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| Around the Americas Voyage Sails the Northwest Passage |
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 | | | Boat under spinnaker: The Ocean Watch sails north from Juneau with its Around America spinnaker flying.
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By Peter Marsh
When skipper Mark Schrader set in motion his plan to make a voyage "Around the Americas," he knew he'd need a strong, versatile vessel built to withstand the rigors of the Arctic Circle, the Northwest Passage, and later on Cape Horn and the Chilean channels. The ambitious goal of the voyage is the first continuous circumnavigation of North and South American continents--and raising public awareness about the condition of the surrounding oceans.
So Schrader made an extensive search for the perfect boat on both sides of the Atlantic, but found what he was looking for in Mexico's Sea of Cortez. For the last decade, the 64-foot Ocean Watch (ex-Danzante III) functioned as a marine-science research platform and live-aboard cruising boat off the coast of Baja California. It is a center-cockpit fin keel 44-ton cutter designed by Bruce Roberts, built in Maryland in 1988 of ¼-inch steel plate, and outfitted for extensive long-range voyaging and expedition-style sailing.
Schrader and a delivery crew sailed the boat from La Paz, Mexico to Seattle's Seaview East Boatyard in 2008. There it underwent a complete, stem-to-stern refit by a talented group of local craftsmen. The boat was re-powered with a new 135-hp. Lugger diesel engine and a 12-kW Northern Lights generator. The new suit of working sails comes from sailmaker Carol Hasse and her colleagues at Port Townsend Sails. North Sails built the spinnaker.
Three years after the planning began; the Ocean Watch set sail from Seattle at the end of May on the 25,000-mile voyage. The departure from Shilshole was a great success as the crew was sent off to the sounds of bagpipes and welcomed to open water by the Seattle fireboat spraying great plumes of water.
The founding partners of this voyage are Pacific Science Center of Seattle and Sailors for the Sea, a non-profit organization that educates the boating community to protect and restore our oceans and coastal waters. Captain Mark Schrader of Stanwood, WA, 62, is the first American to complete a single-handed circumnavigation of the world via the five southern capes--an epic voyage in 1982-83 that began and ended in the Pacific Northwest.
The Ocean Watch permanent crew consists of highly experienced sailors who have all been long-time supporters of ocean conservation: David Logan, 60, Seattle, WA, veteran ocean cruising and racing sailor and skilled boat refit manager; watch captains Herb McCormick, 53, Newport, RI, former editor of Cruising World magazine and sailing correspondent for the New York Times and David Thoreson, 49, Okoboji, IA, a photographer with extensive experience in the Arctic and Antarctic, who was the first American sailor to transit the Northwest Passage east to west. The demanding schedule includes time for research with scientists and educators on board during the various legs, plus stopovers in over 30 ports with public events to publicize their mission.
David Rockefeller, Jr., co-founder of Sailors for the Sea, said "This project is definitely an expedition for our times. The health of our oceans is important to all of us, not just those who live by the sea. Our food sources, our climate and even the air we breathe are dependent on the vast ocean systems. Around the Americas will demonstrate both the current deterioration of the ocean condition and what we as individuals can do to reverse or at least slow the negative effects."
"We have put together a very strong coalition of scientists and educators to ensure the success of this project," added Bryce Seidl, president of Pacific Science Center. "The University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory; the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, RMR Co., MIT Sea Grant College Program and the NASA Student Cloud Observations On-Line are all internationally recognized for their leadership in the fields of polar science, oceanography, atmospheric sciences and climate research. We have a great team!"
Finally on Their Way
After a hectic stop in Victoria, the Ocean Watch embarked on the familiar waters of the Inland Passage. A quick stop in Alert Bay to visit an old friend of Mark's turned into an amazing opportunity to witness the students at the Alert Bay Elementary School presenting their annual Cultural Celebration. The whole community was gathering at the "Big House" to watch the children perform the traditional dances that have been passed down through the generations. The crew was astonished to find they were the honored guests!
After a four-day layover in Juneau that seemed to go by in minutes, the cutter was off towards Icy Strait and the next scheduled destination, the port of Dutch Harbor. Instead, they tied up in the fishing village of Hoonah. This unscheduled stop led to one of the more remarkable events of the voyage thus far, a sighting of literally scores of humpback whales. The next day, passing Point Adophus, there wasn't a fishing boat in sight, but the humpbacks were everywhere.
Navigating the Northwest Passage
After eight weeks and 3,400 nautical miles at sea, the Ocean Watch left the west coast and the Bering Sea behind and turned east into the ice-filled waters at the top of North America. Captain Schrader wrote in the log what the boat and crew faced as they entered the Northwest Passage: "At Point Barrow we make a sharp turn east, exit the Chukchi Sea, enter the Beaufort Sea and finally point our bow into the Northwest Passage. With Cambridge Bay roughly 1050nm due east and still blocked by ice in Amundsen Gulf, we'll make several stops along the way while waiting for the forecast mid-August breakup."
"The next community with a sheltered harbor, fuel and services with enough depth for OW [Ocean Watch] is Tuktoyaktuk (Tuk), 490nm down the line. All of our ice reports indicate the passage from here to Tuk is currently open. The predicted winds for the next few days should keep the ice away from the shore and leave plenty of room for us. Herschel Island with its long and rich whaling and over-wintering-for-stranded-sailors-history is on our 'must visit' list."
On this leg, the crew completed the deployment of three NOAA Global Drifter Program buoys, each weighing approximately 45 pounds. The buoys are tracked by satellite and equipped with sensors to measure air pressure and surface temperature--data widely used by both weather and ice forecasters. Since 1979, nearly 1000 buoys have been deployed. After two years, they stop transmitting their location and are typically lost. However, the crew of Ocean Watch retrieved one buoy deployed in 2006 from an island near Barrow, Alaska. The tracking device on the buoy was still working.
In Amundsen's Wake
The highlight of the voyage along this desolate coast came on August 21 (Day 69), when the crew reached Gjoa Haven (pronounced "Joe-ah") in the new Canadian province of Nunavut .after negotiating 60 miles with countless rocks, shallows and low-lying islands, and passing an anchored Nordhaven 57 motor yacht from Newport, R.I. on its way west, they arrived in the harbor at night (again) in 30 knots of wind and were unable to get a bearing on the unlit range markers The two chartplotters both put them on dry land!
In the morning the crew identified the boat anchored in the haven as the Westsail 42, Fiona, also westbound, captained by Eric Forsyth, and received excellent advice on the next leg of the voyage.
Then they set off to explore the village. The settlement is named after the 72' ship of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. His epic inaugural voyage through the Northwest Passage took three years, from 1903-1906. Amundsen based his ship here while he explored the route in the summer and passed two long, dark winters on shore. They saw numerous references to Amundsen on plaques and in the small museum - all of them positive. As fellow sailors, they recognized that Amundsen navigated these waters with a 13-hp. auxiliary engine, a lead line, no chart and a useless compass!
The great explorer had embraced the local language and culture, engaging in the first real trade with the natives. Then they were stunned to learn that Amundsen had "embraced" the culture literally. They met the DJ at the Gjoa radio station who casually mentioned that she was Amundsen's granddaughter! As one of the crew wrote: "Here in Gjoa Haven, it's all Amundsen, all the time!"
On August 28, Ocean Watch reached its most northern position at latitude 73°53' N. From here, the course would be south and east toward Cape Horn, approximately 8,000 nautical miles. The water temperature had risen to four degrees above freezing, suggesting that they had seen the last of the pack ice. Until then, it was by no means certain that they would make it through this year...
In the history of the passage, only six small boats had made it from the west to the east in one season--pretty thin company and significantly poor odds. Ocean Watch's Northwest Passage achievements included eight planned ports of call, anchoring in protective inlets and harbors along the route to escape bad weather, meeting and sharing views with many native people.
Return to Civilization
On September 8, almost 14 weeks since departing Seattle, the Ocean Watch arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland to successfully complete the challenging transit of the Arctic around the top of the continent. St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, has a long and prosperous history in the fishing industry. It is the oldest established city in North America and has long been a port for European fishing fleets, and a safe haven for ships of all nations.
Since then, they have stopped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, returned to US waters to visit Boston and Newport before arriving in New York October 3 for a big week of onshore events and activities.
A check on their website www.aroundtheamericas.org before we went to press showed them to be headed to Brazil.... |
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