Finding Nemo: First recorded person at world's most remote location

The closest any recorded person has been to Point Nemo are astronauts on board the International Space Station, a few 415km away – until now.

British explorer Chris Brown has made it his mission to "encourage more people to step out of their comfort zones and go exploring".

As one who likes to practice what he preaches, he did just that, and managed to traverse his way to the most remote locations in the world – Point Nemo.

Point Nemo, also known as the Oceanic Point of Inaccessibility, is the furthest location from dry land in any direction.

The coordinates are Latitude 48°52.6'S, Longitude 123°23.6'W, and was named by Croatian survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela, who was studying ocean currents at the time. He named the point after Captain Nemo from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Point Nemo, located between Chile and New Zealand, is 2688 kilometres away from the closest land point.

There is no set way to get there, given its inaccessibility. But that didn't stop Brown, who completed his feat earlier this month.

"Having considered several different ways of getting to Point Nemo, such as via racing yachts, or diverted cargo ships, we hit on the idea of using an expedition boat called the Hanse Explore," he said on his website.

He said the ship, usually tasked with taking people to and from the Antarctic, has a low environmental impact and has a bunker capacity for up to 40 days at sea.

Brown set sail "in the early hours" of March 12, and expected it to take 10 days to reach Point Nemo.

He said the crew was "immediately thrust into our first South Pacific storm" and reported fast winds and "six-metre waves".

Brown said that going through the storm was inevitable.

"One of the reasons for setting off when we did, instead of waiting out the storm, was the forecast for conditions at Point Nemo. [Captain Andriy Bratash] spotted that there was a weather window at the Pole which would allow us to deploy the Zodiac RIBs [a smaller boat] and to possibly get into the water. If we were late arriving, Nemo would be in the centre of a hurricane force storm."

After 10 days, and 4200km, Brown and the crew arrived. At that stage, waves had "only" started to reach 3 metres in height, Brown said.

This meant the crew were able to launch the Zodiacs and be in the water — the first person in recorded history able to do so.

"At all the other Poles of Inaccessibility I’ve visited, I’ve taken a photo stood at the exact spot. That wasn’t going to be possible this time. So, I came up with the idea of 'floating' at the Pole and holding the maritime flags spelling out the word N.E.M.O," Brown said.

They donned wetsuits and into the freezing water they went.

It was 3pm, local time. The water temperature was below 10 degrees Celsius. Brown, his son Mika, and Adam the videographer were in the Zodiacs, headed for the exact location of Point Nemo.

"Once on the spot, I flipped off the edge into the sea and duly became the first person to swim at Point Nemo," Brown said.

Brown, Mika and Adam noted their surprise at the seabirds that started to congregate around them as they were in the water.

"This was a pleasant sight to start with because Nemo is thought to be in an area of very low biodiversity possibly with no fish in the area. But the presence of the seabirds would seem to indicate enough fish for them to eat. And, on departure from the point we even spotted a flying fish."

However, Brown recalled one certain albatross who "seemed to take a dislike to us being in his or her territory".

"If you’ve never floated next to an angry Albatross, let me tell you not to try. They are imposing bids, weighing around 12kg but with a wingspan of around three metres."

Brown said after a short swim in the area, and photos for proof, they returned to the zodiacs.

"The rest of the expedition was just abut avoiding the worst of the hurricane and heading northwards out of the tempestuous winds and seas of the Southern Pacific," Brown said.