Northwest Passage chatter on CruisersForum.com

Ref: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f33/northwest-passage-38559.html

The ice charts are at:
Canadian Ice Service

This site does a good job tracking everyone who is going thru each year:
Oceans News Explorersweb - the pioneers checkpoint

The two key harbours are Cambridge bay 69 6N 105 3W and Gjoa Haven 68 37N 95 92W. You can get fuel and repairs both places.

The ice at the key choke (just before and after Gjoa) point breaks open very consistently around August 20th for a couple weeks. So you need to do all your planning aorund that date.


I was waiting to see if anyone else who has made the passage would chime in - there are quite a few folks around who had now done it. If you get really serious about doing it PM me and I can give you a couple contacts and e-mail addresses.

A typical E to W route would include Nuuk, Sisimiut, Upernarvik (all in Greenland), Beechey Island, Resolute, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay, Tuktoyaktuk, Nome, Dutch Harbor.

The equipment needed is the normal cold weather cruising gear, except:
(1) HF/SSB radio does not work very well at those latitudes and you really need an iridium phone (or other sat phone system) to get the ice reports.
(2) A 10' pole with spike is very useful for pushing ice away from the bow.


I wrote a thread weeks ago about a Bavaria 44 that sails the Northwest Passage last 2009…

What I 'd like to suggest you now is to order the issue of the french nautical journal 'Voiles et Voiliers" from March 2010.

Even if you do not read french, it will be very interesting (IMHO) because you have 20 pages about the Passage with the names of the 48 sailboats (from Gjea (1903) to Bagan in 2009 who did it. You will have the names of the 15 boats who did it in in 2008/2009 , the names of the sailors (different nationalities, of course), etc. So that you can do a research with google and find their Blogs and get a lot of informations.

I give you the links with these french publication

Voiles et Voiliers
http://www.voilesetvoiliers.com/item…e_picture/6062

Originally Posted by estarzinger 

I was waiting to see if anyone else who has made the passage would chime in - there are quite a few folks around who had now done it. If you get really serious about doing it PM me and I can give you a couple contacts and e-mail addresses.

A typical E to W route would include Nuuk, Sisimiut, Upernarvik (all in Greenland), Beechey Island, Resolute, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay, Tuktoyaktuk, Nome, Dutch Harbor.

The equipment needed is the normal cold weather cruising gear, except:
(1) HF/SSB radio does not work very well at those latitudes and you really need an iridium phone (or other sat phone system) to get the ice reports.
(2) A 10' pole with spike is very useful for pushing ice away from the bow.

The westsail 42 fiona recently did the NW passage (last year).

A good read here.

Yacht Fiona North West Passage Cruise - Newsletter 1

__________________

Fiona Completes the Northwest Passage.

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Check it out. Eric Forsyth and Fiona just arrived in Alaska. 39 sailing days, 3440nm.

Fiona News Network - YachtFiona.com Sailing Cruising Yacht

According to Tommy D Cook*, at least 8 ships are attempting the NorthWest Passage this summer.
➥ Arctic Solo Sail: Voyage through the northwest passage
➥ Arctic Solo Sail

Canadian Ice Service
Clinton Bolton
Bagan
Nordhavn 57 (power)
Crew: 10
Northwest Passage Blog

David Scott Cowper
Polar Bound
Custom 48-foot trawler yacht (power)
Crew: 1
David Scott Cowper
David Scott Cowper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cameron Dueck
Silent Sound
Amor 40 (sail)
Crew: 4
http://www.openpassageexpedition.com/index.html

Eric Forsyth
Fiona (sail)
Crew: 2
Fiona News Network - YachtFiona.com Sailing Cruising Yacht

Mark Schrader
Ocean Watch
Custom 64-foot cutter (sail)
Crew: 4+
Around The Americas

Kevin Oliver and Tony Lancashire
NorseBoat 17.5? (open sail boat).
Crew: 2
2009 Arctic Mariner Expedition - The Northwest Passage in an Open Boat.

Philippe Poupon + family
Fleur Australe
Crew: 7 - Philippe Poupon (captain), Geraldine Danon (wife), Wolf (9), Nina (12), Laura (2), Marion (9 months), and Bety (dog)
Le blog de Fleur Australe

__________________
Gord May
~~_/)_~~ (Gord & Maggie - s/v"Southbound")
"If you didn't have time/$ to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"

Custom Search CF ➥ http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=01...%3A2lb6ozabif0

 couple of guys did it in a hobie cat.

The Polar Passage Expedition

2006 adrian flanagan on his boat, barrabas, is attempting to get through right now.

http://www.alphaglobalex.com/
go to the blog for the latest update.
he has had many setbacks in his goal for a 'verticle circumnavigation'.

The 57-foot George Buehler design is the first trawler
yacht to make the treacherous passage across the Canadian Arctic in a single season
Idlewild transits the Northwest Passage on Trawlers & Trawlering

PV, I had a partial interest in the Polar Passage expedition by Jeff MacInnis & Mike Beedell. The designer of their arctic clothing was Helmut Seipmann of Helm Designs. I still have my complete arctic outfit hand sewn by him. At the time the clothing was beyond state of the art. In fact I think he still owes me money!! *lol* I've been thinking of selling it on e-Bay cause after 20 yrs there's no way I'll fit into it again.

This is the extreme arctic jackets they wore. Multiple layers of Thinsulate. 100% Goretex outershell. Inner vest. Polyprop inner liner. You could get totally soaked in 32 deg water and drip dry in 5 mins in this clothing.

Lodesman, I was on the St. Roch II when it arrived in Prescott to meet the Govenor General. I'll post pics of that tomorrow as well.

I've been there a couple of times. First time I joined the Louis S. St-Laurent in Resolute and sailed back. Second time I joined the Louis in Iqualuit and we broke ice through the MacLure (sp) straight, first ship to do that. The arctic is an amazing place but no place for the faint of heart. There are no rescue or support facilities and the capable icebreakers are few and far between. You are truly on your own up there. The hydrography is sketchy and the ice can carry you aground as easily as crush your hull.

__________________
Yours Aye! Rick 

Originally Posted by Lodesman  Not a private cruiser, but in 2000 the St Roch II re-traced the historic trek of the original St Roch, in just 100 days. The original took nearly 3 years. Not a huge boat, and certainly not an ice-breaker - guess global warming is good for something. St. Roch II Expedition

From today's 'Lectronic Latitude, come word of a successful passage completed last Sunday:

"The Northwest Passage Under Sail

September 12 - Nuussauq, Greenland
If this doesn't just take the cake. French sailors Sebastien Roubinet, Eric André, Boris Teisserenc and Anne-Lise Vacher-Morazzani arrived in Nuussuaq, Greenland on Sunday after a nearly four month transit of the fabled Northwest Passage."

For the full story, go to:

Latitude 38 - Northern California's Premier Sailing and Marine Magazine

TaoJones

Idlewild transits the Northwest Passage on Trawlers & Trawlering

2004

Two Norwegian sailboats did it last August: The Cold Passage | UpHere.ca 

The "Modern Viking" version of the two is downright embarrassing in my view, although some may find such personalities "fun/cool/daring/innovative" like a phenomenon discussed here before… 

This USCG history in connection with their own passage in 1957 is quite good:http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles...assage1957.pdf 

Article on territorial disputes and commercial shipping and environmental impact: Ice melts opening up Northwest Passage - Telegraph