The Northwest Passage minimum ice season will begin soon with sea ice diminishing to allow vessels of all sizes and drafts to move into the Arctic to find a way through a thousand islands with many uncharted shoals extremely hazardous for deep draft larger ships. Did you know only 10% of the Arctic is charted to modern marine navigation standards? Vessels will approach from both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; from East traveling West (i.e. Davis Strait Arctic Circle between Canada and Greenland) or West traveling East (i.e. Bering Strait Arctic Circle between Russia and Alaska). The adventures will be innumerable according to how well you prepared. Roald Amundsen said it best: "Adventure is just bad planning."
Are you planning a Northwest Passage? See if you can answer these obvious questions:
Which of the seven NW Passage routes have you selected? 1,2,3,4,5,6 or 7?
What direction of travel will you be attempting? Was there a reason for this direction?
What is your alternative route(s)?
Why did you select a specific primary and alternative routes?
How will you know if and when a particular route is navigable?
When do you expect your primary route to open for navigation?
What is your strategic staging location for the selected primary and alternative routes?
When will you be at the selected strategic staging location?
What conditions will indicate if you are going to be able to make the Passage?
What is your last date before retreat? Why?
What is the vessel's waterline length and the total horsepower of your vessel's main engine(s)? Do you have a get-home propulsion system?
What is your NW Passage distance between Pacific Arctic Circle and Atlantic Arctic Circle? How many nautical miles must you average a day to make the Passage? What is your primary propulsion speed over ground? Secondary or get-home propulsion speed over ground?
What is your vessel's fuel capacity? What is your fuel consumption at a particular speed?
What percent of the NW Passage will a sailboat spend motoring? What is the greatest distance your vessel can motor between re-fuelings?
What alternatives do you have if there is no diesel available to buy? (See below)
What concentration of sea ice do you expect to be able to navigate through?
When you become beset in sea ice what techniques for self-rescue do you know? Please explain your techniques.
What is the geographic location you must reach in the west in order to continue open navigation? What were the dates of freeze-up there for the last year?
If you decide to retreat, what is the distance and date to allow open navigation?
What is the geographic location you must reach in the east in order to continue open navigation? What were the dates of freeze-up for the last year?
Are you prepared to winter-over in the Arctic? Where? Why did you make this selection?
Where in the West and where in the East, depending on direction of travel, if you make a successful transit will you winter-over if at all? Why did you select this winter-over location?
Who did you make winter-over arrangements with? In the sea ice or on land?
How do you expect to move the vessel onto the land?
Did you bring all necessary materials to construct your own vessel's cradle?
Do you know the specific expenses at your selected location to winter-over?
If you are not staying with the vessel, what is the cost for airfare to fly out to your home?
Do you carry written proof of a valid $1,000,000 marine liability insurance binder to be allowed moorage or storage in a marina?
If you cannot answer the above you should spend more time doing your due diligence. You definitely are not well prepared in my opinion.
Best advise to an Arctic expedition is to travel with a buddy - even if you call Mayday to be rescued it will likely take Canadian Armed Forces a day minimum to reach you in the Arctic, if the weather allows, from their search and rescue bases in the lower mainland - FYI there are no search & rescue bases in the Arctic... what is it that you think a Canadian Armed Forces C-130 aircraft flying overhead can do to save your life? Drop you a liferaft or pump via parachute? Can you reach it? The Arctic is vast making icebreakers coverage sparse and as you know icebreakers are not a fast surface vessel either... it could just as likely take days to respond to your boat's position... there are too many factors to even think a fast response in a few hours possible - no one dedicated to safety is based in the Arctic - its your responsibility alone to be prepared and without an exposure suit or survival suit you will not last one hour in the frigid Arctic icy waters - hypothermia kills. Only as a last resort should you ever leave your vessel and enter the icy water. (i.e. it's sinking or on fire and the skipper says to abandon ship.) Your skipper might make the hard decision to intentionally run the boat onto the beach to keep you out of the icy water and preserve infrastructure assets rather than the boat sink... you need to have this type of planning in advance. The crew must practice this as a standard drill... Adventure is just bad planning.
Who is going to support your expedition? You got to be kidding when saying your wife, your girlfriend or the next door neighbor... OMG!
If you are that naive about a Northwest Passage expedition - PLEASE STAY HOME!
If you understand the challenges with marine navigation routing, sea ice maps, weather patterns, anchorages of refuge, logistics and good prepartions etc... then you should serious consider the services of a professional mariner who has been supporting NW Passage expeditions for the last five years.
Do you know the best answer to these common problems? Test yourself...
What are you going to do when you arrive at a hamlet (i.e. Cambridge Bay) and there is no diesel for sale because re-supply is running late in the season? It happened the past two seasons in 2014 and again in 2015.
Recommended solution - purchase Jet-A kerosene from the airport and add lubricating oil additives so your diesel engine can safely burn Jet-A.
Want the best diesel engine fuel additive for this solution?
Buy Optilube XPD before you depart - two gallons of Optilube XPD should do ya - it mixes 1:512 gallons with Jet-A or in really cold weather recommends mixing at 1:256 ratio.
Who is going to rescue you in the Arctic? Canadian Armed Forces or U.S. Coast Guard or Danish Navy.
What will the cost be for your rescue? Unknown $$$$$$ but extremely expensive.
What if you need a medical evacuation? Who and how much?
Solution is to insist on a small payment of $20-25 per person for everyone aboard for insurance.
The best money you could spend for $100,000 of search & rescue and medivac support. Get it at: http://www.geosalliance.com/
What is the most economical and compact communications solutions that actually work in the Arctic?
Solution: Iridium GO and Delorme aka now called Garmin InReach.
I strongly recommend BOTH - Primary as InReach for $65/month unlimited SMS (Short Message Service) 160 characters of text per message with GPS tracking and secondary as Iridium GO which allows both unlimited SMS text, subscription based emails with file attachments (i.e. ice maps, weather etc). BOTH work anywhere outside on planet earth unlike SSB, Globalstar or Inmarsat. Don't leave home without BOTH Iridium GO and Garmin InReach. (period)
And the lists of best available resources goes on and on... I doubt your wife or girlfriend knows them... let alone how to provide you real marine advice... especially in Mother Nature's Garden... the Arctic!
If you would like extensive Northwest Passage assistance contact: Voyage Adviser
Email: voyageadviser (at) gmail (dot) com
I can help!
Smooth seas,
VA
In 2018 only TWO (2) recreational vessels made a NWP transit - all other vessels were stopped by sea ice. Here is the official 2018 pre-season sea ice report... current reports are periodically released... read and learn how even the best advise can miss the target.
https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/eccc/documents/pdf/cesindicators/sea-ice/2019/SeaIce-EN.pdf
Sub-region sea ice area trends, Northern Canadian Waters, 1968 to 2018
