BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
Here's sistership Top Cat's mizzen stays'l:
http://yawls.net/TopCat/TopCat/Under_Way.html#25
Maybe I'll get one with a big exclamation point on it!
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New Boat 4 Sled
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Here's sistership Top Cat's mizzen stays'l:
http://yawls.net/TopCat/TopCat/Under_Way.html#25
Maybe I'll get one with a big exclamation point on it!
So where's the boat?
I sailed on SERENA (above.) At the time, she had one winch...
Also sailed on schooner NEW WORLD. She had no cleats.
I've got a mizzen spinnaker for BobJ. With no rigging on his carbon mizzen mast, there is the possibility of the top of the mizzen approaching the main mast for a kiss.
I sailed on SERENA (above.) At the time, she had one winch...
Also sailed on schooner NEW WORLD. She had no cleats.
I've got a mizzen spinnaker for BobJ. With no rigging on his carbon mizzen mast, there is the possibility of the top of the mizzen approaching the main mast for a kiss.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Kissin on the mizzen? What do the rules say about that?
MAGICdreamer
Member
Not a happy scene in the NW Passage last night. A rogue iceberg in big current cornered and holed the 11 meter Argentinian ANAHITA in Bellot Strait. The two crew aboard deployed their EPIRB and took shelter on the offending berg as their sloop sank.
Fortunately, there were no bears in the vicinity.
ANAHITA's EPIRB signal was received, allowing a helo from the 327' Canadian Coast Guard Cutter HENRY LARSON to retrieve the shipwrecked crew after 11 hours on the ice.
Currently, the NW Passage still remains impassable, especially Franklin Straits. Everyone is getting impatient for an "opening." Which may not happen this year. Have you got any news of the iceberg?
HAVE YOU GOT ANY NEWS OF THE ICEBERG?
(Les Barker)
On a cold rainy night on a Liverpool quayside
In the years before the Great War
The crowd was in shock at the loss of Titanic;
So proud had they been days before.
Relatives gathered for news of their loved ones,
To read through the list of the dead,
When into the throng came a sad-eyed old polar bear
And to the clerk at the counter he said
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
My wife and my children were coming from Greenland
To be by my side in the zoo;
Belinda's my wife, and the eldest's called Bernard,
And Billy, well he's only two.
I know on the ship there were hundreds of people
And I know the iceberg's not yours...
The polar bear's eyes held the start of his teardrops
And he covered his face with his paws.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
It's been over a year since I last saw my children;
I left home to build my career;
I've worked very hard; I'm a star in the circus;
It's all been for nothing, I fear.
That's my face on the poster; we're in town this week;
My children were meeting me here.
Everyone watched as he struggled to speak,
As his paw brushed away one more tear.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
By now all the people had gathered beside him;
His grief was one they could share.
The people around him, in silence and sadness,
Listened to the sad polar bear.
I wanted my children to see me performing
And Belinda, she would have been proud;
At last lost for words, and his tears flowing freely,
The question was asked by the crowd.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
Fortunately, there were no bears in the vicinity.
ANAHITA's EPIRB signal was received, allowing a helo from the 327' Canadian Coast Guard Cutter HENRY LARSON to retrieve the shipwrecked crew after 11 hours on the ice.
Currently, the NW Passage still remains impassable, especially Franklin Straits. Everyone is getting impatient for an "opening." Which may not happen this year. Have you got any news of the iceberg?
HAVE YOU GOT ANY NEWS OF THE ICEBERG?
(Les Barker)
On a cold rainy night on a Liverpool quayside
In the years before the Great War
The crowd was in shock at the loss of Titanic;
So proud had they been days before.
Relatives gathered for news of their loved ones,
To read through the list of the dead,
When into the throng came a sad-eyed old polar bear
And to the clerk at the counter he said
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
My wife and my children were coming from Greenland
To be by my side in the zoo;
Belinda's my wife, and the eldest's called Bernard,
And Billy, well he's only two.
I know on the ship there were hundreds of people
And I know the iceberg's not yours...
The polar bear's eyes held the start of his teardrops
And he covered his face with his paws.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
It's been over a year since I last saw my children;
I left home to build my career;
I've worked very hard; I'm a star in the circus;
It's all been for nothing, I fear.
That's my face on the poster; we're in town this week;
My children were meeting me here.
Everyone watched as he struggled to speak,
As his paw brushed away one more tear.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
By now all the people had gathered beside him;
His grief was one they could share.
The people around him, in silence and sadness,
Listened to the sad polar bear.
I wanted my children to see me performing
And Belinda, she would have been proud;
At last lost for words, and his tears flowing freely,
The question was asked by the crowd.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me.
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If you are considering the NW Passage, it's best to have a metal boat. Sometimes things happen "out there." FINE TOLERANCE, a 33 foot sloop, tried for 3 years to get through (2009-2011) Finally, impossibly beset, things turned fortuitous, and they got a tow from Canadian icebreaker SIR WILFRED LAURIER. This is like no tow you've ever seen, and hard to watch.
http://arcticnorthwestpassage.blogspot.com/2018/08/sv-fine-tolerance-sea-ice-rescue-by.html
The good news is this strong little steel ship survived with only a bent rudder and sheared propellor and sails to this day.
http://arcticnorthwestpassage.blogspot.com/2018/08/sv-fine-tolerance-sea-ice-rescue-by.html
The good news is this strong little steel ship survived with only a bent rudder and sheared propellor and sails to this day.
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Tom P.
m/v PACIFIC LOON
Sled, That WAS hard to watch.
Scrolling down the page, I love the photo of rafted boats including CLOUD NINE (with an SF Bay crew connection) and IDLEWILD. Though not a sailboat, the IDLEWILD story is truly remarkable. She was built far from the ocean by a family of Canadian farmers, literally hauled through the woods with a tractor and launched on the north flowing MacKenzie River, and then subsequently went 'round the world. I truly admire the confident "yup, we can do that, spirit."
http://northwestpassage2014.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-remember-mv-idlewild-2005nwp-on.html
Tom
Scrolling down the page, I love the photo of rafted boats including CLOUD NINE (with an SF Bay crew connection) and IDLEWILD. Though not a sailboat, the IDLEWILD story is truly remarkable. She was built far from the ocean by a family of Canadian farmers, literally hauled through the woods with a tractor and launched on the north flowing MacKenzie River, and then subsequently went 'round the world. I truly admire the confident "yup, we can do that, spirit."
http://northwestpassage2014.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-remember-mv-idlewild-2005nwp-on.html
Tom
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Tom,
IDLEWILD had a memorable 24 hours, making miles while stranded atop an ice floe in the NW Passage. I believe that's called "going with the floe?"
Black Rock Desert is the biggest, flattest place on Earth, 60 miles long. Something tells me this land ship could get a fair way downwind and not be able to get back upwind. Wouldn't be the first thing lost at Black Rock by sailing off the edge...
Howard Spruit
Member
Yes you have neglected WATER for the square rigger!
The pretty and fast Alerion 38 SURPRISE arrived yesterday afternoon at her new home, Richmond YC. It looked like an SSS homecoming. Just down the dock were DURA MATER, FUGU, GREEN BUFFALO, and who knows who else.
BobJ's beloved RAGTIME! is leaving soon for her new home on Lake Michigan. In appreciation, Bob has renamed SURPRISE with a new name .......SURPRISE!
Our trip up from Santa Cruz yesterday was part delivery (departure 0600), part shakedown, and full time story telling in the lee of the dodger as we motorsailed into wind and seas on a cool grey day. The short, steep seas that would have had an Olson-40, SC-50, or SC-70 pounding uncomfortably, SURPRISE! weathered like a duck. We trimmed the main traveler to weather, set the Yanmar 3 at 2800 cruising RPM, and averaged 6 knots 15 degrees off the wind for 55 miles to Half Moon Bay, where we then were able to crack off and close reach at 7 knots for Lands End, the Golden Gate, and home.
Once under the Golden Gate we were met with sun and 20 knots of breeze to blow us downwind, wing and wing, through Raccoon Straits. 11 hours to get 75 miles, a respectable 6.8 knt average, thanks to SURPRISE's sweet and pretty hull shape, a Carl Schumacher design.
With DAZZLER, BOB J, and myself aboard, the shakedown part was fun as we debated two pages of possible improvements to SURPRISE! The mizzen mast? Is it worth its windage and extra overall length? What about the heavy jib boom that makes tacking a breeze for shorthanded sailing but clutters the foredeck. The electric halyard winch? One thing we agreed on is the tiller and spade rudder is a really nice combination.
Thank Bob and Tom for sharing a fun day on SURPRISE!
BobJ's beloved RAGTIME! is leaving soon for her new home on Lake Michigan. In appreciation, Bob has renamed SURPRISE with a new name .......SURPRISE!
Our trip up from Santa Cruz yesterday was part delivery (departure 0600), part shakedown, and full time story telling in the lee of the dodger as we motorsailed into wind and seas on a cool grey day. The short, steep seas that would have had an Olson-40, SC-50, or SC-70 pounding uncomfortably, SURPRISE! weathered like a duck. We trimmed the main traveler to weather, set the Yanmar 3 at 2800 cruising RPM, and averaged 6 knots 15 degrees off the wind for 55 miles to Half Moon Bay, where we then were able to crack off and close reach at 7 knots for Lands End, the Golden Gate, and home.
Once under the Golden Gate we were met with sun and 20 knots of breeze to blow us downwind, wing and wing, through Raccoon Straits. 11 hours to get 75 miles, a respectable 6.8 knt average, thanks to SURPRISE's sweet and pretty hull shape, a Carl Schumacher design.
With DAZZLER, BOB J, and myself aboard, the shakedown part was fun as we debated two pages of possible improvements to SURPRISE! The mizzen mast? Is it worth its windage and extra overall length? What about the heavy jib boom that makes tacking a breeze for shorthanded sailing but clutters the foredeck. The electric halyard winch? One thing we agreed on is the tiller and spade rudder is a really nice combination.
Thank Bob and Tom for sharing a fun day on SURPRISE!
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I ain't buying it. The media darling of the recent Pacific Cup was the "revolutionary" Beneteau 32 with "hydrofoils." Characterized as "phenomenal," LE FOND de GIRAFON (Baby Giraffe) was indeed fast and well sailed. Her flat aft sections, wide beam, light weight, water ballast, and minimum wetted surface keel all contributed to great speed, especially when power reaching.
But hydrofoils "revolutionary?" I call BS Hydrofoils have been around forever, since inventor Alexander Graham Bell began experimenting with them in 1906. Dave Keiper cruised 20,000 miles in the Pacific, 1970-74, with his WILLIWAW, a 31' foiling trimaran.
Eric Tabarly had foils on his big tri PAUL RICARD as early as 1979, beating schooner ATLANTIC's trans-Atlantic Record.
"Oh," some would say, "but GIRAFON was the first to race to Hawaii with foils." Maybe not. GIRAFON was entered in the Pacific Cup, but not officially racing, as she was deemed "experimental," and not given a handicap rating.
Those in the know say GIRAFON's orange foils were not intended to lift or fly the boat. Rather they were intended to reduce leeway induced by the narrow keel strut. GIRAFON's foils were retracted into her cabin when not in use accompanied by many gallons of water, providing hours of entertainment pumping to stay dry and afloat.
In 1957, the 52 foot, Dutch built, botterjacht GROOTE BEER (Great Bear) raced Transpac with foils, no keel, just giant wood leeboards (1,700 pounds each). Heck, GROOTE BEER, though heavy as hell with fine wood carvings and tiled fireplace, had a retractable sprit, square top main, transom rudder, great beam, and shallow draft. How modern is that for 60 years ago? Though GIRAFON could sail circles around GROOTE BEER, the bear's foils didn't leak into the ornate and comfortable cabin.
But hydrofoils "revolutionary?" I call BS Hydrofoils have been around forever, since inventor Alexander Graham Bell began experimenting with them in 1906. Dave Keiper cruised 20,000 miles in the Pacific, 1970-74, with his WILLIWAW, a 31' foiling trimaran.
Eric Tabarly had foils on his big tri PAUL RICARD as early as 1979, beating schooner ATLANTIC's trans-Atlantic Record.
"Oh," some would say, "but GIRAFON was the first to race to Hawaii with foils." Maybe not. GIRAFON was entered in the Pacific Cup, but not officially racing, as she was deemed "experimental," and not given a handicap rating.
Those in the know say GIRAFON's orange foils were not intended to lift or fly the boat. Rather they were intended to reduce leeway induced by the narrow keel strut. GIRAFON's foils were retracted into her cabin when not in use accompanied by many gallons of water, providing hours of entertainment pumping to stay dry and afloat.
In 1957, the 52 foot, Dutch built, botterjacht GROOTE BEER (Great Bear) raced Transpac with foils, no keel, just giant wood leeboards (1,700 pounds each). Heck, GROOTE BEER, though heavy as hell with fine wood carvings and tiled fireplace, had a retractable sprit, square top main, transom rudder, great beam, and shallow draft. How modern is that for 60 years ago? Though GIRAFON could sail circles around GROOTE BEER, the bear's foils didn't leak into the ornate and comfortable cabin.
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BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
solosailor
Member
Didn't the foils on The Figaro III replace the water ballast? Congrats Bob on the new to you ride!
Thank you, Greg. You are correct. The Figaro 3 has no internal water ballasting. Apparently the foils also increase stability..
"On the road again" RAGTIME! departing for points east. Fair winds and smooth highways.
Much further north, the NorthWest Passage is not allowing passage. Approx. 20 boats tried East to West. And two, including DOGBARK, West to East. All have either turned back. Or are currently beset in their retreat, risking being trapped overwinter. It's like watching slow motion chess...using AIS, Canadian and U.S. Ice Charts, infrequent reports from boats. And two "ice advisors" who work with yachts. But don't seem to like each other and sometimes give conflicting info.
Here is the current U.S. Ice Chart, if you are retreating to the west, over the top of Alaska, like the Sea Gypsies on INFINITY. Red (>9/10), brown (>7/10), and yellow (>4/10) ice is not navigable to yachts. Green (<3/10) is.
And here is the Canadian Ice Chart for Franklin Strait, if you are thinking of retreating eastward.
S/V CRYSTAL from Poland is currently unable to advance. I'm glad I am not attempting to answer their questions: "We tried to get out of Prince Regent but for now the exit is closed. We return to the anchor and wait for the next ice maps"
"What is your advise?"
"What are the forecast weather conditions?"
"What routing or advise would you of given when CRYSTAL departed Fort Ross?"
"Where would you want CRYSTAL to anchor?"
What direction(s) and speed(s) will the sea ice move?
"What assets are in the area?"
Much further north, the NorthWest Passage is not allowing passage. Approx. 20 boats tried East to West. And two, including DOGBARK, West to East. All have either turned back. Or are currently beset in their retreat, risking being trapped overwinter. It's like watching slow motion chess...using AIS, Canadian and U.S. Ice Charts, infrequent reports from boats. And two "ice advisors" who work with yachts. But don't seem to like each other and sometimes give conflicting info.
Here is the current U.S. Ice Chart, if you are retreating to the west, over the top of Alaska, like the Sea Gypsies on INFINITY. Red (>9/10), brown (>7/10), and yellow (>4/10) ice is not navigable to yachts. Green (<3/10) is.
And here is the Canadian Ice Chart for Franklin Strait, if you are thinking of retreating eastward.
S/V CRYSTAL from Poland is currently unable to advance. I'm glad I am not attempting to answer their questions: "We tried to get out of Prince Regent but for now the exit is closed. We return to the anchor and wait for the next ice maps"
"What is your advise?"
"What are the forecast weather conditions?"
"What routing or advise would you of given when CRYSTAL departed Fort Ross?"
"Where would you want CRYSTAL to anchor?"
What direction(s) and speed(s) will the sea ice move?
"What assets are in the area?"
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A friend is flying to Sioux City, SD, to visit her daughter and watch her son-in-law coach his USD football team in a game on Saturday. I wondered what else goes on in Sioux City besides football. She says, "oh, we're going to the Diving Elk bar.." The Diving Elk? Yup. It seems Elk have an innate fondness of jumping off things. Like high dives into a river. Apparently quite the spectacle, 1900-1920, when an entrepreneur would bring his trained Elk troupe into town for a high diving exhibition into the Big Sioux River.
Wheee, Global Warming melting the Arctic Icecap. Let's take a cruise ship across uncharted waters of the NW Passage. Not so fast, Bubba.
Author: Edward Struzik, Fellow, Queen's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
I was aboard the 364-foot Russian research-cruise ship Akademik Ioffe (photo below) when it came to a violent stop after grounding on a shoal in a remote region of the Gulf of Boothia in Canada’s Arctic. Fortunately, none of the 102 passengers and 24 crew members were injured. Chemical contaminants that may or may not have been pumped out with the bilge water seemed to be minor.
It could have ended up a lot worse. I was on the ship representing Yale Environment 360, which commissioned me to report on climate change in the Arctic and the research that scientists and students with the U.S. National Foundation sponsored Northwest Passage Project were to be conducting on that three-week voyage.
It took nearly nine hours for a Hercules aircraft to fly in from the Canadian National Defence Joint Rescue Centre in Trenton, Ont., 12 hours for another DND plane to come in from Winnipeg and 20 hours for a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter to fly over. By then we were boarding the Akademik Vavilov, a Russian sister ship that had come to the rescue.
Had the weather not worked in our favour and had there been thick ice such as the kind we had sailed through hours earlier, we would have faced a number of challenging and potentially dangerous scenarios.
Powerful winds could have spun us around on that rock, possibly ripping a hole into the hull that might have been bigger than the one that was presumably taking in the water we saw being pumped out of the ship. Thick ice grinding up against the ship would have made it almost impossible to get everyone off into lifeboats.
I had warned about a scenario like this in my book Future Arctic, Field Notes from A World On The Edge. Only 10 per cent of the Arctic Ocean in Canada, and less than two per cent of the Arctic Ocean in the United States, is charted. Only 25 per cent of the Canadian paper charts are deemed to be good. Some of the U.S. charts go back to the days of Captains Cook and Vancouver and the time when the Russians owned Alaska.
I’m not the only one who has been raising the red flag. Arctic experts such as Rob Huebert, Whitney Lackenbauer, Michael Byers and the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development have all highlighted the rising risks of shipping in the Arctic, and the formidable challenges associated with timely search and rescues and the staging of oil spill cleanups.
Since the catastrophic grounding of the EXXON VALDEZ off the coast of Alaska in 1989, the list of groundings of fuel tankers, drilling ships, cargo ships and passenger vessels plying the waters of the North American Arctic has risen significantly.
Most notable among them were the cruise ship HANSEATIC, which ran aground in the Canadian Arctic in 1996, the CLIPPER ADVENTURER which ran aground in Coronation Gulf in 2010 and the NANNY, a fuel tanker that ran aground near Baker Lake in 2012 in an area where marine investigators say there is little margin for error. It was the fifth grounding in that area since 2007.
As sea ice continues to recede in the Arctic, it provides cruise, cargo and tanker companies with new opportunities, and emboldens small vessels to venture into uncharted areas. A recent analysis suggests that tge average Arctic ship route has moved more than 180 miles closer to the North Pole in the past seven years.(https://psmag.com/environment/retre...ing-routes-180-miles-closer-to-the-north-pole). Mines such as the one at Mary River on Baffin Island are planning to use ships to transport their ore. Bigger cruise ships such as the CRYSTAL SERENITI that sailed through the Northwest Passage with 1,000 passengers and 600 crew members in 2017 are beginning to test these opportunities.
There are other factors portending future disasters. There are no ports in the North American Arctic from which to stage a rescue or an oil spill cleanup. Icebreakers are few and far between. The U.S. Coast Guard has just one in operation. Canada has a few more, but many of them are well on their way to being decommissioned.
Weather forecasting capabilities are poor due to the shortage of meteorological stations and the increasingly unpredictable nature of Arctic weather. Powerful summers storms such as the record-breaking summer cyclone that tore through the Arctic in 2012 are on the increase. Stable shorefast ice is letting go in unpredictable ways.
Our ship, for example, was forced to make a last-minute change to the starting route because of ice that was blocking passage into Resolute Bay. Recognizing the challenges, two cruise companies reportedly cancelled their expeditions this year on short notice.
There is a lot that can and needs to be done to reduce future risks. The Canadian government could compel ships to use forward looking multi-beam sonar with Bluetooth technology. Charts can and need to be updated rapidly. More weather stations are needed. The dumping of bilge water should be banned. A search and rescue team should be seasonally based in a strategic part of the Arctic. An Arctic port is needed sooner rather than later.
There is also a need to determine what impact future shipping will have on beluga and narwhal migrations.
There is time to play catch-up because there are few signs that shipping companies are in a hurry to exploit the short cuts that the Northwest Passage offers between the Atlantic and the Pacific. But the number of partial transits will increase as cruise ships, mining companies and future oil and gas activity focus their eyes on the Arctic.
As things stand now, we are not prepared.
Editors note: as of this morning the AKADEMIC IOFFE remains grounded on it's shoal with reported damage to its hull.
Author: Edward Struzik, Fellow, Queen's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
I was aboard the 364-foot Russian research-cruise ship Akademik Ioffe (photo below) when it came to a violent stop after grounding on a shoal in a remote region of the Gulf of Boothia in Canada’s Arctic. Fortunately, none of the 102 passengers and 24 crew members were injured. Chemical contaminants that may or may not have been pumped out with the bilge water seemed to be minor.
It could have ended up a lot worse. I was on the ship representing Yale Environment 360, which commissioned me to report on climate change in the Arctic and the research that scientists and students with the U.S. National Foundation sponsored Northwest Passage Project were to be conducting on that three-week voyage.
It took nearly nine hours for a Hercules aircraft to fly in from the Canadian National Defence Joint Rescue Centre in Trenton, Ont., 12 hours for another DND plane to come in from Winnipeg and 20 hours for a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter to fly over. By then we were boarding the Akademik Vavilov, a Russian sister ship that had come to the rescue.
Had the weather not worked in our favour and had there been thick ice such as the kind we had sailed through hours earlier, we would have faced a number of challenging and potentially dangerous scenarios.
Powerful winds could have spun us around on that rock, possibly ripping a hole into the hull that might have been bigger than the one that was presumably taking in the water we saw being pumped out of the ship. Thick ice grinding up against the ship would have made it almost impossible to get everyone off into lifeboats.
I had warned about a scenario like this in my book Future Arctic, Field Notes from A World On The Edge. Only 10 per cent of the Arctic Ocean in Canada, and less than two per cent of the Arctic Ocean in the United States, is charted. Only 25 per cent of the Canadian paper charts are deemed to be good. Some of the U.S. charts go back to the days of Captains Cook and Vancouver and the time when the Russians owned Alaska.
I’m not the only one who has been raising the red flag. Arctic experts such as Rob Huebert, Whitney Lackenbauer, Michael Byers and the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development have all highlighted the rising risks of shipping in the Arctic, and the formidable challenges associated with timely search and rescues and the staging of oil spill cleanups.
Since the catastrophic grounding of the EXXON VALDEZ off the coast of Alaska in 1989, the list of groundings of fuel tankers, drilling ships, cargo ships and passenger vessels plying the waters of the North American Arctic has risen significantly.
Most notable among them were the cruise ship HANSEATIC, which ran aground in the Canadian Arctic in 1996, the CLIPPER ADVENTURER which ran aground in Coronation Gulf in 2010 and the NANNY, a fuel tanker that ran aground near Baker Lake in 2012 in an area where marine investigators say there is little margin for error. It was the fifth grounding in that area since 2007.
As sea ice continues to recede in the Arctic, it provides cruise, cargo and tanker companies with new opportunities, and emboldens small vessels to venture into uncharted areas. A recent analysis suggests that tge average Arctic ship route has moved more than 180 miles closer to the North Pole in the past seven years.(https://psmag.com/environment/retre...ing-routes-180-miles-closer-to-the-north-pole). Mines such as the one at Mary River on Baffin Island are planning to use ships to transport their ore. Bigger cruise ships such as the CRYSTAL SERENITI that sailed through the Northwest Passage with 1,000 passengers and 600 crew members in 2017 are beginning to test these opportunities.
There are other factors portending future disasters. There are no ports in the North American Arctic from which to stage a rescue or an oil spill cleanup. Icebreakers are few and far between. The U.S. Coast Guard has just one in operation. Canada has a few more, but many of them are well on their way to being decommissioned.
Weather forecasting capabilities are poor due to the shortage of meteorological stations and the increasingly unpredictable nature of Arctic weather. Powerful summers storms such as the record-breaking summer cyclone that tore through the Arctic in 2012 are on the increase. Stable shorefast ice is letting go in unpredictable ways.
Our ship, for example, was forced to make a last-minute change to the starting route because of ice that was blocking passage into Resolute Bay. Recognizing the challenges, two cruise companies reportedly cancelled their expeditions this year on short notice.
There is a lot that can and needs to be done to reduce future risks. The Canadian government could compel ships to use forward looking multi-beam sonar with Bluetooth technology. Charts can and need to be updated rapidly. More weather stations are needed. The dumping of bilge water should be banned. A search and rescue team should be seasonally based in a strategic part of the Arctic. An Arctic port is needed sooner rather than later.
There is also a need to determine what impact future shipping will have on beluga and narwhal migrations.
There is time to play catch-up because there are few signs that shipping companies are in a hurry to exploit the short cuts that the Northwest Passage offers between the Atlantic and the Pacific. But the number of partial transits will increase as cruise ships, mining companies and future oil and gas activity focus their eyes on the Arctic.
As things stand now, we are not prepared.
Editors note: as of this morning the AKADEMIC IOFFE remains grounded on it's shoal with reported damage to its hull.
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