But the training ship's marathon journey could be its last
Fifty metres doesn't sound like much, unless it's straight down and you're at the top.
Imagine then how the young crew of the Russian training ship Nadezhda, now moored in Victoria Harbour, felt as they clung to the ship's towering yards through some of the world's worst seas on a circumnavigation of the globe that has, according to the chief officer, Constantin Shkurin, been beset by poor conditions almost the whole way.
Remarkably, Mr Shkurin says the only injuries have been some cuts sustained by the galley crew.
'I'm responsible for all safety on board,' Mr Shkurin said as he helped fit a South China Morning Post photographer for an ascent to the 15-storey-high mast top.
'No one goes up there without a harness. We have to make things as safe as possible and I drive the cadets to remember this.'
He confessed that, not having much of a head for heights, one of the benefits of his rank was he could direct the cadets to go aloft while he supervised from the deck.