Getting dressed seems to take ages when you are trying to get on deck quickly. Mid-layer salopettes, then boots, mid-layer jacket – yes, it's that cold – then foulie salopettes, tugging gently over the boots because pulling hard just jams them… Velcro-strap the ankle, and finally scarf, woollen gloves – eugh, still wet and cold, foul-weather jacket, harness, fur hat and then the gauntlets.

Over the next three decades, MacMillan sailed the Bowdoin north twenty-six times. She carried scientists, students, and adventurers deep into a little known world — into the fjords of Greenland, past the icebergs of Davis Strait, in both Arctic summers and long dark of polar winters. She accumulated more than 300,000 nautical miles in waters that had undone far larger ships.