September 24th 2013

Across the Arctic Circle

66° 33,000' N, 170° 34,307' W

Today, on the 24th of September at  06.45 UTC, s/y Sarema crossed the

Arctic Circle, and the Northern Sea Route aka the North East Passage is

finally behind us. The passage was icier than we had hoped for, the winds

were stronger than we had expected, and it took us far longer to traverse

the passage than we had anticipated. At times we were cold and tired, and

especially towards the end of the passage, frustrated and stressed, but

this is exactly as it should be in a truly Arctic Adventure.

As a result of our achievement, one of our crew members received an

honorary title. Since Latte is one of the very few dogs in the world, if

not the only one, who has circumnavigated the North Pole, as of today,

she'll be called Latte the Polar Dog!

Though we still have about 800 nautical miles ahead of us and the

notorious Bering Sea to cross before we get to Alaska, it's time to

celebrate. We just opened a bottle of Russian champagne, so come raise

your glass with us. “Cheers!” everyone or as we say in Finnish “Kippis!”

All That Splendour!

The day we crossed the Arctic Circle was spectacular in many ways. The weather was absolutely gorgeous after so many cold and grey days, and as we were sailing near the coastline, we could see dozens of humpback whales feeding close to the shore, there were walruses swimming near our boat, and thousands of seabirds everywhere, clearly on the verge of migration. In the evening, when darkness had set in and the stars had come out, the magnificent lights of the Aurora Borealis were glowing all around us. We had seen nothing like it while traversing the Northern Sea Route. This was so like in Alaska, and the very reason why we were going back there!

After all that splendour, we feel confident that the one thing that has worried us for quite some time i.e. our expiring cruising licence, will be sorted out in Providenya without difficulty.