Southern Ocean Cruising: Sally and Jérôme Poncet
Damien II near Rhyolite Islands in George VI Sound, Antarctic Peninsula, January 1989. Photo: © Ben Osborne.
Online sales update February 2026
Purchase can be made using the online payment facility STRIPE. The book is £9.50 plus packing / shipment by Royal Mail (1st class or air) as follows: within UK £7.00; EU £10.00; USA / elsewhere £12.50.
ERA accepts credit card payments by Stripe. Email Colin Harris first with number of copies required, your billing and mailing address. We'll let you know the total cost including postage and card payment fees (~£2.00). If you wish to proceed, we'll invoice you and payment is made by credit card via a secure link to Stripe. We will ship as soon as practical after payment is approved.
Email us if more details are required.Overview
Sally and Jérôme wrote the first edition of this classic handbook in 1991 with the aim of highlighting the special nature of the Southern Ocean, Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, and the region's inherent fragility. They emphasised the importance of understanding and appreciating this unique environment as the basis for taking care of it, yet acknowledged that with increasing visitation there has come the necessity for certain rules so that these outstanding values can be sustained into the future. Their vision remains highly relevant today.
The Second Edition published by ERA on 7 November 2007 includes the environmental regulations in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions up until publication. Produced at the request and with the support of the Polar Regions Department in the Overseas Territories Directorate of the United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Second Edition of Southern Ocean Cruising helps make information on environmental requirements more easily accessible and better understood, and as such is a useful reference for anyone planning to visit the region, and especially for those undertaking private expeditions.
However, the publication is now dated, and environmental regulations have changed. For a more up-to-date manual covering the Antarctic Peninsula, we recommend ERA's Wildlife Awareness Manual (WAM) which was published in 2021. For coverage of the Ross Sea, we recommend ERA's Ross Sea Environmental Awareness Manual (RS-EAM) which was published in 2025. The WAM and RS-EAM provide more accurate information on environmental regulations, and many more detailed and recent maps of these regions.
Serious sailing expeditions may still wish to consult Southern Ocean Cruising as the original guide to the Southern Ocean for yachts.
Southern Ocean Cruising is an A5-sized book of 160 pages with 68 clear and informative maps, and is finished in an attractive glossy softcover binding. The full-spread cover photograph (shown above) is by award-winning photographer Ben Osborne (Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007) and the Title Page sketch of an albatross soaring over the Southern Ocean is by the reknowned yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur.