Sailing full North
Published on 14.07.2011 - Crossing the Arctic Ocean
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Observatory in Boint Barrow.
© NOAA
Catamaran Ti Babouche and her two sailors have finally departed for the great adventure : reaching the North Pole first and then trying to reach the Svalbard Archipelago.
After a slow departure and a hazardous river descent, Sébastien Roubinet and André Rodolphe have reached Point Barrow. Point Barrow (or Nuvuk) is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Barrow. It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W. The distance to the North Pole is 1,122 nautical miles (1,291 terrestrial miles, 2,078 km), or 40 miles (64 km) further than the distance from Murchison Promontory, Nunavut to the Pole.
Point Barrow is also an important geographical landmark, marking the limit between two marginal seas of the Arctic, the Chukchi Sea on its western side and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern.
There they had to recover a satphone. And of course they had also to do the last checking of all the technical devices and material.
We may recall here that these two young french adventurers are off for more than two months and in case of serious problems, it will be very hazardous (and well costly) for a company to go and pick them up on the ice where they are.
They left Point Barrow yesterday 13 July. Cap plein Nord !
