Ship’s captain Patrick Marchesseau shares with Victoria Heath the challenges of exploring polar seas
Marchesseau’s travel insights
– Remain flexible with expeditions in case plans change
– With the right equipment, seemingly unnavigable places can be reached
– Past expeditions can teach us a lot about places
Sailing through the Arctic is certainly no small feat. For countless explorers, the region has been a site of great allure – and eventual peril – as they battled adverse weather and inhospitable conditions. Hundreds of years later, albeit equipped with far more advanced technologies, Captain Patrick Marchesseau is overseeing the icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot on a 20-day Arctic voyage from Longyearbyen in Norway to Nome, Alaska – an expedition on which I’m a passenger.
Marchesseau and I are talking on the bridge of the ship – the control centre from which he and other officers navigate and manage Le Commandant Charcot’s operations. Around us, numerous computer screens blink with complex displays of data. One officer uses an enormous telescope to survey the icy terrain ahead, while others study screens with an intense focus. It’s a reminder that, underneath Le Commandant Charcot’s smooth sailing, lies a quiet, impressive orchestration behind each of its movements.
Certainly, the ship we’re sailing on is built to navigate this terrain; it’s a Polar Class 2 icebreaker, able to crunch through ice up to two-and-a-half metres thick. Its capacity to churn through ice comes second in the world only to a Russian fleet of research vessels.
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This is Marchesseau’s first time as a captain on this particular trans-Arctic route, but he has been working with PONANT – the cruise line running Le Commandant Charcot – for 21 years. While it may seem like a daunting role, filled with responsibility, for Marchesseau becoming a captain fulfils an ambition that dates back to childhood. After training for ten years at an academy – with periods at sea – he rose through the ranks and eventually worked his way up to captain.
‘The process wasn’t too difficult,’ Marchesseau says. ‘That’s because I was interested and motivated by the topics we studied.’
Marchesseau’s voyages have taken him across the globe, but polar regions remain among his favourites. He considers such seas his speciality having worked in them for 15 years. When he first became a captain, he says, he had no idea that traversing such regions would be possible. Now, these landscapes offer an experience that’s exciting and challenging in equal measure. ‘Nothing is by the book in these areas,’ he says. ‘You have to adapt to the environment and weather.’
Such adaptation is especially true in Antarctica, Marchesseau’s favourite region. ‘It’s where you have all the different challenges to contend with,’ he says. ‘There are huge icebergs, extreme winds and a huge array of wildlife.’
Unlike the Arctic journey we’re currently embarking on – with its relatively calm waters and good weather – there have been occasions in Antarctica that Marchesseau describes as testing. While a voyage might plan to go to one region of the continent, adverse conditions – such as winds up to 100 knots, huge icebergs or poor visibility – can quickly change that.
‘It’s never a 100 per cent guarantee,’ Marchesseau says. ‘You can never be fully sure in Antarctica. One minute it can be paradise, the next it can be a nightmare.’
Beneath its inhospitable present, though, Antarctica offers a fascinating glimpse into past polar exploration. ‘It’s rich in history,’ Marchesseau says. ‘You can visit sites that were frequented by Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and other explorers.’
Marchesseau brings up these past explorations with good reason. Such journeys paved the way for modern navigation and our ability to travel to some of the most remote places on the planet. Take Amundsen, for example – the first person to sail through the Northwest Passage – or Matthew Henson and Robert Peary, one of the first explorers to reach the North Pole. Ultimately, he suggests their adventures serve as a humbling reminder that our travels today rely on the sacrifices and toil of past explorers.
