All posts about: Arctic


VIDEO: Aventura trapped by ice in Arctic Bay

14 hours beset by ice

Trapped by ice from Sail the Odyssey on Vimeo.


Westbound boats for the Northwest Passage

The ice forecast for this season issued at the beginning of July gave the impression that this would be a normal year in the Canadian Arctic. On that basis, those planning a …

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Secchi in ice

The earliest recordings of measuring the clarity of water was by the German naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso during a Russian expedition in 1815–1818. The Secchi disk was invented in 1865 by Pietro Angelo Secchi who …

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The waiting game

We are still waiting for the ice situation to improve, so there is not much to do but deal with routine maintenance jobs, read, watch DVDs, listen to music, receive visitors from other boats waiting …

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Atlantic Odyssey detour to the Arctic

A sleek green ketch flying the Australian flag made its way slowly into Dundas Harbour and dropped anchor close to us. Standing out on its lifelines was a white banner with a large number …

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Beset in ice

Aventura motoring through ice

Well, since the last of my logs, we have acquired a new experience to tick off our bucket-lists.

By our decision to sail to Arctic Bay, we were …

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Icebound

The Canadian Ice Service published on 1 August the ice forecast for the next month. Although in general terms conditions in Arctic Canada are described as normal for this time of year, …

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Arctic Tundra

When you picture the Arctic terrain, you imagine rolling ice sheets and sky-high glaciers, right?

Well, ever thought about what happens in the summer when all that begins to melt and some of the ground …

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Change of scenery

The long term forecast for the ice to start retreating in the approaches to the critical part of the Northwest Passage gives the first or possibly second week of August as a …

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Blue Planet Odyssey Yachts Meet The Cold North

Aventura and Suilven at anchor in Dundas Harbour, Devon Island, Canadian Arctic (Lat 74°31’ N, Long 82°30’W)

On July 24th two yachts met in the cold waters of Baffin Bay at 74°N, a place …

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Polar Bear Sighting

Did he raise his shaggy head in defiance and in his mind scream his annoyance at us humans bringing our metal craft to disturb his cold domain?

“The name ‘Arctic’ is derived from arctos, …

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Trawling for plastic

On the boat we have an ongoing science program which includes the Secchi disk which I haven’t had a chance to use yet and will include in later blogs, and also the plastic trawl which …

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Farewell to Greenland

After exactly one month to the day, we bid farewell to Greenland and set a course across Baffin Bay to the Canadian side and Lancaster Sound. We spent the last day cruising through Greenland’s spectacular …

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Life in Aasiaat

In Aasiaat the local people were quite interested in a yacht like us coming into the port. The rest of the boats were a mixture of fishing boats and little dinghies with outboard motors so …

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Across the Arctic Circle

location: 68’42N 52’52W

Jimmy explains the Arctic Circle to granddaughter Nera

Yesterday we crossed the Arctic Circle, which is regarded by some as the symbolic gateway to the Northwest Passage. There is, in …

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Wildlife in Nuuk

Oddly enough, when you arrive at a harbour, you expect it to be filled with squawking gulls. There really aren’t many: a few gulls and some huge and loud crows. This …

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Farewell to Nuuk

Before leaving Nuuk, I went to the port office to complete departure formalities. I handed the pontoon keys to Johannes Lindenhann, the harbour master who had so warmly welcomed us on …

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Journey to Nuuk

Three aeroplanes, London to Copenhagen to Kangerlussaq and onwards to Nuuk. It’s fine large airbuses with lots of people, but down to a small 37 person plane I was not particularly comfortable. …

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Gun Ho in Nuuk

Throughout our stay in Nuuk Aventura has been tied up alongside Kisaq, a 20-metre workboat, strongly built and perfectly suited for these waters. The owner, Anders Pedersen, a former Danish Coast Guard officer, has …

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Preparing for the Northwest Passage

Rochelle and Secchi disk

I created the Secchi disk at my school – Rednock School – in their tech department. We used the laser cutter to cut the 30cm white disk with two …

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The strategy for an east to west transit of the Northwest Passage

In preparation for the transit of the Northwest Passage, I have been in contact with sailors who have accomplished a transit in recent years, have attended several lectures on the subject, have …

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Midsummer Day

In spite of a spell of strong contrary winds, we managed to arrive in Nuuk late last night. I had called the harbour …

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Book review by Jimmy Cornell: High Latitude Sailing

High Latitude Sailing Explore the cold waters of the world By Jon Amtrup Co-author Bob Shepton $US 9.99 Kindle version available on amazon.com Printed version to be published later this year.

As the …

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The shortest night

location: 63’30N. 51’34W

Last night the sun set at quarter to midnight local time and throughout the period of relative darkness it stayed barely hidden just below the northern horizon fringing it …

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Greenland Landfall

Just before 11 o’clock local time, the sun came out, the mist cleared and almost exactly ten days after our departure from Stromness in the Orkney Islands we caught a glimpse of Greenland. …

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