PELI Sails to the South Georgia Islands

“One thing we were certain of was that PELI products were our best bet for an expedition like the one we undertook to the South Georgia Islands. For nearly two months we endured extreme conditions, both aboard a sailboat that barely reached 20 metres, in which we crossed the most treacherous sea in the world, and on South Georgia Island, the largest of the group, a solitary place bordering the Antarctic where the relentless weather conditions are hostile to visitors.

The members of our team know first-hand what an adventure of this magnitude entails. For more than 30 years, we have undertaken expeditions to the most remote, inaccessible places on the planet such as Karakorum, Antarctica, the Libyan desert, the Himalayas and the North Pole, where our endurance was put to the test like never before, as was the equipment we brought with us.

In our line of work, photo and video cameras, telephones and satellite modems are what allow us to tell our story through images, access updated weather reports, establish life-saving communication with the outside world and orient ourselves in any situation using GPS. This equipment is not only vital, it is also fragile. That is where PELI products play a crucial role.

This trip was considerably different from a polar crossing, during which you are constantly on the move, or a climb in the Himalayas, where you have a base camp that offers plenty of room. Lack of space was the biggest limitation we faced by using Le Sourire as a base.

On a sailboat such as this, you need to take full advantage of every inch of space. We found that PELI cases were instrumental in achieving this. They allowed us to have our equipment at our fingertips, while keeping it organized and safe from falls, water and the constant hits a boat takes when crossing the stormiest sea in the world”.

"Without question, the product we used most during the voyage, and have been using for many years now, were our PELI 1500 Cases. Tough, compact and easy to use, they guarantee the safety of the most sensitive equipment working under the most difficult conditions. For seven weeks, we were relentlessly bombarded by rain, snow, wind, waves and cold without our equipment suffering any damage at all. For part of the voyage, the cases were on deck, often covered with several inches of snow. Yet the interiors were kept completely safe and dry. The headlights and lighting system were a real discovery for us. Under such difficult conditions, they got us through some rough patches and helped to make daily life much easier.

We were already aware of the exceptional qualities of PELI 1500 Cases, which have been our regular travel companions for quite some time. Although just a few years ago the technical equipment we brought along on an expedition was kept to the bare necessities and was much less sophisticated than it is now, we have found that the smartphones, tablets and personal computers available to us today are essential to the work we currently do. Things like keeping lines of communication open and using the press and social media to broadcast our expeditions play-by-play would not be possible without them. Telephones and satellites allow us to send images and video and let our story unfold live on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the web. However, for as useful as this equipment is, it is neither tough nor resilient and therefore would never stand up to the conditions of a journey of this magnitude. PELI cases for laptops, tablets and mobiles opened a whole new world to us with this expedition. And thanks to them we were able to undertake our expedition, which was quite risky in terms of adventure, with few technical glitches. We’re not adverse to taking risks, but when we want total security we trust in PELI".

'In the Footsteps of Shackleton' Expedition's Team

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