Marseille, early April 2026. Departure is set for August 16th. Four months and ten days left. Four months to turn a yacht into a machine capable of holding its own south of 60°S — where there are no ports, no rescue services, and no safety net.

What Arion already is

Arion is a Strongall 47-foot aluminium yacht. Seventeen tonnes. Lifting keel, tiller steering. A boat built from the outset for sailing far from shore, in conditions most yachts never approach. She's already proven herself in the Patagonian channels, among glaciers and williwaws. What we filmed there in Entre Ciel et Mer was just the prologue.

The Antarctic circumnavigation south of 60°S is a different category entirely. The Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, the Screaming Sixties — these names aren't poetic metaphors. They describe what the atmosphere actually does to the water's surface at those latitudes. Depression after depression. Swells of 8, 10, sometimes 12 metres. Winds holding 50 knots for 72 hours without easing.

Arion is built for that. But she still needs to be equipped for it.

The work of these four months

Energy first. In Antarctica, solar power is unreliable — days are long in the austral summer, but overcast skies are the norm. The setup we've chosen combines solar panels, wind generators, and a hydrogenerator: when Arion is moving at 5 knots or more, the hydrogenerator alone produces enough to power the critical systems. LiFePO4 battery banks store the surplus. It's a system designed for complete autonomy — no dependence on a running engine for charging.

Navigation next. The Mousaillon station — our onboard AI — will be installed on a Mac Mini M5 in August. In the meantime, I'm working from the MacBook. The Raymarine SeaTalk systems already on board — autopilot, chartplotter, depth sounder, AIS — will be integrated via a Yacht Devices WiFi converter so Mousaillon can read instrument data in real time. Weather will be tracked via PredictWind with GRIB files retrieved through Starlink Ocean.

Communication redundancy. Starlink will be the primary link. The Iridium GO! takes over if Starlink goes down — and statistically it will, at least once in the most remote sectors (Ross Sea, Bellingshausen Sea). The backup protocol is still being defined.

The crew. I leave Marseille solo to Ushuaia — 8,000 miles, roughly 60 days of single-handed sailing. At Ushuaia, Sarah joins for the circumnavigation itself. Sarah is a marine biologist specialising in orcas and high-latitude cetaceans. Her presence transforms the expedition: the Scientific Data Hub she coordinates will collect oceanographic and biological data for the entire loop — data that doesn't exist yet, because nobody goes there.

What's still open

Two questions at this stage.

First: the engine. The current inboard is an older MWM 50hp unit. It works, but for a solo Drake crossing I'd like more margin. A Volvo 75hp is in negotiation with a potential partner. Decision before mid-July.

Second: the windlass. In the Patagonian channels and at anchor in Antarctica, the windlass and 60 metres of chain are essential. The question is whether to drop it at Ushuaia before the Drake — to take weight off the bow in Cape Horn seas — or keep it and accept the trade-off.

What this actually feels like

Every morning I list what's left to do. The list shrinks, but it shrinks slowly. That's the nature of expedition preparation: the further along you get, the more you discover what you hadn't anticipated. That's not a bad sign — it's exactly how it's supposed to work.

On August 16th, Arion leaves Marseille. It will be the start of a voyage few yachts have attempted, and none has completed while remaining maintained south of 60°S for the full circumnavigation.

Let's see what happens.