Posted: Jun 14, 2005 01:25 pm EDT
April 26 this year, Kiwi Graeme Kendall, 58, left to sail solo, non-stop around the world via the Northwest Passage - a 6 month, 40,000km voyage through the Arctic Circle and back. Graeme skippers the "Astral Express" a 12.5m cruising yacht with a reinforced bow and a steel retractable keel.

Here's the latest from the skipper's cabin:

Update 07/06/2005 - A transcript of a message received the 12th of June:

"Have had a good week, with better than average daily runs, although today is quiet. I have just passed a quarter of the way around the World and have Mauritius Islands at 600 miles, Madagascar at 950 and Cape of Good Hope at 2300 which is about 14 days away. I can almost hear the drums.

Now 29 days sailing from Torres Strait. What a huge ocean this is. There's definitely plenty of water in the world. If a quarter of a year's global military expenditure was spent on solar powered desalination plants we would never see a fresh water shortage in the world again. I guess it's all a matter of priority."

Passing Cape Town will be a rewarding experience

"The Summer Arctic ice forecasts look favourable which is encouraging at this stage. I have carried out some preventative maintenance and got the boat ship-shape and ready for the challenges that lay ahead. Passing Cape Town will be a rewarding experience. Thanks for the emails. They do get through and are read with pride and anticipation. GK."

Kendall has cruised and raced over 100,000 nautical miles over the past 35 years, including the Melbourne-Osaka two-handed race and sailing with Peter Blake.

The North West Passage sea route crosses over the top of North America. Blocked with ice for over 11 months of the year there is only a small window each summer, and then sometimes even no window at all.

Brief history of the Northwest passage courtesy of "Fine Tolerance':

*1576 ..... Frobisher made his first voyage in search of a North West Passage over the top of the Americas.
*1845-1848 ..... After many famous explorers had tried and failed Franklin on his third attempt disappeared with all 134 hands. His wife and the English government spent the next 8 years attempting to find him during which time much of the eastern entrance was mapped.
*1903-1906 ..... The 'Gjoa' , a converted fishing boat skippered by Roald Amundsen, became the first boat the transit the Passage, over three hundred years after the first attempts had been made. This is the same Amundsen the became the first man to the South Pole.
*1940-1944 ..... The 'St Roch', a Royal Canadian Mounted Police vessel became the first vessel to complete the passage in one season and the first vessel to pass through both ways.
*1969 ..... Exxon's specially modified oil tanker, the 'Manhattan' became the first commercial vessel to transit the passage. Accompanied by two ice breakers and at a cost of ten's of millions of dollars it symbolically took on one barrel of oil. As of 2004 it remains the only commercial vessel to make the passage.
*1977 ..... The Belgian, Willie de Roos, sailing his 44 ft steel sailboat became the first sailboat to transit the passage and completing the voyage in one season.
*1995 .... 'Dove' a 27ft steel sailboat, built and skippered by Winston Bushnell and with two friends as crew also completed the voyage in one season becoming the fifth boat in history to do so.
*2003 .... On the 100th anniversary of 'Gjoa' first ever transit seven vessels attempted the passage. Two made it through successfully. Three were caught in the ice where they have been for the past 10 months.

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