An open sailing boat fights its way through the icy wintry waters of Norway. "How did I end up here?" Igor Stropnik sits at the tiller, thickly wrapped up and with a concentrated, strained expression on his face. "Too small a boat, too strong a wind, too cold water - is that cool or just crazy?" He not only asks himself this question, but also his almost 30,000 fans who share his adventure on YouTube.
Not to give the wrong impression: Stropnik is certainly not one of the many social media influencers who vie for the favour of their followers with all their might in the form of clicks and likes. He is a modest person who neither dramatises nor constantly holds his thumb up to the camera or even artificially puts himself in the limelight. Igor Stropnik is calmness itself, serenity personified.
A kind of maritime jack-of-all-trades
This is no coincidence. The 38-year-old Slovenian is a seasoned skipper and a kind of maritime jack-of-all-trades. He transfers new boats from Europe to the Caribbean, works as a swimming and sailing instructor, dives apnoea and holds the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean - the highest international qualification for professional yacht skippers.
Stropnik grew up in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. His parents' house is located in the immediate vicinity of the wooded hilly landscape and the idyllic River Sava. From an early age, he was drawn outside in all weathers and the forest became his first adventure playground. As he grew older, he became more and more interested in outdoor activities. Whether mountain biking, hiking, climbing or white-water kayaking - he takes on every new challenge with dedication. He can already sail.
The grandmother owns a summer house near Rijeka on the Croatian Adriatic coast. The family's own Elan Express is moored there. Stropnik receives his first sailing lesson from his father when he is just three years old. From then on, there was nothing else to think about during the summer holidays, and the boy soon found himself on regatta courses in various boat classes. "I was never really interested in being better than the others. I was more interested in constantly improving myself and learning new things," Stropnik recalls of his youth.
Starting a new life
After school, he studied sports science and bought his first boat, a laser. He spent two years exploring the coasts of Croatia. Sailing, cooking, sleeping - all on the small sports boat. His next boat was a Tiki 21 catamaran, and from then on Stropnik sailed the Adriatic on two hulls. "During this time, I dreamed of turning my passion into a career," he reports. After graduating from university in 2009, he signed on as a deckhand on a 174-foot luxury charter yacht, which took him all the way to the Pacific.
Stropnik: "After that, it was clear that I didn't want to do anything else in my professional life but sail." When a friend offered him the opportunity to skipper a catamaran for charter guests in Croatia, it was the start of a new life for him: He is now a professional charter skipper. This was followed by the transfer of further catamarans from France to Croatia, so that the cash register also rang outside the high season.
Compensation for the professional charter skipper
To compensate for the strenuous charter months in the high season and the rather boring ferry trips, the Slovenian always comes up with longer trips in mini boats. Sometimes he sails to Albania in a Laser, sometimes all the way to Greece in a sports cat. But what finally brings the sun-kissed Adriatic sailor to the cold waters of northern Scandinavia?
"Many years ago, I came across the book 'Sailing Alone Around the World' by Joshua Slocum, who sailed around the world alone at the end of the 19th century. I was fascinated by the idea of travelling to distant lands without the aid of an engine. Pure sailing, close to the water and at the limit of endurance, that was exactly what I wanted!"
Stropnik once travelled up to the North Cape with his parents in a camper van. The feeling of freedom in the Nordic nature was as deeply imprinted as the desire to return there one day. "I'd had enough of the Mediterranean and was looking for a new adventure. So I rummaged around on a globe for new ideas. When my finger landed on Norway, it was clear that I wanted to sail there. Endless nature, hardly any people, and the few people you meet are always very friendly and leave you in peace. And the fact that you can camp almost anywhere was of course perfect for me on a tight budget."
Return to the North Cape
For his first trip to the North in 2012, Stropnik is looking for a really big challenge: he is returning to the North Cape. From here, he wants to sail to Stockholm in an inflatable mini-catamaran. Without a GPS and at an average temperature of zero degrees Celsius, he sets off. His most valuable piece of equipment is a dry suit sponsored by a Slovenian company. The advantage of his unusual expedition vehicle is that it is easy to pull ashore. And it literally fits into a few transport bags when folded up.
The first two weeks are so cold that Stropnik has to land again and again to crawl into the warmth of his sleeping bag for an hour. Due to the brightness in the northern latitudes, he sails for up to 20 hours a day. Despite the fear of drifting out to sea or falling into the icy water, he sails on and on, intoxicated by nature and his irrepressible thirst for adventure.
On the way, he fishes with a primitive fishing line and cooks his catch over a campfire. He also has a can of Norwegian canned beer. To wash himself, he simply lies down flat in the nearest stream. The adventurer documents his journey objectively and with a pinch of sarcasm in a diary and video clips. For example, you learn about his waterproof tent, which lets water in and then leaves it in forever. There are also reports of how he once waited in vain for two days for wind or didn't see anyone or any other boats for a week. Instead, there is so much rain that his flimsy sleeping bag cannot dry.
Direction Stockholm
After a stopover in Narvik, Stropnik paddles his boat along the 410-kilometre-long River Torne to Haparanda on the Gulf of Bothnia in Sweden. His experience of whitewater kayaking comes in handy here. He only avoids particularly dangerous rapids by pulling the boat over land.
The biggest enemy are the millions of mosquitoes that pounce on every square centimetre of free skin. Sailing again at last, he uses self-prepared maps for navigation, which at best can only give him clues as to where he is. But civilisation has him back, and other sailors fortunately know their whereabouts and show him the way to Stockholm. He arrives there after 45 days and 1,400 nautical miles, exhausted but happy.
A feeling of freedom when diving
On his days off during the Croatian charter season, Stropnik pursues another hobby, diving. Even though he is a certified scuba diver, the greatest pleasure for him is apnoea diving without technical aids. He goes to depth with just the air in his lungs. "I enjoy the special form of mobility associated with it and the enormous feeling of freedom. Without the constant surge of air bubbles as when diving with a compressed air cylinder, you get much closer to the underwater animal world." According to Stropnik, the technique can be learnt quickly with a little practice; his personal record is 33 metres deep.
The next tour in Arctic waters followed three years later. This time 700 nautical miles from Kirkenes near the Norwegian-Russian border to Bodø. Stropnik trailers an old Fam 18, a 5.50 metre dinghy cruiser from a German shipyard, to the far north. It is big enough for an inflatable dinghy and to sleep in the slip cabin. Also equipped with a small outboard motor. He ventures out onto the notorious Barents Sea to round the North Cape. A more than courageous endeavour, even if the nutshell has been modified so that it is supposed to be unsinkable.
Mental forExtreme weather cruisesprepare and develop strategies
Stropnik dispenses with modern safety equipment and emergency alarms for cost reasons. He doesn't see this as a disadvantage. "If I had all kinds of devices to make me feel supposedly safer, it could weaken my concentration. But because I know that I'm one hundred per cent on my own, I prepare myself very meticulously for my trips."
He goes through all the worst-case scenarios he can think of and works out strategies on how to get out of them. "For example, I ask myself what happens if the rudder breaks. How can I make a temporary replacement? Or how do I repair a broken halyard on the water? What do I do if water gets in? What emergency and repair equipment do I need?" If one of these scenarios actually occurs, he knows what to do. "That helped me not to panic every time. I was prepared."
Seeing adventure as a challenge
In fact, he had already broken his rudder during his first tour of Norway when there was a lot of pressure in the sail and the current. He quickly built a replacement rudder from a paddle. During the trip with the Fam, he eventually realised that a boat with a cabin and motor was not compatible with his idea of adventure. Too much luxury. Too comfortable. The next trips should definitely be closer to the elements again.
As there is little to do during the long crossings on the large catamarans, Stropnik spends a lot of time producing videos about his life on board or technical aspects that he thinks might interest other sailors. "My girlfriend sometimes comes along too, but as she has a regular job, that's rarely the case. She also finds the long passages rather boring."
But sometimes something does happen, such as a broken main halyard in the middle of the Atlantic, which caused the sail to land on the deck. "I then had to go up the mast and wrap a towel around my head as head protection, as the boat was rocking violently. That was absolute hard labour!"
According to his own statistics, Stropnik also has to dive every 1,000 nautical miles to remove bycatch from the propellers. "The catamarans literally attract it. In accordance with Murphy's Law, this happens in the middle of the night in the busy Bay of Biscay, of all places. Then I have to get under the boat with a wetsuit, head torch, knife and a safety rope - no matter what the conditions are like." But ultimately these are small things that can always happen.
Effects of the pandemic
However, he feels unprepared, like most other people in the world, when the year 2020 arrives and the Covid pandemic breaks out. It begins with his first Atlantic crossing as skipper in charge. In 2019, he was to ferry a brand new Lagoon 50 from Croatia via the Canary Islands to the British Virgin Islands, work there as a charter skipper for four months and then bring the boat back to the Adriatic. To reduce costs, the cabins will be rented out during the transfer at the owner's request.
"That wasn't a particularly good idea. People who have never been on the ocean for so long either have no idea or a romanticised idea of what to expect," he explains. The first week is all fun and exciting, the second week is boring and by the third week everyone wants to go home. "If something goes wrong and a dangerous situation arises, it can escalate quickly. But people can also go for each other's throats if they're too bored." And tensions do indeed arise en route, but he manages to sail the wildly motley crew to the Caribbean unscathed.
At the end of the season, the coronavirus puts a spanner in the works of his original plans. Stropnik is stuck in paradise and has no idea for a long time how he or the boat will get back to Europe. Shortly before the lockdown in the BVIs, he sails to the US Virgin Islands to send the cat on its journey by container ship. While the whole world goes into shock, Stropnik waits another 20 days until a crew can be flown in for the freighter. With a lot of luck, he then manages to get a plane ticket that will also take him home.
Back home to Ljubljana
"What I missed most during this uncertain time was the smell of the forest in my home country and the peace and quiet there, especially in autumn when it gets cooler and the colours explode." Back home in Ljubljana, the nature lover is immediately drawn to his familiar surroundings to recharge his batteries.
In the winter of 2023, Stropnik will be embarking on his fifth Scandinavian expedition. This time with an RS Quba, a small sailing dinghy with a retractable centreboard that is primarily used for training purposes. The equipment is lashed to the boat in watertight bags. This time, he has an old smartphone with him, including apps for navigation and weather forecasts, to help him find his way around the rugged waters with their countless islands.
A small wind generator for recharging the battery is also in the pack, as is a small PLB emergency transmitter. In the event of capsizing, Stropnik has tied the most important items such as his wallet, PLB and phone to his body in small bags under his oversized drysuit. "This has the nice side effect that my body heat protects the batteries from the cold and makes them last longer," he says with a grin. However: "It's not always easy to find everything straight away when you first have to rummage through seven layers of clothing."
Otherwise, Stropnik is serious about his plan of simple sailing. A pair of Crocs are his only shoes. At first glance, they don't look particularly nautical or expedition-appropriate, but with the suit, thick socks and waterproof Goretex covers, the extra-large plastic slippers fit perfectly on the feet and even insulate them. "They also dry quickly, float and provide grip when going ashore," he adds.
The conditions for extreme weather cruises
He wants to sail northwards from Bergen for as long as the boat and the weather conditions allow. It is so cold, especially at night, that the drinking water in the canisters freezes, as do the dinghy's mooring lines. Cooking, he says, is more difficult than good. His videos also prove this: Pasta is accompanied by a dollop of ketchup and a little olive oil. To celebrate, a tin of tuna is thrown into the pot, which is fuelled by a Trangia cooker. The main thing is hot!
As the ingredients are also usually frozen, the bottles must first be warmed up under layers of clothing. The gas bottle, power bank and other items that work better at a higher temperature can also be found there. "I sometimes feel like a magician pulling more and more things out of his hat," he jokes.
A particular challenge is finding a suitable anchorage or mooring place every day before it gets dark in the afternoon. He secures his boat with several lines, which are tied into the cracks in the rocks with the help of knotted stones. He also lays a safety line from the boat to his sleeping place when the wind picks up so that he can react quickly in the event of a breakaway. "You simply sleep better this way," assures the outdoor expert.
One morning after a stormy night, it's not just his tent that looks like an igloo. His dinghy also lies in the middle of a thin layer of ice covering the water and is covered with a good 20 centimetres of snow. The day is all the more beautiful for it, with a gentle breeze his boat slowly drifts northwards in bright sunshine. A moment of lightness.
The next day, Stropnik weathers a snowstorm on the water and the plastic boom holder breaks, preventing him from sailing on for the time being. In a village he makes out on the shore, he stays with a family for a few days and is able to order spare parts. A short time later, the repaired dinghy surfs across the Sognefjord at seven knots in a stern wind, despite the jib being furled and the second reef in the main. The wind continues to freshen, and at 30 knots at its peak, Stropnik is overcome by concern for the boat and his own safety. With a heavy heart, he decides to abandon the race prematurely.
The winter beauty of Norway
In addition to the almost hostile conditions, his videos also show the magnificent fjord and mountain landscapes of Norway in magnificent winter beauty. The vast majority of people would probably prefer to enjoy these views from a Hurtigruten ship, well protected with all the comforts of a cruise. But the enterprising Stropnik cannot imagine such a luxury trip with the best will in the world. He is already working on new projects.
More extreme weather cruises on the agenda
"I bought a Hoby Cat FX1 this year and am already testing out my options. I've just come back from a 14-day test drive from Monfalcone in Italy to Dubrovnik in Croatia. Not the biggest challenge, but a good workout."
In future, he wants to tackle his adventure cruises with fast catamarans. The next one will take him to the Aegean. And then another northern project is already in the starting blocks: "This time I want to sail down the entire Norwegian coast from Kirkenes, maybe even as far as Oslo." But that won't happen until the summer. "Because then," says Igor Stropnik happily, "the conditions are simply ideal for a fast catamaran - and the days are endless again."
