All posts about: Arctic


Northwest Passage - Here They Come!

Arctic Monkey, Lou Morgan’s Exploration 45, has started her long voyage bound for Greenland and Arctic Canada. Accompanied by Zetty and their daughters Zoe, Leah and Rosie this summer they will attempt an east …

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Aventura on the move again … but not under her own power!

M.V. Tamper in Golfito

M.V. Tamper

After four weeks of patiently waiting at Fish Hook marina in Golfito, Costa Rica, on Thursday 29 April Aventura was loaded onto M.V. Tamper, a Sevenstar yacht …

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A New Attempt on the Northwest Passage?

Map of Aventura route 2014

After the decision was taken to abandon the passage to Tahiti, rather than transit the Panama Canal again, and sail back to Europe across the Atlantic, a very …

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Drina on the move again

After having completed a transit of the Northwest Passage in summer 2014 , Michael Thurston spent the winter on his own, aboard his faithful yacht Drina at Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands.

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Meet Jimmy Cornell and Aventura in Miami this weekend

Jimmy Cornell will be making a series of talks at the Strictly Sail Miami Boat Show this weekend, and you will also have a chance to come take a look at Aventura, Jimmy’s new boat, …

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Northwest Passage Bird Sightings - Final Tally

Birds on iceberg

As part of the Sail the Odyssey science program, during our 2014 summer voyage to Greenland and the Canadian High Arctic with the Blue Planet Odyssey, we tried to photograph …

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Reliability of C-Map electronic charts in the Arctic

During this summer I completed a 8500-miles voyage in the North Atlantic that took me from London, UK, to Annapolis, USA, via Greenland and Arctic Canada. Throughout this voyage I used exclusively C-map …

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Blue Planet Odyssey yacht successfully completes a transit of the Northwest Passage

(photo: Emily Penn aboard Drina)

Michael Thurston, the owner of the Australian yacht Drina, sent us a message from Nome, Alaska, to inform us that he and his crew had reached the Pacific Ocean …

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Update from the Northwest Passage

We just received an unconfirmed report that Drina arrived in Tuktoyaktuk on Saturday, and are continuing from here to Alaska.


NW Passage: News from Drina

Michael Thurston reports:

We arrived Gjoa on Monday morning to find it was a long weekend for Labor Day Holiday so everything was closed. We did however manage to clear in to Canada and …

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Blue Planet Odyssey mission in NW Passage continues successfully

An update on progress and some thoughts from Michael Thurston on Drina.

Michael Thurston and Jimmy Cornell aboard Drina

After being beset in ice at Port Leopold due to a wind contrary to the …

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Northwest Passage Gate Opens

location 57′ 10N, 51′ 43W

Today, 31 August, is exactly 3 months since Aventura left London bound for Arctic Canada and the Northwest Passage. Since then we have covered over 6000 miles and are now …

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Update on Northwest Passage

We just had news that on Friday the first sail boats managed to go through Bellot Strait westbound. The boats were Arctic Tern, Novara and Gjoa. Having overcome that major obstacle, they are now …

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Change of plan

location: 60′ 39N, 51’03W

Iceberg in front of Nuuk

With Doina’s exception, all Aventura’s remaining crew disembarked in Nuuk, and flew home. We had just finished preparing Aventura for the long passage …

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Musk ox of the North

The Australian yacht ‘Drina’ first informed us of these shaggy ungulates via a boat email telling us to keep our eyes peeled for Musk ox and walrus on the rocks and tundra of Cuming …

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Roundup and Farewell

We’ve been stuck in ice, walking among ivory animal bones, talking with Canadian Inuit, and lots more over this 2014 summer.

We’ve seen Dundas Harbour and the great Polar bear (Ursus maritimus), Cuming inlet …

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Northwest Passage Report

Michael Thurston on Drina reports from Port Leopold:

The ice situation is almost unchanged.

No yacht has gone through Bellot Strait as yet. We on Drina are still at Port Leopold, have not made our …

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Northwest Passage still blocked by ice

Based on a report received from Michael Thurston on Drina.

One week since Aventura gave up the attempt to transit the NW Passage, the ice situation remains uncertain. We are now anchored at Port …

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Erebus & Terror Bay, Beechey Island

There were already two boats anchored in the bay when we arrived – Manevaï and Lillian B. They were, like us, waiting for the ice to melt so the Northwest Passage might become navigable.

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Passing Baffin Island

Yesterday we finally escaped the grip of Lancaster Sound and reached the open sea. We are now sailing past Baffin Island with icebergs dotted about around us, but easy to …

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The Blue Planet Odyssey continued presence in the Northwest Passage

Michael Thurston (left) and Jimmy Cornell aboard Drina in Dundas Harbour, Devon Island

Despite the decisions by the captains of both Suilven and Aventura to turn back east and not attempt the Northwest …

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Beechey Island

Located at the western end of Lancaster Sound, Beechey Island is the site where the ill-fated expedition led by Sir John Franklin, spent their first Arctic winter in 1845-46. Two well-equipped ships, Terror and …

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A turning point

Cuming Inlet is a deep fjord that penetrates some 11 miles into the heart of Devon Island. Its steep sides, rising to several hundreds of meters, are a silent reminder of the passage of …

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People of Arctic Bay

Immediately when we jumped off our orange dinghy and into the frigid waters of Arctic Bay we were met with a sea of expectant faces who all clamored and hollered for our attention. All boys, …

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Arctic Bay

The Inuit name for Arctic Bay, Ikpiarjuk, ‘the pocket’, describes this bay best, a deep indent protected on three sides by tall hills. Arctic Bay is located off Admiralty Inlet, on the northern tip of …

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