I’m on a mission to reach Point Nemo… the world’s most remote place ‘unseen by man’ where the closest humans are in space
A daring explorer is on a mission to reach the most remote place on earth where the closest people are in space.
Chris Brown, 62, is about to become the first British to complete a specific expedition to Point Nemo, also known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility.
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Located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it is the furthest point of the country in any direction.
In fact, Point Nemo is so remote that the closest people are astronauts on the International Space Station – 408 km above the spot in low Soil track.
Still, Chris and his son Mika, 30, are heading there after leaving Puerto Montt Chili last Tuesday (March 12).
The entrepreneur from Harrogate, North Yorkshire has already visited five of the eight continental Poles of Inaccessibility (PIA) on Earth Antarctica, Australia, Africa, North America And South America.
He shares his remarkable adventures on inaccessibility.net and aims to be the first person to visit all eight PIAs, including Point Nemo.
Maritime professionals have stated that “it is possible that no human has ever passed the specific coordinates.”
Nevertheless, Chris and Mika hope to arrive in Point Nemo around March 20 or 21.
The father of two is undeterred by the dangers of visiting a place where few, if any, people have ever been.
“I don’t consider this as dangerous as my expeditions to Africa or Antarctica,” he said.
“The obvious danger is that you are miles from anywhere at sea, and you are far from any of the shipping lanes, so if there were a problem with the boat, help would take a long time to wait. ”
While the closest humans to Point Nemo are in space, occasional research boats and world yacht race participants have also come close to reaching this point.
Chris, who records his expeditions TikTok (@chrisbrownexplores), added: “I’ve been planning this trip for about five years and have finally put solid action plans in place over the past six months.”
The explorer revealed he had looked at various methods of reaching Point Nemo, including racing yachts and tankers, but preferred something “a bit more robust”.
“Then I came across this boat called the Hanse Explorer, which normally takes people to Antarctica,” Chris said.
“It just so happens that after the Antarctic summer, which is our winter, it repositions itself from Chile to French Polynesia.
“And that means it’s going to be pretty close to where we want to be.
“After some negotiation, the owners agreed to our little detour.”
When Chris arrives at Point Nemo, he plans to go swimming, if the water is calm enough and the captain agrees it is safe.
The sea depth at Point Nemo is approximately 4,000 meters and the surface temperature is expected to be around 7°C.
He added: “I’m going to try and get in the water if at all possible.
“The Hanse Explorer has inflatable Zodiac ribs that we might be able to launch, and I’ll jump right in.”
“I also expect to open a bottle of bubbly when I get there.”
When Chris is at Point Nemo, the nearest land will be 2,688 km away, with the Pitcairn Islands, Moto Nui in the Easter Islands and Maher Island in Antarctica the closest.
Point Nemo is located in an area called The South Pacific Gyre, a complex system of rotating currents in the Pacific Ocean; a convergence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Humboldt Current and the West Wind Drift.
As a result, a lot of ocean waste gets trapped in the system, turning this part of the Pacific Ocean into something of an oceanic garbage dump.
It is believed that there are no fish or other marine life in the area. The lack of nutrients makes it difficult for even the most hardy species to survive.
Currently, only bacteria and small crabs have been discovered living in the area volcanic vents on the seabed near Point Nemo.
Scientists have described it as “the least biologically active region of the world’s oceans.”
The coordinates are 48º52.6S, 123º23.6W.
Chris and his team plan to take water samples at and along the way to the Pole of Inaccessibility to study the density of microplastics in this most remote location in the oceans.
Point Nemo is named after the famous captain from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Nemo actually means ‘no one’ in Latin.
Although the location has always existed, its relevance has only been known since 1992 Croatian–Canadian surveyor engineer Hrvoje Lukatela used a geospatial computer program that processed the planet’s ellipsoid shape to calculate the point farthest from land.
The first ship to sail close to the location was the Spanish research vessel Hespérides in 1999.
Ocean race participants approach Point Nemo on the leg between Auckland, New Zealand and Itajai, Brazilalthough boats only need to be “close” to the point.
Point Nemo is also a hotspot for disused space material, with more than 100 pieces of space junk. including the remains of Russia’s Mir space stationlittered nearby.
You’ve watched the remote location turn into a creepy graveyard for lost Space Shuttle parts and outdated materials blown away from above.
Chris has yet to visit the Northern and Eurasian Poles of Inaccessibility, but recently documented his adventure at the Antarctic South Pole.
The explorer and his son were ‘trapped’ in -28°C conditions when their aeroplane broke down on the frozen continent.
Although there, however they discovered an abandoned Soviet base deep beneath the surface after seeing a head sticking out of the ice.
Chris also made headlines around the world last June when it emerged he quit with a trip to the wreck of the Titanic on the doomed Titan submarine amid security concerns.
The explorer, together with his friend, paid a deposit for the mission to the wreck Hamish Harding, 58but he discovered that the controls were “based on computer game-style controllers.”
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