Left Ella is supporting Polar Bears International, which wants to secure a future for the species in the Arctic.
Inset Her 38ft steel yacht is set up for sailing single-
handed and will be almost ˦˘˙ʠ˦˨˙Ѓ˖˜˘˧ʡ
Below As well as talking to specialists and solo sailors, Ella’s reading about what to expect on her voyage.
are renowned for high seas and storms of up to 40–50 knots while the Northwest Passage is known for being foggy and having no wind. Also, I’m not going to be able to sleep for six to eight hours a day.’ On the plus side, constant daylight in an Arctic summer will ease watch-keeping. Vaughan Marsh, RYA Chief
Instructor for sail and motor cruising, notes how the Arctic places unique demands on sailor and boat alike. ‘There is that need to be absolutely self- sufficient,’ he says. Before joining
the RYA he led expedition sail-training for the Armed Forces at the Joint Services Sail Training Centre, including trips from Iceland to Arctic Greenland. There, he ran onboard heating near- continuously aboard a Challenge 67 yacht (‘very good apart from when
“Everyone has been supportive but there’s this knowledge that it hasn’t been done before” it gets cold; then it’s a bit drippy’).
With the watermaker working
harder in cold water, he discovered there were greater demands on power. Alongside upcoming weather, passage plans were made after studying years of ice charts:
‘The Denmark Meteorology
Institute provide a really good resource, with
percentages of water to ice (actual and
historic) by area.’ Vaughan says he spent
considerable effort understanding how to use radar better. ‘Fog was a major consideration and within that lay icebergs, ice and large fragments
of ice – “bergy bits”.We had
reasonable visibility most of the time because it was daylight but there was ice everywhere, so when it was foggy we used radar to find a route and had spotters out permanently.We had a course to steer but were often picking through ice floes.Without radar it would have been difficult.’ He recommends adjusting the length of watches according to outdoor temperature on passage – the colder it gets, the shorter they are – and investing in a one-piece suit ‘effectively with your socks sewn in’ to stay dry and warm. He adds: ‘One tip was getting boots that people who work in refrigerated environments wear. People who bought those instead of standard sailing boots said they were a really good investment.’
rya.org.uk SPRING 2024 33
Photo: Sweet Bay Photography
Photo: Alamy
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