The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Enough With The Northwest Passage, Already

This whole transiting the Northwest Passage (The Passage) in a yacht is getting out of hand and many (maybe most) of the crews and boats trying it shouldn’t be anywhere near the place.

How can someone who has spent much of the last 20 years in the high latitudes in a yacht say that without being a hypocrite, you ask? Simple, the Northwest Passage is different from most other high latitude destinations normally visited by yachts. Read on for why.

In most years (and particularly in the last two) there is no way to transit The Passage without breaking most, or even all, of the rules of prudent ice navigation for non-ice-strengthened yachts, that have served me well for 20 years and that are based on wisdom from professional ice navigators:

  1. Never enter an area of strong currents when pack ice may be present.
  2. Never enter an area of over 3/10 ice (30% sea coverage).
  3. Never enter an area of pack ice without a clear and open exit path.
  4. Never navigate in such a way that you run the risk of getting trapped between the ice and the land.
  5. Never enter an area of pack ice if there is a risk that the wind will get up before you can reach shelter or clear water.
  6. Never enter a strait or channel if the other end is, or could be before you finish the transit, blocked with ice.

Yes, I know, plenty of yachts have broken these rules and made it through. That does not alter the fact that breaking the above rules is unseamanlike and just plain foolhardy.

Or, to put it another way, in most years transiting the passage in a yacht is a crap shoot where luck, combined with not a little bullheadedness, is the arbiter of success, not seamanship.

And for what reason are many yachts taking on these risks? So they can get the tick, “I have transited The Passage.” For these crews it’s not a voyage with the associated appreciation and learning about the surrounding lands and seas, it’s a mad dash, starting way too late in the season, just to say they did it.

And then there is this whole “I was first thing“, which is even more unattractive than just getting the tick. The latest I have heard is “first fiberglass boat through The Passage both ways in successive years”. What’s next? “First boat crewed by brown eyed right handed people from Timbuktu?”

And it gets worse still. Many of these crews are attempting The Passage as their first high latitude experience. That’s crazy. That’s like attempting a doctoral thesis just after graduating high school.

And you know what really upsets me? Those yachts attempting the passage that aren’t qualified to, or that keep on going when they should have turned back, are going to ruin high latitude sailing for the rest of us by getting us all banned from the Arctic by the authorities. Just how many times are the Canadian Coast Guard going to risk their ships and crews to get these boats out of their own hubris and/or ignorance induced dangerous situations before they get tired of it and close The Passage to all yachts?

And worse still, will those bans just apply to The Passage? No, authorities when riled up enough always over react. In fact, there are already ominous rumblings out of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of regulations that may make it impossible to go anywhere in the Arctic in a yacht, or at least one that we can afford.

So does that mean that I think that no one should attempt The Passage in a yacht? Not a bit of it:

  • If you are going to actually cruise the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in a boat equipped to winter over, unassisted by the authorities, and have the experience to pull that off; or
  • if you wish to attempt a transit on the basis that you will call it off if you are faced with breaking any of the rules above, and have the experience to evaluate those decisions;

then more power to you.

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Scott Fraser

Not only was it the first plastic boat to do the NWP on both directions in successive years but it was a 33 ft boat with a 78 yr old skipper. Probably multiple firsts there. Only redeeming feature of this tale is that the skipper has many years experience in high latitudes north and south and well over 100,000 offshore miles. You can read all about it in “Addicted to Adventure” by Bob Shepton.

I’ve sailed with Bob and can attest to his “addiction”, and I’ve sailed in the high arctic, once crossing 80N. In my humble view your post is spot on. The arctic kills the careless…and the foolish.

Ed Finn ,Newfoundland

John
You might want to edit this before u publish it…
Six fundamental rules !
Where did you find those?
I dont think you can have an artic or pack ice cruise /
“adventure ” without violating one or several of these rules.
Can a person climb Mount Everest without incurring risk or danger?
Heck, I cant cross Trinity Bay- just outside of my home port- in May or June without a risk of being trapped in pack ice. Yet my friends and I do every year.
And the wind can change any time, trapping you on a lee shore, or between a lee shore and pack ice.
These days,Commercial seal harvesters (hunters) regularly conduct their fishery from boats, in , yes in, pack ice.
Are u sure about these where did you find ’em …Hawaii?
Dont mean to be disrespectful.
And I wouldn’t be encouraging amateurs to take risks in the Arctic without the knowledge that stuff can go wrong, and it can sink your boat and/or kill you.
Extreme sports are full of dangers, thats why we call them extreme.
No one should expect to traverse the arctic without being fully prepared.
But adequately prepared people have done it for 100 years.
Accepting risk, in persuit of adventure or
In the persuit of happiness, is not usually called foolhardy, its called adventure.
Taking risks in indemic in the human condition,
That’s why our ancestors ( monkeys) climbed down out of the trees, and moved us forward.
John you grew up in the British Isles,or was it Bermuda?
I grew up in Newfoundland, and played on pack ice , on the way home from
grade school. Our perspectives, and experiences are much different.
But I must take exception to those six rules.
In closing
I really enjoyed your website, and its the only website I ever paid for.
( thats flattery!)
So,
Please don’t cancel my subscription…
Regards
Ed Finn
Carbonear, Newfoundland

Larry Roberts

I think it is a bit simplistic to suggest all who transit the NWP are adventurers. The [relatively] ice-free late summers of 2011 and 2012 coupled with all the “global warming” hype in the media at the time led many to believe the NWP would be a practical route between the oceans in 2013.
I know that our boat and believe that at least two others felt the NWP was simply a reasonable way to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
That said, we weren’t completely taken in by the media. We had sailed previously in the Antarctic and Spitsbergen and had daily access to ice charts, weather maps and text forecasts. We were prepared to turn around or winter in Cambridge if the need arose [I have spent considerable time in the Canadian Arctic in winter and have no illusions what it is like].
I agree that the Canadian Arctic is very different than other ice areas to which yachts cruise: when problems strike between Lancaster Sound and Point Barrow there is no easy exit. By contrast, ice problems in the Antarctic or Spitsbergen are usually rectified by shaping a course in the direction of the equator.
In retrospect though, we are glad the ice conditions of previous years sucked us in. Through considerable effort, planning and plan-changes, and a few mechanical jury-rigs we reached the Pacific in an undamaged boat to continue our cruising.
Your rules are a great starting point but are just a few of many things that must be studied and understood for a safe passage.

Larry Roberts
SV TRAVERSAY III [2013 w-bound NWP]

Michael

Thanks John for this statement. I think your rules are generally right, at least they are a point to start from.
Ofcourse it is very much a question of your personal attitude to risk taking how far you go. We had only been sailing in Northwest Greenland and Spitsbergen so far. But we talked to some crews going in and coming from the Northwestpassage the last 2 years. 2013 the 2 boats (Tooluka and Arctic Tern) that turned arround and did not make it from the east where the ones with the by far most experienced crews. Others pushed the limits and made it only with the help of an icebreaker, although this was only for a short distance. Even one katamaran made it in 2013, on there webside you can read: “The first Katamaran that ever made the Northwestpassage”.

Ofcourse everybody must decide for themselves and the personal motivation often seems to be a mix of reasons but the search for honor obviously often is part of these.
But what kind of honor ? What are we doing is just sailing, this is good but it is not an social engagement, changing the world, making more sense then to sail – enough for itself.

Michael

Hi John,
I should have written what I meant more precise: “The 2 most experienced crews in ice navigation that entered the passage from the east in 2013 turned around”

Matt Rutherford

I do believe I fall into the “foolish boat” category, I just didn’t have $300,000 for a high latitude boat. That said, when I went through the NWP it was a light ice year so I made it through without breaking any of the rules listed above. Every year the NWP is a crap shoot. There is no way to know what the ice will be like until you arrive.

I would suggest one more rule. You should never try to transit the NWP without “eyes in the sky” AKA an ice guide. Even on my rather proletarian circumnavigation of the Americas I had iridium based communications equipment. Its important to find someone based back on land who has access to ice information and experience using this information. You can not relay on an ice guide for seamanship or decision making aboard the vessel but having someone who can tell you what the ice is doing ahead and behind you can make a huge difference.

I don’t think people will stop attempting the NWP any time soon, and its only a matter of time until something truly tragic happens up there. Then again, if someone told me their dream was to sail the NWP I would try to help them make that happen (I helped a guy named Micheal Johnson get through the NWP by hooking him up with an ice guide named Victor and he made it!)

I talked to a lady at the Canadian embassy, she told me Canada tried to put some restrictions on the NWP a few years back but couldn’t do it because of all the international arguing about “who owns the NWP”. That can and may change in the near future.

By the way i’m still planing on heading to East Greenland next year with a PHD from the university of Texas researching the health of the glaciers within the East Greenland fjords. Looks like ill be launching a scientific fixed wing drone with a catapult off the back of my Colvin Gazelle. Should be fun.

Matt Rutherford