The Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen was the first person to make the entire journey westwards from Greenland along the north coast of Canada. From 1903 to 1906, he sailed with the "Gjøa" on the route discovered by John Rae through Ross Strait, Rae Strait and Simpson Strait.
For a long time, only a few daring seafarers managed to repeat Amundsen's feat. This has changed, especially in the last decade or two. It is true that there is still no rush to attempt the Northwest Passage. But every year, around two dozen yacht crews now attempt to sail from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific, or in the opposite direction from the North Pacific to the North Atlantic.
Among them were recently Heide and Erich Wilts with their "Freydis", Jimmy Cornell with his "Aventura IV" and Susanne Huber-Curphey with her "Nehaj". And the "sea nomads", the Austrian long-distance sailors Doris Renoldner and Wolfgang Slanec, were also in the Northwest Passage with their "Nomad". The pair explored the sea route for two summers. They left their yacht on the Mackenzie River for the winter of 2016/17.
The sea nomads have written a gripping travelogue about their experiences and encounters, which can be read in the new YACHT (issue 1/2019, available now from newsagents, in the Delius Klasing shop and as a digital edition).
This summer, the Northwest Passage showed that it is still rightly considered one of the most dangerous sea routes in the world - and that it is by no means a given that the ice up there on the edge of the Arctic is actually melting every year as a result of climate change. Of 22 yachts that wanted to sail the passage in summer 2018, only two made it. All the others had to turn back, and one crew even lost their ship in the ice.
The ones who made it were the "Infinity" of the self-proclaimed "Sea gypsy" Clemens Oestreich who sailed from the Pacific to the Atlantic with his family and several fellow sailors. And Thomas Grothe from Munich. He set off from Greenland with two fellow sailors and had to survive a ten-day drift in a drift ice field, among other things.
In the interview, which also appears in the new YACHT, Grothe explains why and how he managed the passage and how he and his crew experienced the days when they were trapped in the ice.
Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
