The Great Southern Ocean

Wet, Wild and Wonderful

In the year 2000, a fifth name was added to the world’s oceans when the International Hydrographic Organization designated the Southern Ocean as a separate oceanic division. You could be excused for wondering what took them so long to “discover” this new ocean, which had previously been treated as simply the southern extension of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. But advances in the science of oceanography have only recently made it possible. As you cross the Tasman Sea, you’ll skirt the northern limits of this unique body of water, which has already earned more nicknames than its august companions ever had.

The Screaming Sixties

Officially, the Southern Ocean comprises the waters of the World Ocean south of 60 degrees South latitude. World Ocean is used to describe a continuous, interconnected system of marine waters that covers and encircles most of the Earth. It is actually centered on the Southern Ocean with the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans extending northward like giant bays with the Arctic Ocean, at the opposite pole, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific.

The Arctic and Southern Oceans are opposites in more ways than one. The Arctic is surrounded by continents, the Southern surrounds a continent. The Arctic is a relatively warm sea surrounded by frigid landmasses, the Southern is a frigid sea. Sea ice forms at the center of the Arctic and only at the fringes of Antarctica.

One unique aspect of the Southern Ocean is that it is not geographically contained by bordering continents, as are the other four oceans. As a result, scientists do not yet agree on the exact northern boundary of this newest ocean. Some would set it at the Antarctic Convergence, a line between two opposing circumpolar currents that fluctuates seasonally. Oceanographers cite characteristics within the waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current that are consistent all the way around Antarctica, but markedly different from the adjoining waters of the three contiguous oceans.

The Southern Ocean is the youngest of the five oceans, having been formed about 30 million years ago when South America separated from Antarctica, creating the Drake Passage. That separation is also responsible for the unique weather conditions that exist in this body of water.

The Roaring Forties

The latitudes between 40 and 50 degrees South have been known by this name for centuries, so dubbed by sailors because of the prevailing westerly winds. At these latitudes there is no landmass to slow them down so that they can build up quite a head of steam. These are the winds that have made the Tasman Sea, the Cape of Good Hope, and Drake Passage such storied bodies of water.

The winds of the Roaring Forties were chiefly responsible for the establishment of the clipper route by Dutch sailors in the 1600s. This was the route sailed by the clipper ships of the Dutch East India Company around Africa and across the Indian Ocean to the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The return voyage used these same westerly winds to sail home via the Pacific and around South America.

While this route offered captains the fastest circumnavigation of the world, and brought the greatest rewards for valuable cargoes, it also carried the greatest risks. Passing south of Tasmania, Stewart Island in New Zealand and the three “great capes” (Good Hope, Cape Horn and Cape Leeuwin in Australia), the voyage exposed ships and crews to howling winds, towering waves and growling icebergs.

The Furious Fifties

Although clipper ships have long been displaced by mechanically powered vessels, the clipper route remains the fastest way to sail around the world. It is now the course used by several prominent yacht races. The Volvo Ocean Race is sailed in full-crew boats, with several stops, every four years. Around Alone is a single-handed race with stops. Vendee Globe is a single-handed, non-stop race. These races cover approximately 30,000 nautical miles and have had their share of thrills and tragedies over the years, in part because yachts and crews are so far from assistance should trouble occur.

The clipper route has its heroes, as well. Francis Chichester was the first to sail it single-handed aboard Gypsy Moth in 1966. In 2005, Bruno Peyron and crew set a new world record of 50 days for the route that used to take clipper ships at least 100. That same year, Englishwoman Ellen MacArthur set a new world record of 71 days for a single-handed, non-stop passage. Good on ya’, Ellen.

The combination of fast boats and high risks continues to give this Southern Ocean its unique aura among the world’s great seas.

South Sea Islands

What’s Not to Like?

We have all stood and stared at those slick photos of the sugar-fine sandy beaches lapped by a transparent surf that’s shaded by a slender, gently-swaying palm with the tanned couple in the tinier-than-a-handkerchief swimsuits smooching while backlit by a setting sun.

Wanna be there?  Wanna be them?

Well, The World is certainly going to facilitate the first of these two lofty goals.  You, my friend, are completely on your own with the latter.  That, you know darn well, requires some serious time in the gym, no juicy burgers and salted fries at the pool bar, and about a trillion laps around Deck 12.

I think I have to take a nap.

Naming Names

Islands in the Pacific South Seas are clustered into three major groups.  Polynesia, the largest of the three, covers an area from New Zealand all the way to Hawaii.  Within this massive grouping are seventeen smaller ones that include the Society Islands, Samoa, and Tonga.

Micronesia is the second of the three groups.  It may be less well known because many of its islands are uninhabited.  The names within this grouping that you may recognize are the Mariana Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Caroline Islands.

The last of our three groups of islands is Melanesia.  Here, you’ll find the popular Fiji Islands, the historic Solomons, and the fascinating island of Papua (pronounced “pah-puu-ah”) New Guinea.  P.N.G., as it is called, is linked to Australia by an underwater continental shelf.  Eons ago, this land was not submerged.  This allowed both the animals and the plantlife to spread from one landmass to another unimpeded.  Hence the similarity in flora and fauna between the two.  Sometimes visitors are surprised to discover that tree kangaroos, wallabies, and a big bird that is unable to fly called a cassowary live in both Australia and New Guinea.

For most of these islands, it was violent volcanic activity that caused their creation.  Something called the “Ring of Fire” was the result of these eruptions and cooling off of molten material which, when applied layer upon layer, formed these islands.  In fact, smack in the center of this “Ring of Fire” one finds the Hawaiian Islands.

Atolls often ring the tips of these volcanoes that rise above the water level.  These atolls develop when a coral reef grows around the volcanic landmass and traps the seas in shallow lagoons.  For yachties, this is a hazard.  For snorkelers who just want to splash about in these tepid and tranquil lagoons, this is heaven.

Who Lives on These Coral Reefs?

If there was room service, I would.  But, I’d have to share with the likes of sponges, starfish, crabs, sea cucumbers, and shrimp swimming here and there.  They’re all an integral part to the delicate balance of life in and on the sea.  There are even a half dozen species of giant clams that call these reefs home.  Some, unfortunately, are plucked from the reefs to be cooked up for the next meal.

Thankfully, the flattened reeftops as well as other locations on the reefs provide ideal conditions for many sea animals to thrive.  As their life does hang in the delicate balance of the correct amount of light, oxygen in the water, sea temperature, and consistent currents, we must be careful to protect these environments.

Home Sweet Home

As the coral “grows” with the build-up of limestone skeletons of the polyps that float along, the mass eventually breaks the surface of the sea.  Then, a program of compaction occurs.  Grasses and other plant life take hold, and an island is born.  It is then that birds swoop in to set up shop.  Tiny ones.  Big ones.  In fact, on the Marshall Islands of Micronesia, the immense frigate bird has staked out his personal claim.  And who would dare to challenge him?  He’s got an impressive 10-foot wingspan.

Even mammals have made these islands their home, as well.  One of the most prolific of this group is the flying fox (also called a fruit bat).  There are more than four-dozen species scattered about the Pacific.

Snails slime and crabs skitter about on these islands.  In fact, there is one called a “coconut crab” that actually scales up palm trees then snips the greenery that connects the coconuts to the tree.  It (the coconut, not the crab) falls, smacks open, and the crab races in for his afternoon snack.

And isn’t that where we started this discussion?  Those cute posterpeople probably have retreated to a little thatched bungalow for some libation and island specialties.  But, if they want to keep those bounce-a-quarter-on-their-belly bellies, they’d best not eat too much.  That’s the only really hardship on a South Seas island.  The rest is simply paradise.