A Passage or Two

They did it. For the first time in human history both the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage have been sailed in one single season. This is an exceptional and heroic feat, successfully undertaken by Norwegians Thorleif Thorleifsson and Børge Ousland in their trimaran, and the Russian crew of Peter I.

From Børge Ousland's blog:

Today, on the 21st of September, we enter Lancaster Sound and reach the 74th parallel, considered by most as the exit (or entrance) to the Northwest Passage. We are proud of being the first sailing vessel, together with “Peter 1st”, that ever has sailed through both the Northeast and Northwest Passage in one short Arctic summer.

(...)

It is, unfortunately, the dramatic changes in Arctic sea ice conditions in recent years that have made this trip possible. On the time of Roald Amundsen it took five to six years to complete the same distance, due to the extremely difficult and demanding ice conditions. Now we have proven that it is possible to make the voyage in a 31-foot fibreglass sailing boat, equipped with a 10 horsepower outboard motor for emergencies. This shows how dramatic and how fast these changes are happening. The changes that we are witnessing will influence climate on a global scale, in addition to the whole range of animal life in the Arctic – especially seals and polar bears, whose lives are dependent on the sea ice.

Continue reading here and congratulate...

Comments

[Artful Dodger]

Congratulations to both teams. I can't help wondering what might have happened differently if our Norwegians had chosen to sail West, going through the NW Passage 1st, and the Northern Sea Route 2nd? It seems at least that they might have had favouring winds more frequently. Still, a mighty achievement, and a harbinger of Climate Change.

[Kevin McKinney]

Fantastic! I'm glad this happened in time for an update here. Seems fitting!

[Artful Dodger]

Is this 2012 Domino Number XXII?

A Russian-Ukrainian crew has set a new world record for the quickest Arctic circumpolar navigation by a sailboat.

http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/around-north-pole-60-days-04-10

The 100 foot sailboat “Scorpius” with a crew of four Russians and three Ukrainians has sailed around the North Pole in only 60 days, Interfax reports.

The Journey around the North Pole started and ended in Kakortok in Greenland and was done without any assistance from icebreakers. The crew tried to keep as close to the Pole as possible, in a corridor between 77-82 degrees north.

The speed record was not the only one set by “Scorpius” this year. Earlier this summer it sailed around the South Pole, thereby becoming the first sailboat in history to circumnavigate the South and the north Poles in one year.

Two years ago Norwegian explorer Børge Ousland and his crew became the first ever to sail around the North Pole in a sailboat. They spent nearly three months on the journey.

Here is a google">http://www.interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp%3Fid%3D348481%26sec%3D1671&usg=ALkJrhhdbDXVOcfI8Wvvdi4rtAi6zI3bZg">google translated version of the original Russian news report.

Cheers,
Lodger

[Artful Dodger]

bah, Typepad eats the link when an 'http' string occurs within the url. It should be:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&u=http://www.interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp%3Fid%3D348481%26sec%3D1671&usg=ALkJrhhdbDXVOcfI8Wvvdi4rtAi6zI3bZg

Neven, thanks in advance for fixing the above ;^)

Cheers,
Lodger

[Artful Dodger]

lol, 3rd try ;^)

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&u=http://www.interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp%3Fid%3D348481%26sec%3D1671&usg=ALkJrhhdbDXVOcfI8Wvvdi4rtAi6zI3bZg">http://www.interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp%3Fid%3D348481%26sec%3D1671&usg=ALkJrhhdbDXVOcfI8Wvvdi4rtAi6zI3bZg">http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&u=http://www.interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp%3Fid%3D348481%26sec%3D1671&usg=ALkJrhhdbDXVOcfI8Wvvdi4rtAi6zI3bZg

[Artful Dodger]

giving up now ;^)

[Neven]

And if anyone wonders how we ever got to over 20 thousand comments on this blog, here is one of the reasons. :-P

Thanks for the link(s), Lodger!

[Artful Dodger]

20,000 Links under the Sea ice...

;^)

Cheers!