Bucket List Adventure Day 8 - Straight down for Cape Town!

Vanessa de Vere on 01 December 2017
I took a long look at the huge map which covers an entire wall in my office this morning before I started planning today's article. I often refer to this when talking to clients looking for holiday inspiration. I realised that for as far north I was going to travel on my adventure I would also be moving east. Tracing a longitude of 18.955324 downwards from Tromso I would be in the same parallel as Cape Town in South Africa 18.423300.

Leaving Tromso and sailing overnight we will reach The North Cape at Honningsvåg late morning after a few short stops along the way. A vertical cliff rising 307 metres from the sea is a platform to view the world to the north, over the endless horizon to, and over the top of the world towards the Arctic. At this point I will be only 2080km from the North Pole. For me this is a wonderful place to stop and send a postcard...wish you were here? At this point the temperature will be in the range of -2C to-12C; some of my sailing chums will be heading off for a snowmobile adventure whilst others will visit Honningsvåg. Me, I think I will just want to stand here and think, take a selfie and remember the day fondly. Sailing in the early afternoon the sun will be starting to sink into the horizon as we sail past the Finnjerka, the most dramatic sea cliff in Norway. Known as the Finn-Church in English this is an illuminated stretch of cliff, featuring multi-coloured lights that slowly and beautiful merge a spectrum of colours. This cliff face wasn’t conquered by man until as recently as 1955; when you see how vertically it rises from the sea it is a wonder how.

I went around Cape Horn is South America a few years ago; I expected the worst from the weather but instead it was so calm the captain insisted we went around again. As many of you will know Cape Horn is actually a group of islands, so as we relaxed into the tranquil seas it wasn't until the South Atlantic and the Southern Oceans met we felt the full meaning of a gale force 10. I am ready for the same as we sail from the Norwegian Sea into the Barents Sea, round the corner and over the top towards the final stop on my voyage, Kirkenes a few miles from Russia.

Time to replace the bobble hat with a Russian "ushanka" - a fur hat with ear flaps... might just need it on my next stop!