The Irish adventurers hoping to navigate the North East Passage have hit ice on their 7,000-mile journey across the roof of Asia.
"Global warming has not yet hit Siberia," skipper Jarlath Cunnane from Mayo told The Irish Times yesterday. He confirmed that the expedition now intends to head south for safety and try to continue the journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic next season.
All seven Irish crew and their Russian pilot are in "good spirits" on board their ice-strengthened aluminium vessel, Northabout, and have been taking another vessel, the Dutch-owned Campina, in tow for several days.
The Dutch crew were rescued by the Irish sailors when their yacht suffered ice damage to its rudder and lost its steering.
The Irish sailors were close to their half-way point across the Arctic Ocean when the seas began to freeze earlier than anticipated.
"Apart from there being heavy polar pack ice all ahead, and no way round, the sea turned to grease ice, mushy and 50mm thick, on Monday night," the expedition leader, Mr Paddy Barry, said. Having encountered "young ice", the next stage would be "total freeze-up", he predicted.
Mr Barry, the Dublin civil engineer and Arctic sailor who led a similar expedition through the North West Passage in 2001 on Northabout, said it was one of the worst ice years in recent times.
The crew had hoped to have a weather window until the end of this month to complete their journey to Norway, before heading back to Mayo.
"The sun is shining, the mountains inland have a lovely coat of fresh snow and the sun is sparkling on the sea and icefloes around us," he said.
On board with Mr Barry and the skipper, Mr Jarlath Cunnane, who built the vessel in his native Mayo, are Mr Kevin Cronin, a Dublin accountant; Dr Michael Brogan from Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, who is ship's doctor; his brother Colm from Kinvara, Co Galway, who is a fluent Russian speaker; Mr Rory Casey from Castlebar, Co Mayo, who is in charge of communications; Mr Gary Finnegan from Dunboyne, Co Meath, the expedition's cameraman; and Russian ice pilot Mr Vladislav Lashkevich from Moscow.
The crew set out from Ireland in July and joined Mr Barry in Anadyr in north-east Russia. He had already sailed the vessel some 1,300 miles across the Gulf of Alaska with another Irish crew. The expedition's radio base has been handled at home by Mr Brendan Minish in Castlebar.
The Irish vessel is currently on a 350-mile journey south to Khatanga, a small river port in the northern Russian Federation. The crew hopes to organise a lift out and arrange for the vessel to be laid up for the winter. They will then travel to Moscow and fly home.
An alternative to this plan is a "sea lift" from a 30,000-tonne freighter in the area, but this is "as likely as the Dublin-Cork train stopping for a hitch-hiker", Mr Barry said.
"In the Russian Arctic, all things are possible. In these conditions we are fortunate in having a strong crew in good heart and a sound boat."
The North East Passage Expedition's progress can be followed on www.northabout.com
