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
Monday 10th August, midnight.  Position: 72 degrees 23′ N 66 degrees 23′ E

We’re cruising now through the Kara Seas, a really arctic region which freezes completely each winter.  Between Novaya Zemlya and the Yamal Peninsula, where we are now, the water temperature has dropped to 5.4 degrees and the air temperature is noticeably cooler.  The weather is calm, the sea flat, and the slight breeze from NNW (which doesn’t help sailing!).  No boats on the radar or radio, and few birds: a family or two of curious arctic skuas, and a lone bearded seal we passed earlier today. A seemingly empty place.
This is far from the unknown sea of 100 years ago where both Russian and European ships disappeared here, never to be found.  However, the security is illusory: ahead of us a stream of sea ice from the main body around the North Pole has moved south along the west side of Severnya Zemlya (the archipelago north of the Taimyr peninsula, the northernmost point of Eurasia), blocking the Northeast Passage for 100km or so.  A Russian ice breaker, Yamal, is keeping us informed on developments and we can sea the ice on satellite images each day, but all this technology will be to no avail unless the ice moves by itself.
It’s quite ironic that even in a year which may break new records for ice loss, the Northeast Passage may not yield.  We are sailing to Dickson and then further north as fast as we can to reach the ice edge, as a change in the wind can break up the pack and drift ice really fast, and the passage become clear.  It also highlights the fact that shipping in this region is hazardous despite the loss of ice: conditions change very fast, and ice, even a small amount, can move incredibly quickly into the path of a vessel.  An accident up here can be very costly indeed.
As we move ever closer to the most difficult part of the journey we reflect also on the extraordinary feat that some of the crew have already undertaken: tonight we celebrated the 5000 nautical miles that Ola, Hannibal, and Niklas have sailed since leaving Stockholm in mid June.  This is a very long expedition!

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
After 3 days travelling across the south eastern Barents Sea in completely calm and windless conditions we have finally arrived at land, the island of Veygatch.  Its about 200km long and is situated between the huge mass of Novaya Zemlya to the north, and Russia to the south.  The passage between the 2 islands is known as the Kara Gate, as this is the main entrance to the Kara Sea.
The weather has turned to light rain after fine but foggy conditions, and the water temperature has increased to 10 degrees, a reflection of the increasing contribution of warm water flowing into the sea from the huge Russian rivers.  The region we have been travelling across for the last day or so is completely covered in ice in winter but there is not a sign of it now. It’s hard to imagine what it looks like then!
We have been seeing more birds than when we were further out to sea, but not a marked increase.  A few more guillemots, a few ducks, the occasional glaucous gull, a lone arctic skua.  And of course the ever present fulmars.  No more whales or dolphins since day 1.
The crew has settled into a routine of rotating watches, and I find time from midnight to 4am to catch up with ‘office work’, while the boat is quiet and the wheelhouse empty except for Anders and me.  We have been discussing how to deal with the changing time zones and meal and watch times, and it appears that, in good Russian tradition, we’ll stick to Moscow Time on the boat.
Tomorrow will bring our first landing, and hopefully interaction with a small tradtional, and very remote, reindeer herding community.
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.
By Neil Hamilton
Friday 7th August, south eastern Barents Sea, lat 69 degrees 58′ long 47 degrees 09′  Air temperature: about 10, water temp 7.8, wind light from NW.
When you go on an expedition such as this, many people ask you why you want to put up with such discomfort and hardship, a complete removal from the certainty of every day life, and even perhaps danger.  For me the answer is simple: to see what is happening to the environment in this remote (to the western world) region, and to communicate this to the world.
We already know the big picture: the Arctic is melting fast. A new study shows that from 2005-2008, temperatures in the central arctic were 5 C above average. The summer sea ice  has decreased by almost half since the 70s. Significant permafrost melting has already taken place. And we now know that these changes are driven by greenhouse gas emissions.
So the reality is that, due to climate change, it is now possible to challenge the Northeast passage by sailboat, and without the support of an icebreaker. This is perhaps the last time an expedition through the passage is a real challenge. In the future the ever melting ice will make sailing through the passage easier and easier and open it up for increased transport, tourism and resource development in this vulnerable region. Taking the sea ice away from the Arctic will cause impacts all the way through the arctic food web, destabilising a system that is already fragile.
On this journey we will try to bring this unfamiliar world to you and explain why the changes we are seeing are important. With the Copenhagen climate conference approaching fast, and the need for improving the environmental governance of the Arctic ever increasing, our journey comes just in time.

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
It’s 2.18am local time and I’m on my first watch after leaving Murmansk. Latitude 69 degrees 28.6 north, longitude 34 degrees 16 east.   Air temperature is about 10 degrees, water temperature is 9 degrees.  Sea is slight, wind about 5 metres per second.   A few Russian trawlers show up on the radar and occasionally emerge from the fog which casts a gray haze over our progress.  We have just turned to head east, with a straight run now for about 500 nautical miles to the entry to the Kara sea at the southern tip of Novaya Zemlya.  That’s about 3 days sailing. 6 more watches for me before we see land again.
I share my watch with Anders, the captain, which is fantastic because there is so much to learn and he has so much experience.  We do the midnight to 4am and noon to 4pm watches, using Moscow time as the ‘ship time’. The night watch is great because everybody is sleeping and it is quiet, one of the few such occasions on ‘small’ boat like Explorer. The disadvantage is that you miss the dawns and most of the morning as you are sleeping.  As we go east, the difference between ship time and the sun’s time will change dramatically:  the far east of Russia is 10 hours ahead of GMT, so my midnight shift will be an after lunch one according to the sun!
It never really gets dark up here.  The midnight sun ended a few weeks ago but the best night we will see on this trip is a few hours of semi-darkness after midnight towards the end of the journey.  At the moment I have turned down my laptop screen brightness, but I can still see the seabirds flying past, the waves, and the other boats.  It’s sort of like a gray and rainy day in ‘normal’ parts of the world.  The long long days play a hugely important role in arctic ecology, providing a massive burst of growth to all the creatures that live here, and a shot of energy to the physical and ecological processes like ocean circulation, plant photosynthesis and so on.
It’s my turn at the wheel now, so I’ll stop here.  More soon from the eastern Barents Sea!

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.