Posted: Jul 12, 2010 07:46 am EDT
The never ending sailor Henk de Velde is on his way to one of the most remote areas in the world. In the next couple of days he will reach the Aleutian islands in the Bering Strait.

Henk de Velde started Part 3 of his Never Ending Voyage - A Journey to the Edges of the World again May 10th on the South East coast of Japan. He used the first six weeks to sail North along the Japanese coast, then he cast of in to the Bering Sea in July. That’s when the weather is most likely to be kind to a sailor in this remote part of the world.

- I am asked so many times why I want to go to the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea is known for constant bad weather as seen on TV in the Deadliest Catch. But that's wintertime. You can compare seas all over the world with the latitude they are situated. The North Sea in Europe and the Sea of Norway are bad in winter as well. It does not mean you can't have bad weather in summertime. In the Bering Sea lies a high pressure area in summer.

Weather can be calm, foggy, wet, even some snow. Because of this and 24 hours daylight the colours of the Aleutians are sometimes surreal, De Velde explains.

On his Aleutians list to visit are the islands of Atta, Kiska and Atka.

- From there I sail north to Pribilov Islands and then to Dutch Harbor, False Bay, Kodiak, Homer which is hometown of the Deadliest Catch guys, Sewart and on to BC in Canada, says De Velde.

While some are watching the soccer World Cup, Henk is now closing in on Atta.

This part of his voyage will most definitely fall into the category Edges of the World. Every year more people visit Antarctica than the Aleutian islands, and every year more people climb Everest than setting foot on Attu.

- Yes, I know; more people look at the World Cup final but still a message from Juniper on her way to the Aleutian islands. 170 miles to go. Yesterday little wind, today reasonable as long it lasts. A high pressure ridge over this western part of the North Pacific. I don't make it before dark tomorrow so it will be Tuesday morning early, he says on his home page updated via Contact 5.


Henk de Velde was born in Holland January 12, 1949. His childhood dream was to become a captain and explorer. From the age of 10 until 14, he read all the books he could find on the subject. Starting out as deckhand at age 15, Henk worked in the Merchant Navy for 13 years and made Captain in 1978, with a master license for all ships in the Amsterdam Nautical Collage. "But after becoming a Captain I had to become an explorer," he told ExWeb.

Henk married Gini who also took part of his first journey. Their son was born in 1981 on Easter Island; the couple divorced 1984 in South Africa. Henk wrote 7 books, all in Dutch. He made two documentaries for Dutch TV. Austrian TV also produced 'Fire and Ice - the Flying Dutchman'.

Henk's other hobbies include riding motorbikes; he started with a 440 cc chopper and ended with a ZZR 1100 road bike. He gives lectures and talk shows about voyaging and life, with the message "Choose your own goal."

Henk first made waves on ExplorersWeb September 3, 2004 when disaster struck his Campina: "Ice floes clashed against each other constantly with a power enough to crack my ship," He reported. "Around 4 hours before darkness fell, the ice berg that we had been anchored to broke. We maneuvered Campina to a larger ice berg, between the floes."

"Then the flow twisted and a heavy iceberg pressed the boat against the wall of ice. We were crooked 10 degrees. The iceberg pressed the boat onto underwater ice. I heard an enormous cracking. We tied her up with long lines to the ice." Henk and his ice lots Boris, 72, were stuck in the ice wall of the Laptev sea.

The Northwest Passage proved impossible indeed, but Henk De Velde's "Impossible Journey" won a special mention in the 2004 ExWeb awards for his battle to the bitter end.

Henk de Velde had previously sailed around the world four times, three times non-stop and solo. The first trip lasted between 1978 and 1985… so Henk is known to take his time when out exploring. "The reason for traveling like this is to experience new things and enjoy life to the fullest," Henk said already back then.

After returning home from his "Impossible Journey" in 2004 - a sail attempt around the world via the "impossible" Northern seaway along the North East Passage above and along Siberia, Alaska, Cape Horn and Antarctica - Henk has now decided to go back out there - and stay out there. The Never Ending Voyage - A Journey to the Edges of the World had begun.

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