9-Meter Fiberglass Sailboat Completes Northwest Passage Through McClure Strait

[hatrack]

With a 9.3-metre fibreglass sailboat, Nicolas Peissel and his crewmates were able to do what seasoned explorers on hulking Arctic ships attempted over centuries but never succeeded. They crossed the northernmost route of the Northwestern Passages, which connects Baffin Bay to the Arctic Ocean in Canada's far North.

"There's no reason why we should have been able to do that," Peissel, who hails from the Montreal area, said Friday over satellite phone aboard the Belzebub II, three months into its journey.

At any other time in history, the M'Clure Strait, the last stretch of land-bound water before the Beaufort Sea, would have been entirely covered in ice. But it wasn't. And the boat, which would have easily been ensnared by ice like those of many explorers before it, is now sailing peacefully on the Beaufort as it heads to Alaska.

"This is a clear signal that there's climate change," Peissel said. And this was the point of the whole journey. Thirty-five-year-old Peissel, his cousin Morgan Peissel, and Swede Edvin Buregren are making history to demonstrate how Arctic ice is at an all-time low, and the serious implications for humanity.

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/technology/Ship+historic+crossing+signals+extent+Arctic+melt/7176411/story.html

[CrispyQ]

1. A graphic to go with the story, here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112722929

And we aren't doing a damned thing. We have our collective head up our collective ass.

[enough]

2. Link to their website, giving details of route, boat, equipment, videos, etc.

http://belzebub2.com/home?lang=en

[kestrel91316]

3. This is awesome! Just think about it - Europeans can now sail to Japan much more easily.

[Douglas Pohl]

4. BELZEBUB2 fails to tell the WHOLE TRUTH about Northwest Passage through McClure Strait

Edvin Buregren aboard S/V BELZEBUB II emailed this morning to say his family has reported to him that I have reported other significant details which were not included in his Press Release or volunteered as news worthy in satphone interviews with various news medias to which Edvin replies:

1) The Kaptain Khlebnikov Russian icebreaker transited McClure Strait in 2001.

2) The Canadian Sailing Directions indicate that a US icebreaker in 1954, and a Canadian icebreaker in 1962 completed McClure without completing a Northwest Passage.

Edvin you are correct - public records confirm these icebreakers did transit through McClure Strait without making a Northwest Passage between east or west Arctic Circles.

I would also offer that undoubtedly nuclear submarines have likely traveled through the deep waters of McClure Strait but public records do not track military asset movements and further discussion of government vessels traveling through McClure Strait is of no interest or concern here.

What is of concern is that Edvin et al BELZEBUB2 crew failed to acknowledge there was another vessel ahead of them which completed the McClure Strait passage by navigating west of Cape Prince Albert on Banks Island - it was U.K. Captain David Scott Cowper, age 70(?), navigating solo aboard his private motor yacht named POLAR BOUND while on his sixth(?) world circumnavigation - maybe Polar(?) - and on his fifth(?) Northwest Passage achievement did set a 161 year old historic first record at 15:33Z hours of August 29th by being the only private vessel to navigate through McClure Strait since Captain Robert McClure's discovery of the original Northwest Passage in 1851 while navigating aboard HMS INVESTIGATOR in search of the lost Franklin Expedition.

Furthermore,

BELZEBUB2 turned off their GPS tracker to website updates on two occasions - once when departing Resolute Bay - to protect their attempt from Canada government(?) and then again on their second attempt upon departing Resolute Bay knowing POLAR BOUND was ahead of them they could use radar navigation to follow POLAR BOUND through Parry Channel and McClure Strait. BELZEBUB2 has since offered an excuse saying they are having problems with their website after two months of good updates... sounds just like Canada Ice Service's excuse of website problems when they could not provide daily ice maps, used duplicate or wrong ice map names etc. How many years has CIS been producing ice maps? 50? CIS even have dedicated webmasters to fix any problem - but they didn't until after mariners complained of their reckless disregard for safety of life at sea approach to ice map service.

BELZEBUB2 actions has also contributed to my formulation that they are the like of a daredevil Jarle Andhøy aboard S/V BERSERK and have now lived up to the BEELZEBUB namesake.

While BELZEBUB2 crew could of made a simple oversight in the excitment of the moment, their continued in-action knowing of this concern past three days to set the record straight with another press release is a further disappointment. While few people in the public will "get-it", mariners know that you would never "sanitize" a press release to not mention a fellow mariner who was there and achieved such an epic historic 161 year record.

Calling their voyage a testiment to climate change is hyperbole - they have not performed any experiments along the way, taken any scientific measurements or provided any documented observations. It's all a daredevil adventure like BERSERK undertaken by three young men.

I do want to acknowledge dramatic pictures from BELZEBUB2 crew which attest to more significant sea ice than in the previous three years. While the press claims the loss of polar sea ice - the evidence from BELZEBUB2 indicates much more sea ice in the Northwest Passage without previous comment or explanation.

BELZEBUB2 might be the first sailboat through McClure Strait - if so (the above proof plots them IN McClure Strait not PAST) then congratulations!

I wish them a safe voyage to their destination.

Douglas Pohl

REF: http://northwestpassage2012.blogspot.com/2012/09/20120902-belzebub2-offers-explanation.html