This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
By Neil Hamilton

Finally, after days of waiting, filling in forms, shopping for everything we could think of, and being the beneficiaries of seemingly endless Russian hospitality, we are away!  A final press conference aboard the old ice breaker ‘Lenin’ revealed the challenge we face in turning around climate change, with several of the captains of the Russian ice breaker fleet expressing opinions that the earth is in fact cooling.  Nobody mentioned that we have lost almost half the area of summer sea ice since the 1980s, or that this voyage is only remotely possible due to the changes now conclusively the result of human action.
We left the dock just after 2030 on the 5th August, and sailed towards the Barents Sea some 40km north of Murmansk.  There is a huge air of anticipation now, a sense that the adventure has really only just begun.  As we passed the ice breaker 50th Anniversary of the Revolution she let out a huge long blast on her fog horn in our honour, which we returned with a (much smaller!) one on ours.

In my previous blog I introduced you to some, but not all of the crew of ‘Explorer’.  The last three, Per Magnus, Hannibal, and Frederik deserve a minute of fame as well!
Per Magnus is one of the pioneers of arctic expedition cruise tourism, being the owner of Polar Quest (owner of the expeditions sponsors) and a highly experienced traveller in northern regions.  He is currently chairman of AECO, the association of expedition cruise operators.
Hannibal has played a leading role in may of Ola’s expeditions, from the crossing of Greenland to the South Pole.  Highly experienced in mountain and wilderness education, Hannibal spends in excess of 200 days a year ‘on snow’.  He is an extremely competant sailor, diver, and probably many other things I have yet to discover.
Frederik is the expedition photographer and film maker.  He has travelled with Ola on many occasions and has also undertaken numerous trips of his own.  The pictures and clips on Ola’s website are largely from Frederik.  He is also a Land Rover freak and knows almost everything about anything mechanical.
So that’s it: eight guys (average age about 40), a huge range of skills and experience in the Arctic, sailing across an ocean that is changing almost as we look at it.  From now on we head ‘back to nature’ into some of the most unknown parts of the Arctic.  More soon!

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZtxEa1wNf8

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.

By Neil Hamilton
Finally, after all the preparations, we are away. We had a very quick final meal of take away pizza and left Kirkenes at 2020 on the 31st July, heading north out of the fjord into the Barents Sea. Everything worked perfectly. I did the first 4 hour watch with Niklas, then went to bed after handing over to the captain, Anders just before we entered Russian waters. The weather was foggy, the sea warm (13 degrees!) and calm. And completely empty. I’m not why this surprised me, but we didn’t see a single vessel on our radar or GPS navigation systems until we had almost reached Murmansk.
After 12 hours we had almost reached our next destination, Murmansk. Entering into the port of Murmansk is reasonably complicated as it is at the south end of a 40km long and narrow fjord with shipping lanes, many different types of anchorage, towns, shipyards, and a major naval base. The fog cleared, the sun came out, the weather was warm enough for short sleeves and we were able to see the wonderful landscape around us, very similar to northern Norway or even (according to some of the crew) parts of coastal Sweden.

We picked up a pilot (the first time he had ever been in a sailing yacht!) who guided us past the huge numbers of shipyards, dry docks, and anchored ships of every possible description. The scale of everything is fantastic. The entire Russian ice breaker fleet is berthed here so we saw many vessels we are familiar with from our work in the Arctic, including the huge ‘Arctica’ class nuclear powered vessels, and an old favourite of Per Magnus’, the Kaptain Dranitsyn. Enormous oil tankers guided by tugs, container ships, and coal transporters passed us going out of the port as we became more and more fascinated by the approaching city.

Explorer of Sweden’s first contact with the Russian coast took place at Dock 12 of the Murmansk commercial harbour, in the centre of the incredibly busy coal loading terminal. Customs and Immigration officals were waiting for us and performed a thorough and professional check of our documents and the ship. It seems that only one or two other prviate yachts have ever entered the port before so the process is almost as much of a novelty for the officials as it is for us. Fortunately our agent had ensured that all our papers were prepared in advance but Ola’s little photocopier was working overtime for a while, issuing all the necessary copies.A few questions, and fFinally everything was stamped. We are now legally in Russia.

Then another pilot, and a short trip to another wharf close to the centre of town. We seem to have minor celebrity status here as we have been given a berth right next to the most famous Russian ice breaker of all, the Lenin, which was launched almost exactly 50 years ago. Waiting for us were old friends including Mikhail, the captain of the Barneo floating ice base which I visited earlier this year. Welcomes and formalities over, we discovered a very convenient (and much needed!) shower and sauna nearby.
We have several days in Murmansk to obtain the final approvals from a variety of authorities to continue with the expedition. This is the last place we will visit for the next two months with more than a few hundred people, and with shops, so our time here will be precious.

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
By Neil Hamilton
Last night was special: the farewell dinner, with the wives and families of some of the crew.  Foie gras for entree (a gift from a friend), Norwegian pork fillet in cream and pink pepper sauce, served with rice coloured with 3 kinds of red peppers, finished up with (wait for it) ready made caramel pudding out of a box.  Champagne, Valpolicella, and some chateau cardboard kept the conversation flowing until well after midnight.  The occasion was as intellectual as it was spiritual, the final sign to ourselves that we are actually going to do this expedition.
Having spent the past grey and rainy day in Kirkenes trying to get all our approvals and the necessary forms for our entry into the Port of Murmansk, today has been quite a contrast.  Ola Skinnarmo showed why he is leading this expedition, ordering, prioritising, and making sure that everything was done to his satisfaction. I ended up cleaning the toilet, bailing out the last of the bilge water, wrapping the ice axes, changing an oil filter, washing up, vacuuming the floor, and a few other things.
The sheer number of activities that have to be completed before leaving on the expedition later today boggles the mind:
– stock up on all the last minutes supplies and equipment we need
– check all the sailing gear, accessories, safety and rescue equipment
– test the communications gear
– wash and dry all the clothes (the rails, halyards and every available piece of deck was covered!)
– change the oil and filters in the outboards, and the main boat engine
– wash the boat from top to bottom
– clean the inside of the boat (which looked like 8 guys had lived in it for two months, something close to the truth)
– tidy up everything into its proper place so that you can find it at 4am in a storm
– and of course, fill in more forms, talk to our agent in Murmnansk, and read the pilot book for this stretch of coast.
And then spend the last few hours alone.  For the next couple of months we will be unable to get more than a few metres from each other so just wandering around Kirkenes by ourselves is a luxury we all need.  Somebody even tried to get a haircut.
Being alone was also a way of lessening the tension which had been growing by the minute all day.  We are all aching just to get out to sea, to begin this voyage of discovery.  Even the short 150 nautical mile trip to Murmansk is an adventure: we literally don’t know how easy or hard it is going to be to negotiate the authorities, despite being well prepared.  And we are all waiting to see exactly what the ice conditions will be like.  Watching the daily images on the internet doesn’t tell you enough to be able to predict whether we will have an easy sail through an ice free Arctic Ocean (heaven forbid) or an intense experience, having to watch every minute of every day to avoid hitting floating fragments.
So at 2000 tonight local time (1800 UTC) we will cast off and head out of the port of Kirkenes into the Barents Sea. The wind is gentle (hopefully we can sail instead of motoring) and the weather is fine.  There is no one here to see us go, quite a contrast to Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Oslo earlier on the trip.  After that, everything is uncertain, depending on the weather, the Russian authorities, and us. It’s 4 hours to the Russian ‘border’, then several more sailing southeast before we reach the pilot point.  And then more hours before we finish our first day, in the Port of Murmansk.