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an arctic sailing expedition [Description de l'expédition]. In 1906, Roald Amundsen became the first man to sail through the passage. This “shortcut” took him over three years to complete. Despite his success, the ice-choked passage never became the commercial shipping route that early explorers hoped for, and few men could boast of sailing its entire length. Until now. Climate change is causing temperatures in the Arctic to rise twice as fast as elsewhere on the globe. The sea ice has melted so rapidly that the Northwest Passage has been open water during the past two summers. The warming climate is forcing Arctic communities and wildlife to adjust their lifestyles to survive. To explore these dramatic changes taking place the 40-foot sailing yacht Silent Sound will embark on a voyage that five years ago was nearly impossible for amateur sailors. In the summer of 2009, with only four crew and a yacht just over half as long as Amundsen’s ship, we will sail through the Northwest Passage from west to east. The goal of this expedition is to use written word, video and photos to tell the story of how climate change is affecting Arctic communities. This voyage of modern-day adventure and discovery will take place on the Silent Sound, a 40-foot cutter-rig sloop. She is currently laying in Esquimalt Harbour, home of the Canadian Navy Pacific Fleet, where she is within sight of the Fisgard Lighthouse, the oldest light on Canada’s west coast. A suitable place to begin an adventure. This voyage will thrust the crew into raging Arctic storms and past hulking icebergs. We will be forced to put their lives in each other’s hands as Silent Sound sails through this little explored land. The team will visit the scattered Inuit settlements that call the Arctic home, and talk to their hunters, their leaders and their young people. We will ask them how warmer temperatures are changing their lives and hear their story of being thrust into international controversies over sovereignty, energy and environmental and wildlife conservation. Visitors to the North are also part of this story of transition as they come to drill for resources once hidden by ice or watch over icy waterways.
This voyage of about 7,000 nautical miles (1.852km or 1.151 miles) will take about four months, allowing time to explore the communities along the way. However, the heart of the journey is the 4,500nm Northwest Passage itself – measured from the Bering Strait to the northern edge of the Labrador Sea. We must be prepared to motor more miles than sail because when the ice offers us dark, watery leads, we can not afford to wait for wind given our goal of completing the passage in one season. Only 35 private boats have completed the passage since its discovery, and only about half of those have been sailing yachts. In 2008 a total of six yachts made it through, a record high number. The expedition will set sail from Victoria, British Columbia, where crew and supporters will gather in May to make final preparations. Silent Sound will leave Victoria in the first week of June in order to reach the Beaufort Sea as the ice opens, which normally occurs in mid- to late-July. Ice will dictate our movement through the passage for much of August. The key challenge will be to get through the portion of the passage from The Queen Maud Gulf to Resolute, which opens only periodically from late-August to mid-September. This is the heart of the Northwest Passage, where only a little over one hundred years ago men in wooden ships bashed through the ice in search of a clear passage. Only 103 years ago did man find his way through this maze of shallow, tide-driven water. By mid- to late-September the expedition expects to be in Baffin Bay and sailing south along the Baffin Island, Labrador and Nunatsiavut coasts as winter sets in. Halifax, Nova Scotia will be the expedition’s final port, with arrival expected by the end of September to early October.
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| © Open Passage Expedition 2009 >> Site designed by Troy Dunkley |
Since the discovery of the New World, the fabled Northwest Passage had been an elusive dream for explorers and mariners alike. Throughout the grand age of exploration, it remained the ocean's one unattainable prize, luring young men who were seeking wealth and fame to sail north in search of this frozen passage. Wealthy patrons poured their fortunes into the quest but the only thing they gained was their name on a distant, frozen spot on the map, which few would ever see. Instead, the potential Arctic shortcut from Europe to Asia became an icy graveyard for the hundreds of sailors who, helplessly trapped in the shifting sea ice, died miserable deaths from starvation, scurvy and the bitter cold. Their wooden sailing ships were crushed in the ice and many sank without leaving any clues to the suffering of their men.
