Posted: Oct 03, 2006 08:46 pm EDT
(TheOceans.net/ThePoles.com) Gary Ramos, spending another winter “on ice” at Cambridge Bay in his attempt to sail around the North Pole dispatched on September 10: "Two Polish sailboats were here - the Nekton and The Stary. They are headed to Alaska."

ExWeb searched for the two boats on internet without luck. Yet soon after, an email arrived from Marek Teluk in Poland: Turns out, the two boats successfully passed the Northwest Passage from Greenland (Ilulissat) to Bering Strait via Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay, Tuktoyaktuk and Point Barrow.

Headed to Vancouver, Canada

Stary, coming from Poland, was first through - closely followed by Nekton (also Polish) starting out from Canada. Nekton left Canada July 27, while Stary left Poland May 26 this year. The ships joined up in Greenland leaving there August 15. The boats left Bellot Strait on August 28 and Point Barrow on September 11 - where they briefly met up with Gary. Seven days later, they left Bering Strait.

Marek reports that currently Stary is in Nunivak Island (Discovery Island) in Nash Harbour Bay waiting for better weather to go to Dutch Harbor, while Nekton left Dutch Harbor about a week back. Both boats are headed to Vancouver, Canada.

Check out the route and boats' positions here

(Ed note: Story updated 01:16 pm EDT Oct 03, 2006. 'Ludek' Maczka was part of this crew - but only in spirit. At age 78, Ludomir 'Ludek' Maczka passed away Jan. 30 this year while still planning another yacht trip around the world. Maczka was one of the only two yacht crew members (the other was exp leader Wojciech Jacobson) who finally, after 3 failed attempts, became the first to sail the North-West Passage from the west to the east in 1988, onboard Vagabonde II. According to Warsaw Voice, Ludek crossed the world's oceans 17 times, for a total of around 170,000 nautical miles. He became famous on his first 11-year sail around the world on his 9.8 m yacht Maria. Read more about this fascinating sailor and adventurer in the Warsaw Voice article in the links section below the images.)

The crew plans to write an English press release about their success shortly.

Last year, Henk De Velde reported, "This summer (2005) the northeast passage north of Russia was free of ice. On the other side, the Northwest passage, north of Canada, the ice did not disappear. The summer Arctic cap lies either east or west. This is changing every year and has to do with the positions of high and low pressure belt causing winds."

"From the east came two yachts. Kendall; a solo sailor with Astral Express - and Skip Novak; with Pelagic Australis. Both had to return. From the west came 4 yachts; Fine Tolerance wintered already last winter in Cambridge Bay, Jotun Arctic, a Norwegian yacht also wintered over, Cloud Nine and an Australian motoryacht; the Idlewild."

"They all got caught by the ice. One had to help the other. They got help from two Canadian icebreakers; Sir Wilfred Laurier and the big one Louis St Laurent. As far I can see only Idlewild came through. Fine Tolerance has propeller damage. Idlewild drifted for days on top of a small iceberg. They managed to get to Bellot Strait. I think the others will winter again somewhere in the Canadian Arctic desert."

Later that year, Gary Ramos reported:

“Minke 1, a Nova Scotian has been trying to go through the Northwest passage for three years, his boat is in a bay about 2 miles from mine. Fine Tolerance did get through with Idlewild, The ice damaged their prop and shaft but Phil have a spare prop and the Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker fixed the shaft. They had a bad time in the North Atlantic with storms.

They lost their life raft and the EPRIB went off, so a rescue was begun by the Canadian and Dutch navy, who located them. They were alright, and then they rolled the boat and finally made it to Bermuda. They plan on taking the boat to Florida for repairs.

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