Cayard.

Look for Paul’s full report on the adventure in next month’s Changes In Latitudes.