Faced with the very late and uncertain opening of the ice this summer, several crews turned back, but not our owners, who reached the Pacific Ocean by passing “over the top” of North America.
Leaving Greenland in early August, it took them around 6 weeks to cover the 3,600 nautical miles that took them to the Bering Strait that separates Russia from Alaska. The route meant they had to be completely self-sufficient, with just one technical stopover in Tuktoyaktuk to take on diesel.
As a reminder, the GARCIA Exploration 45 N° 27, N° 35 and N° 38 met up in Greenland in July with the aim of completing this famous route, so rarely used. The forecasts were pretty pessimistic at the time, as the ice was still very much in evidence late in the year. Nevertheless, they crossed Baffin Bay to enter Lancaster Sound, taking it one step at a time, whenever the route looked to be opening up. The 3 boats chose to pass through the narrow Bellot Strait, barely one nautical mile wide, but a slightly shorter route, though one which the ice can obstruct in strong winds, due to its narrowness. And then to continue along the route known as the Amundsen route, taken by the famous explorer.
So they positioned themselves in Hudson Bay, to the north of Lancaster Sound, waiting for the right moment to head south towards Bellot Strait. HAURU and NIGHT OWL passed through without any issues. Adriano and Marisa aboard VOYAGER had a more eventful passage, with 2 other boats. They had to turn back to assist a boat whose underpowered engine was unable to free them from the ice that was beginning to push against their hull. Back to Hudson Bay for them! But the next day they were able to make it through.
Marisa recounts their passage through Bellot Strait:
“The French boat (an older Garcia) was behind us as we were making our way through Bellot Strait. We made it through a thick band of ice, weaving our way through the small openings but like a door, it slammed shut behind us. We had a clear stretch and were happily continuing when the French boat radioed to say they were stuck in the ice. We told them we would wait for them to get free. But the ice lifted the boat out of the water, and the current spun it around like a toy. The captain (and by the way, four experienced sailors on board) radioed in a panic… we could hear that he was terrified, asking for assistance. We turned and made our way to them as fast as we could, thinking of how we could help (lines etc, or just getting them on our boat). Thankfully, the ice shifted again and spat them out. They were behind us then and we led the way back through the ice to Fort Ross. They were very grateful and came over with a French feast and wine. And that’s when we learned that had a little girl on board: (The parents live on the boat, and they have two hired crew on board. None of them have ever had an experience like that and the boat sustained damage (a huge dent in the hull) when the ice lifted them. So we had a wonderful evening and then the ice came in AGAIN and we had to move… again! We went back to the anchorage at Levesque and of course…. we had to go through ice again, and there was ice in the anchorage as well. So we had ice/night watch and now we are all awake and drinking coffee and discussing the events of yesterday. The plan is to go tomorrow (with Thor who is also heading to this anchorage) and hopefully there is less ice. We would have gotten through yesterday so we are very optimistic about tomorrow. Garcia made an incredible boat. We have been breaking through ice and she handles it very well.”
Everyone on the team at the GARCIA shipyard is incredibly proud of their exploits, and once again, we offer them huge congratulations!
