I could see a small army of snow plows keeping the runways clear as I took off into the clouds, headed east towards New York.
I had just enough time to wave to my friends in New York City through the Newark, New Jersey airport windows before I was up in the sky again. The direct flight from Newark to Cape Town, South Africa is one of the longest non-stop flights in the world. It took me about 15 hours to fly the 7,800-mile distance between cities. While I was watching a movie, having a snack, and taking a nap, I couldn’t help but think of the Endurance, which made a journey of a similar length at the beginning of the Imperial Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1914. The expedition team sailed the 7,000 miles from England to Buenos Aires, Argentina in just over two months! It is amazing to me that I could fly all that way in just 15 hours—less than a day.
As the airplane was approaching Cape Town, I saw the famous Table Mountain rising above the city. At the point where the mountain meets the Atlantic Ocean, I could see a harbor, and to my great excitement, there was the S.A. Agulhas II, tied up alongside one of the piers! I was so excited to see the ship I will call home for the next 40+ days. From my airplane window, the ship looked like a tiny fishing bobber that had washed up on a dramatic coastline.
After we landed, I made my way through customs, where a South African immigration officer gave me a visa in my passport, which allows me to stay in the country. It was actually kind of hard to explain that I would be in South Africa for more than a month (sort of), but also living on a ship, and also just not being anywhere near South Africa for most of my stay.
