Five months on, anyone who follows Rapido knows what Aldo Fumagalli and the crew of Picomole achieved in Antarctica.
This isn’t that story again. It’s this newly discovered photograph.
Take a moment with it.
Between Permanence and Motion
The mountain has stood here for hundreds of millions of years. The fiercest storms have come and gone across its face for millennia. To the mountain, they are passing moments.
The Drake Passage is its opposite.
Nothing about the Drake stands still. Wind, sea, and weather are in constant motion, combining to create one of the most unpredictable stretches of ocean on Earth. It has earned its reputation, not because it is always violent, but because it can become so – with astonishing speed.
One is defined by permanence. The other by change.
And somewhere between those two worlds, in this photo, sits the Rapido 53XS, Picomole.
Almost lost against the ice. Motionless. Tiny. A speck of carbon beneath a mountain that doesn’t notice her.
In this single frame, she seems almost part of the landscape itself.
But she was never meant to stay still.
Days later, that same speck would spring to life and make a fast passage across the Drake in just over 42 hours.
A Matter of Perspective
Back in February, Michel Bourque spotted Picomole from the deck of the 317-metre cruise ship, Celebrity Equinox. Something about the little 16.1m trimaran beneath that immense landscape caught his eye. He tracked down Rapido, as you may recall, and generously shared the photographs he had taken.
Last week, while looking back through his photos, he discovered the new frame above.
Even though we were now five months later, the striking imagery still caused him to pause and reflect. Michel sent through the photo immediately and we’re very glad he did.
It’s a photo about perspective, where a cruise ship and an ocean-cruising trimaran are reduced to specks of steel and carbon against ancient mountains and one of the world’s most demanding oceans. For just a fleeting moment, they each shared the same space.
Weather Windows
Back in February when Michel was capturing this scene from the deck of teh Celebrity Equinox, another scene was unfolding aboard Picomole. Down below in the saloon, the crew were carefully studying forecasts. In Antarctica, experienced sailors know that voyages are measured in weather windows. the Southern Ocean decides when you leave.
When the weather window opened, Picomole slipped quietly away from the stillness of Antarctica and pointed her bows towards the Drake.
A few days later, Aldo simply wrote:
“We are back. Very fast crossing: 42 hours 39 minutes from latitude Deception Island to latitude Cape Horn (approximately 420 nautical miles which is an average speed of 9.84 knots).”
— Aldo Fumagalli, Picomole Log Entry
While mountains measure time in millions of years, sailors measure it in weather windows.
Thank you, Michel, for finding this image and sharing it with us.
Related Items
- Antarctica Under Sail: Aldo Fumagalli’s Rapido 53XS Voyage, Vela magazine, February 2026
- Crossing the Drake: Picomole Reaches Antarctica, Rapido Trimarans website 8 February 2026
- From ARC 2025 to Antarctica: Aldo Fumagalli Shares His Journey aboard Picomole
- Photo album of Picomole in Antarctica by Michel Bourque
- Photo albums of Picomole in Antarctica by the crew. Albums 1 and 2.
- Rapido 53XS
Photo Credits
- Michel Bourque
