Not getting caught in the pack-ice!

[blackfish]

I would like to sail from the United Kingdom to the Pacific via the north of Norway and Russia. I understand that the northern sea route is passable some years in the arctic high summer (July to September). Although the lesson of the ill-fated voyage of the Karluk clearly shows that August is sometimes too late. That, however, was in 1913. What effect has global warming had since then?

I’d be grateful to hear of other people’s views of the possibility of such a trip. I’d also be pleased to hear of your experiences of sailing in high latitudes and any pointers to relevant web sites and other authorities concerning weather conditions, ice cover etc. would be most useful.

Please either respond on the BB or e-mail me direct.

[BruceClark]

Sounds interesting.I have no specific knowledge of the route but would offer a couple of comments.
1) It is a very long way and I wonder if a sailboat could make the distance in one season even if the ice conditions were agreeable. You would have to make it to Vancouver or Japan before the fall storms hit. At best you would be rushing the whole time.
2) You would have to find out if there are bailout ports along the way where you could get hauled if you got stuck along the way.I know there is commercial traffic along the coast of Siberia but I don''t know what cranes or marine railroads there might be. Also I don''t know if I would want to leave my boat in Siberia for the winter (or stay with it for that matter!)
3) I was cruising in Newfoundland this summer and talked to a couple who had sailed the coast of Labrador and were hoping to go to Greenland. They indicated that charts were marginal (at least they were not in Russian)and that ice was frequently a concern even though it was technically an ice free time. They were considering replacing their Mason 43 with a steel boat for more security in ice.

Good luck.

[blackfish]

Bruce,

Thanks for your comments which are very helpful. I''ve had a reply from a guy on another BB who met some Russians in Cape Town in 1996. He believes that they successfully did the trip the other way, as it were, sailing up from Australia and into the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait and then west along the Siberian Coast. They apparently made it all the way into the Baltic and back to St Petersburg in one season! I don''t especially fancy over-wintering on the Siberian coast, but an Alaskan port might be more tolerable. Just for info, the rest of the intended route is down the whole of the western seaboard of the Americas and round the Horn the ''usual''(!) way and then back to the UK. Thanks again for your interest.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I have filed a report to Sailnet on the objectionable post bySeriousSam containing a pornographic image. I hope it will be deleted. I'm as open-minded as the next person, but if children can access these pages, then this is a harmful post. In any case, it has no place here, and the poster should be invited to post elsewhere.
Q

[administrator]

we block these idiots as soon as we are notified. Perhaps we should appoint moderators and require that every post be approved by a moderators before it can be shown.

- jeff

[catalyst27]

it is usally easy to spot them as they only post once i have caught several since i have become a member to this site the admins are pretty quick to remove them from the site and if you need a mod i would be happy to help out as this is a primary site i enjoy

[sailingdog]

Jeff--

One other thing is that you could make posting a photo only available to people who have a certain minimum number of posts... that would at least eliminate the visually objectionable content...the links would still be there, but those are easier to deal with...and won't offend as many people as quickly.

[xort]

perhaps this can give you some info on northern passagemaking...
http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com...ldpassage.html

[hpeer]

I just finished reading "Great Adventures and Explorations" by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Copyright, 1947, The Dial Press, Revised 1952. He has an entire chapter on the Northeast and another on the Northwest passages. See if you can find it, he speculates on how the route would be run by freighters.

[administrator]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Jeff--

One other thing is that you could make posting a photo only available to people who have a certain minimum number of posts... that would at least eliminate the visually objectionable content...the links would still be there, but those are easier to deal with...and won't offend as many people as quickly.

these interlopers embed code in their posts that actually serves up the images from hacked websites. They hack websites, the post their bogus pages on those websites then go to the trouble of registering on forums to post fake ads, get people to click through o phony websites, get your credit card numbers and start charging items to your credit cards... it's a pretty nasty scenario.