Many of us dream of taking leave of the daily grind and heading out into the great unknown. For some, that may be the desert, others a dusty road or winding river, but for Nico Edwards, the director and a character in Sea Gypsies: The Far Side of the World, it was the ocean.

After deciding to check out of society for a while, he found passage as a crew member on a boat called Infinity, which set sail from Australia to Patagonia via some of the planet’s roughest waters in the Ross Sea. A Mountainfilm Commitment grantee, this film manages to be smart and thoughtful, yet fun and rollicking at the same time. It documents a tremendous journey, showing what it takes — mentally, physically and nautically — to take on this kind of wild adventure.