ARTIST ROUND THE HORN

Turner lashed himself to the mast to paint a storm, we are told, as evidence of how much an artist has to endure in the pursuit of authenticity. This is now known to be a romantic myth, but it undoubtedly bolstered his reputation as an artist who could portray nature in the raw.

I didn’t need to be tied to ’s mast at any time on my voyage from Galapagos to Falklands, but painting a rough sea is a Dutch gaff ketch, 130 tonnes of steel, built as a herring drifter almost a century ago. She now earns her living taking paying voyage crew to some of the most remote and beautiful parts of the planet. Brother and sister team Gijs and Jet Sluik take it in turns to lead each leg; by the time she returns to the Netherlands in October 2020, will have been at sea for 18 months, visited Greenland twice, circumnavigated the Americas via the North West Passage and Cape Horn, and travelled extensively in Antarctic waters.