Heroic Circumnavigators

The Vendee Globe is one of my favourite sporting events.  Sometimes called ‘the Everest of sailing’, the rules for this gruelling event, are simple: solo competitors sail, unassisted, around the world, non-stop.  It’s the ultimate test of human endurance and cutting-edge sailing technology.

Each four years, the race starts from Les Sables-d’Olonne in France. The racers head south, down the entire length of the Atlantic, across the equator, and past the lower tip of Africa.  They then make a sharp left turn and sail all the way around the bottom of the world – skirting Antarctica.  The conditions down there are ghastly – frigid temperatures, unrelenting gale-force winds and mountainous seas. Once past the infamous Cape Horn at South America’s southern extremity, the racers veer left again.  Then sail all the way back up the Atlantic, across the equator a second time, before reaching the finish line – each to a hero’s welcome – back where they started at Les Sables-d’Olonne.

As impressive as this human feat is, it pales when compared to the world’s greatest circumnavigator – the mighty, indomitable, Royal Albatross.  These huge, majestic birds – with a wingspan of more than three meters, and weighing in at more than 8 kilos – are absolute rock stars when it comes to solo circumnavigation.    

At first glance, their wings look outrageously long and slender – out of proportion to all other birds. This gives them an unmistakable silhouette when soaring.  Something akin to a glider.  The wings of which, at least to my eye, have always looked impossibly long and slender. 

When not extended for flight, the Royal Albatross’s elongated wings don’t fold once, or even twice, like most birds. They’re triple jointed, and make an extra jack-knifing motion to close ever so sublimely against their aerodynamic bodies.

A small number of these impressive birds continue to make mainland New Zealand their home. Most, however, have been driven away by predators – rats, ferrets, cats, and stoats – introduced by humans. The main colony is located on the remote, and predator-free, Campbell Island, more than 600 kilometres to the south. 

We had the opportunity to visit this tiny colony of Royal Albatross on the predator-free Otago Peninsula near Dunedin, on the South Island.  A point of land that is also home to the last remaining mainland colony of endangered Yellow-Eyed Penguins – the world’s rarest penguin.

So, what makes the Royal Albatross so special?  After hatching and fledging, at about eight months of age, the young bird finally takes flight.  Once airborne, it heads east, flying solo all the way across the Pacific Ocean 9,500 kms to the coast of Chile.  The juvenile Albatross then stays there, never touching land, for the next three to eight years.  

Once they reach maturity, it’s time to head home.  But not by flying west back across the Pacific, not the way they came.  Instead, they continue east – the long way to New Zealand or Campbell Island.  Completing their circumnavigation by flying crossing South America, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  

And, these birds really take home seriously.  They court, select a life-long mate, and make their nest, within 100 metres of where they were born. There, the new couple has a single egg, which they incubate for 11 weeks – the longest gestation period in the bird world. 

Eight months later, once their hatchling has flown away, the adults fly east again back to the coast of Chile.  They repeat this cycle, each time circumnavigating the globe and raising one offspring, every two years for the rest of their lives.  And, they live long lives – as long as sixty years.  That’s a lot of trips around the world. 

Back to the Vendee Globe race, for a moment.  The competitors have an an emotional affinity with the Albatross. They all comment on it. How the Albatross is one of the few creatures they see, far from land, in the Southern Ocean. How one Albatross can fly with them for days at a time. An avian solo soulmate. Like the sailors, who need to keep sailing while they nap, Albatross can, in fact, fly while sleeping. It’s something called ‘dynamic soaring’. Taking advantage of the winds to stay aloft without flapping their wings for hours at a time, even while napping.

The winner of the most recent race smashed the course record by nine days, finishing in 64 days, 19 hours, with an average speed of 17.8 knots.  Having sailed for more than 50 years, trust me, that is absolutely mind boggling!

Albatross have been recorded as circumnavigating in as little as 46 days.