Editor’s note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter . Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay. CNN  —  It’s the body of water that instils fear and inspires sailors in equal measure. Six hundred miles of open sea, and some of the roughest conditions on the planet – with an equally inhospitable land of snow and ice awaiting you at the end of it. “The most dreaded bit of ocean on the globe – and rightly so,” Alfred