Sea of Inspiration

In hot summers, we are grateful for ice—cold drinks, shaved ice, and even ice cream. But how did people in the past manage? Royalty and wealthy people stored ice from winter to summer, and even Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, a famous Japanese classic, mentions shaved ice.

Still, it was only about 200 years ago, after the Industrial Revolution, that ordinary people began enjoying ice in summer. The past 200 years might represent just 0.1% of human history, which spans several hundred thousand years or more. It must have been a unique experience for humanity.

What other types of ice have you seen besides the ice in your drinks? If you live in a city, the largest ice you might encounter is probably at a skating rink.

The largest ice I encountered on my voyage was an Antarctic iceberg.

At first, I never imagined I could sail to Antarctica. But then, I was in Argentina, South America, on a journey around the world. Antarctica is only 1,000 km from South America—a short distance compared to the 8,000 km Pacific crossing from Japan to San Francisco.

Still, could I really sail to the Antarctic? No one had attempted a solo voyage to the Antarctic in a small, 7.5-meter yacht. Additionally, the FRP hull, unlike steel, risked being scraped by ice and punctured.

To deal with this problem, I reinforced the bow with a stainless steel plate and added a metal mesh cover to the hull to protect it from ice friction. (For more details on the preparations for the Antarctic, see other pages on this site.)

Of course, the Antarctic is not the only place to see large icebergs. While sailing through Patagonia in South America, I repeatedly encountered glaciers.

This photo, taken from Aomi, shows the Romanche Glacier in the Beagle Channel, Patagonia. The white lines in the center indicate waterfalls cascading down the rock face.

Recently, I noticed something surprising. While searching Wikimedia for photos of the same glacier, I found a relatively recent image corresponding to the area marked by the green frame above. Here it is.

Compare it to the photo I took. Do you notice the glacier in the orange-marked area is gone? (I added the orange marking later.) My photo was taken in the fall of 1983, while the Wiki photo dates to the fall of 2016. In the 33 years between them, the glacier has noticeably shrunk.

This photo was taken from Aomi in 1986 as it departed Palmer Station, the American base on Anvers Island, off the coast of Antarctica. The blue three-story main building is in the center-left, while the white oil tanks are to the right. Behind them lies the glacier, which seems smaller in recent photos.

Curious about this, I investigated further. Let's examine the area using an image I made with Google Earth data.

This image highlights the glacier's retreat, with Palmer Station's buildings visible on Anvers Island. The glacier is to the right of the buildings, with its tip marked by the blue line. This photo was taken in 2017, while the red line represents the glacier's front line in a 1975 satellite image. Over 42 years, the glacier has retreated hundreds of meters.

The retreat of glaciers is a global phenomenon. The following image was compiled from multiple photos showing glacier changes in the Alaska Range, North America. Each photo is sourced from NASA's GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE.

The orange numbers below each photo indicate the year it was taken. Astonishingly, the photos on the left and right show the same location. The dramatic change in scenery has occurred—ice continues to melt in the Americas, the Antarctic, and worldwide.

These pieces of evidence make it clear that glacier recession—an undeniable sign of global warming—is progressing. If this trend continues, more frequent disasters and severe disruptions to agriculture could result in widespread food shortages. We must take action before it's too late.

If we fail to act now, the future of our descendants on Earth may be disastrous.

We must think about what we can do in our daily lives and take immediate action.

I wish you all the best from the yacht Aomi.