POLISH-SWEDISH (or SWEDISH-POLISH)
ARCTIC EXPEDITION `2011

BY SMALL YACHT ("ANNA") ALONG THE COAST

OF NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, YUKON (CANADA),

ALASKA (USA)

AND CHUKOTKA (RUSSIA)

Map with the route of our sailing

ROUTE OF SAILING:

Start: in the begining of July from the port of Inuvik in Canada, near the mouth of the McKenzie River (there is the place where our yacht overwintered after sailing from Greenland by the famed North-West Passage in 2010).

End: in the end of September  in the port of Sand Point, Alaska (USA).

In the meantime:

- in Canada: Inuvik, 3 days on Mackenzie River, village Tuktoyaktuk, Pelly Island, Herschel Island

- in Northern Alaska (USA): Demarcation Bay, Barrow

- in Russia: Wrangel Island, Pevek, Kolichinskaya Buhta, village Enurmino, Provideniya

- in Alaska and Aleuts: Nome, village Teller, Dutch Harbour/Unalaska, King Cove, Bear Bay, Otter Bay, Beaver Bay, Sand Point

BRIEFLY ABOUT THE EXPEDITION:

The Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea are an extremely difficult nautical area where we need to break through the ice fields, wrestle with variable and unpredictable weather, and when something happened, it is rather hardly count on any help, because simply no one sails there.

This is a very big sailing challenge, which in our case will be the continuation of famous North-West Passage (sea route from Greenland to the Alaska in the straits over northern Canada) where we were sailing in summer 2010. This time we want to reach even more difficult places for sailing, forgotten by civilization, often completely unexplored, which are “the white spot” on the travel map of the world.

WHEN:

July-October 2011 (this period is imposed by ice and wind situation in the areas of interest to us)

THE CREW:

Monika Witkowska from Poland and Börje Ivarsson from Sweden who will sail on the yacht „Anna” adapted to the arctic conditions.


Börje Ivarsson –  owner of yacht “Anna” and captain of her. In every day life he runs a small family company (the flower industry),  however few months of every year he devotes to sailing, mainly in the Arctic areas. When he bought "Anna" in 1980, he sailed around the world and last couple years he spent for sailing along Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland and in the summer 2010 he did the main part of North-West Passage (from Greenland to Inuvik in North Canada). Another his hobbies are: hiking, tours on the skis, snowboarding, free diving, hunting and fishing.

His personal website: www.borjesailing.se

Monika Witkowska is traveler (more than 150 visited countries, also as a backpacker), member of many globtroter, climbing, diving and  scientific expeditions, but the most important is that she is also sailor (sailing on all oceans, also around Cape Horn and in ice-condition in Antarctic and Arctic).

Professionally: a journalist who writes the articles about travel and outdoor activities in travel magazines and daily newspapers. The author of several books on travel and saling subject.

More information about Monika can be found on her personal website: www.monikawitkowska.pl (general info) and www.monikawitowska.pl/blog/ (travel blogs)

THE YACHT:

Shortly about "Anna":

Year of launching:                 1980
Home port:                 Varberg (Sweden)
Owner:                     Börje Ivarsson
(Swedish Kryssarklubben)

Lenght:                        10,5 m (35 feet)
Draught:                       1,6 m (5 feet)
Hull:                              steel
(thinckness - 4-6 mm)
Sails:                            80 sq m  (type: jol)
Engine:                            Yammar, 35 KM
Max. number of crew:              5-6