Time on Ice

In 1992, Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke undertook a perilous voyage from Sweden to the Antarctic expressly to spend the winter there in their 40-foot sailboat, frozen into an isolated anchorage. For their extraordinary journey, they prepared with months of hard work and meticulous planning. And when winter descended, they found what they went for: to be alone with the last great wilderness on earth. Through them, we experience fiery sunsets on snow and ice, mountains rising from mist, ethereal aquamarine ice caves. They met adversity with equanimity: destructive waves from capsizing icebergs, unexpected dunkings through thin ice, whiteouts, days on end in which the shrieking of the wind made conversation impossible, and 60-knot storms at sea. Told with grit, humor, and poetic insight, Time on Ice is a first-class tale for the sailor and armchair adventurer alike.