Leading an Antarctic circumnavigation in the Sixties.

A first Atlantic crossing acted as a trigger: leaving medicine for maritime training, STCW certifications, and accelerated learning driven by field experience. Early on, the challenge became to industrialize the fundamentals: procedures, checklists, watch discipline, and the ability to decide under uncertainty.

Long-range deliveries: repeated passages (Atlantic, Pacific), taking over varied platforms, managing temporary crews, and GRIB/ECMWF-based routing. Each delivery is an exercise in controlled compromise: weather window versus fatigue, speed versus wear, comfort versus safety, with a single priority: arrive without breaking the boat.

Commanding private yachts after obtaining the Master 500 GT set the framework: full, 24/7 responsibility for safety, vessel integrity, and the program. This is where the reflexes useful in the South were forged: define thresholds, say no to a “borderline” window, wait, and walk away without regret when margins vanish.

2016–2022: intensive sailing on a Garcia Exploration 60 (aluminum, lifting-keel), focused on cold seas. Condensation, icing, accelerated aging, constant maintenance, and defending energy every day: performance becomes secondary to the ability to last.

Then came the choice of ARION (14 m Strongall aluminum): a platform designed for expedition work. Thick structure, simplified yet redundant systems, maintenance access, and reinforced energy autonomy. The goal is no longer to “go south” occasionally, but to remain there long enough for an exposed route in the Sixties, while limiting technical debt.

Odyssey of AION brings this trajectory together: depart Patagonia, commit to a clockwise arc around the continent, adapt to the field (weather, sea state, ice), and close the loop if conditions allow. Afterwards, depending on ice, logistics, and energy, a safe-harbor phase may be considered in a sheltered anchorage on the Peninsula, with a restart the following summer.