Time on Ice: A Winter Voyage to Antarctica

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In 1989, Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke willingly set sail for a land of ice and snow. Their goal (reminiscent of the Age of Exploration): to captain a 40-foot sailboat, the Northern Light, from Sweden to the Antarctic Peninsula and back, and overwinter in one of the earth's most beautiful yet inhospitable places. During the 28,000-nautical-mile trip, they endured battering seas, treacherous ice flows, and complete isolation while frozen at the bottom of the world. Time on Ice is the result of their struggles and ultimate achievement. In alternating chapters, the married coauthors recount a remarkable three-year odyssey that peaks with their interment in an Antarctic winter. But the awe-inspiring vistas, seldom-seen wildlife, and personal discoveries far outweigh the dangers. This is a fascinating journey to one of the world's wildest and loneliest places.


From Library Journal
Husband-and-wife sailing team Shapiro and Bjelke, who hold the record for sailing the longest north-to-south distance (33,000 miles from the Arctic to Antarctica), relate their experiences of sailing a 40-foot sailboat from Sweden to Antarctica and spending the winter there. Writing alternate chapters, they describe in fine detail the 16-month adventure from rebuilding their ship, Northern Lights, and getting provisions for the journey, to surviving whiteouts, capsizing waves, and the daily struggle of living in the Antarctic Circle. Their love of Antarctica infuses their descriptions of the land and animals that inhabit the area and the illustrations collected in the beginning and end of the book. Also at the back is a diagram of the ship and a list of temperatures and provisions. Compelling reading; recommended for large public libraries.?Stephanie Papa, Baltimore Cty. Circuit Court Law Lib., Md.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Wintering in Antarctica is a lark compared with getting there and back in a small sailboat, as Shapiro and Bjelke (freebooters out of Sweden) tell it. Having paid a summertime visit to the southernmost of continents--reveling in the wildness of it all, the waters swept with lilac-hued icebergs--Shapiro and Bjelke wanted more, a whole circuit of the seasons in Antarctica, aboard their 40-foot sailing vessel. They chart a circuitous course from Sweden, a shakedown voyage that takes them north to the Faroes, west to Canada, and down to Gloucester, testing the mettle of their craft and themselves. Time and again, shoddy workmanship and faulty hardware almost nix their plans, but the duo struggles on, aided by fair skies, a favoring wind, and extraordinary luck in happening across folks who tend to their engine problems and electrical malfunctions. They pound across the Atlantic again, challenging their boat to make sure it can withstand a polar winter, then head south to lock themselves into the ice. They tell their story in alternating voices, a chapter at a throw, Bjelke concentrating on the nautical details while Shapiro takes the breezier tack, pleasuring in the colors and contours of place, delighting in the wealth of wildlife and the ``200 nuances of morning light.'' Once anchored, they take long skiing trips, visit penguin rookeries and Wendell seal pupping grounds, bemoan the degradation of this heretofore virgin environment by tour groups, then question the impact even their light-stepping presence has on so fragile a landscape. When their tour is over, it's back to slamming seas and tortuous four-hour shifts--asleep one second, unwrapping the halyard and coupling it to the pulpit the next. A bumpy ride, but given the itinerary, was any less expected? (b&w and color photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Kirkus Reviews, 09/01/97
"They pound across the Atlantic again, challenging their boat to make sure it can withstand a polar winter, then head south to lock themselves into the ice. They tell their story in alternating voices, a chapter at a throw. Bjelke concentrating on the nautical details while Shapiro takes the breezier tack, pleasuring in the colors and contours of place, delighting in the wealth of wildlife and the '200 nuances of morning light."


Publishers Weekly, 09/08/97
"The ultimate getaway... in prose that is spellbinding, they detail adventures here that readers will thoroughly enjoy in the warmth of "heir own homes."


Book Description
When they sailed their modest metal-hulled sailboat NORTHERN LIGHT safely free of Antarctica the first time, adventurers Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke vowed never to go back. But they neglected the power of the human mind to forget pain. Drawn by a compulsion to trace the route of Shackleton ... memories of awe-striking beauty ... a need to test themselves and their game craft ... and a wish to be more alone and unfettered than any other humans on Earth, they made plans to sail once again for Antarctica and to overwinter there, locked in the ice. LIBRARY JOURNAL called their story "compelling reading."


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Swedish


From the Back Cover
ANTARCTICA: To the early mapmakers it was Terra Incognita, and it remains a remote, brooding presence, more mythic than real, its mystery only deepened by the legendary journeys of Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott. Answering the siren's call, Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke pushed their sailboat into the depths of an Antarctic winter, accepting complete isolation to experience the sublime majesty of earth's last great wilderness. TIME ON ICE recounts their three-year, 28,000-mile odyssey, meticulously planned and boldly executed by two experienced and resourceful sailors. Surviving whiteouts, hurricane-force winds, battering seas, and capsizing icebergs, they found what they were seeking: a wild, untamed, yet fragile beauty reserved for the few who can endure it. What they have brought back to share with us is magical. With color photos by the authors "Eloquently captures what must be the ultimate in sailing adventures. . . . Time on Ice opens the door to a world that even few sailors will ever experience." --San Diego Log "Sailors and nonsailors alike will thrill to the armchair adventure awaiting them in Time on Ice."--Portsmouth (NH) Herald "A story in the pure and enduring spirit of discipline and adventure. Right out of the annals of Slocum and Chichester."--48 Degrees North


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"A story in the pure and enduring spirit of discipline and adventure. Right out of the annals of Slocum and Chichester. . . "—48 Degrees North.


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