New RTW Route

[SVAspen]

As pointed out, these are not really new routes. If you would like to join a Rally doing the NWP check this out:
Blue Planet Odyssey Route & Itinerary (2014-2017) | Blue Planet Odyssey

(I have no financial connections with this)

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by SVAspen

As pointed out, these are not really new routes...

Are you sure? Has anyone ever sailed around the world via the Northwest Passage?

[cwyckham]

I just saw a great presentation by Richard Hudson of the 50' steel schooner Assuma (www.assuma.com) at the Vancouver Bluewater Cruising Association meeting. He went through the NW Passage last summer. The really interesting thing was that though there are some interesting challenges due to all the fog, the real problems seems to be that there is a choke point almost exactly at the center that doesn't free up until late August. This means that you end up having to move very quickly after this point to get through the Bering or Davis Straight before the season gets too late.

The actual passage seemed very doable, but you end up in the North Atlantic of North Pacific much later than many would choose (late September) and have to get south fast.

He said about six private sailboats went through last summer in each direction and one, a South African boat, was circumnavigating.

[captain58sailin]

Back in '95, there was a Japanese cruiser who was launching his vessel after he hauled his vessel out in Barrow after coming through the NW passage, he just wintered his vessel in Barrow, then in July of '95 relaunched his vessel and went on his merry way south. The ice pack moves a lot and because you have an open lead one day, doesn't mean it will be there the next. If you are going out Dutch Harbor way, do plan your weather, like Capt. Phil, I have worked out that way plenty over the years and saw far more +100 knot blows than I wanted. The summer can be quite nice, it is the exception rather than the rule. During my first attempt a circumnavigation we left Alaska and went south in the fall, and jumped off from San Diego to the Marquesas and spent the winter island hopping, which we enjoyed very much, and then turned north again for Alaska in the next fall, never did make the complete RTW, since then I have worked on the water almost everywhere except the far, far east, which is on my list. When we take off next time, it will be for island hopping in the south pacific and see where the mood moves us from there.

[GordMay]

Ship navigation in Canada's Arctic will change

A new report [1], from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), is shedding insights on what marine navigability could look like, if our previously frozen Arctic opens up, a consequence of human-induced climate change taking a toll on this part of the planet, at a greater rate than anywhere else [2].

The new report points to a more accessible Arctic, that will affect trade and transportation, for sure. Other specific topics include maritime disaster preparedness, food security, and economic development.

According to the study, between 2010–2019, average atmospheric temperatures were 1.1°C warmer than temperatures from 1850–1900 so the study’s projections of a 2°C warmer world could mean the Beaufort Sea would be navigable for up to 200 days during the year.

The study also says that there is even the chance that temperatures could rise 4°C above the pre-industrial baseline. This would make the Arctic significantly more accessible to marine vessels, exacerbating many of the forecasted issues.

There are both positive and negative impacts to consider, and all of these consequences need to be discussed, because climate models are indicating that sea ice in the Canadian Arctic is rapidly declining—actually, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as we first thought. [2, 3, & 4]

For example, shipping companies will gain from open waters, particularly if they’re willing to take more risks. Increased waterways could provide routes to resupply northern Canadian communities too, and if this happens more than once a year, it has significant implications on local health outcomes, and reduces emissions, since marine transportation can have a lower carbon footprint than air shipments. And, as economic development is concerned, a region like Tuktoyaktuk could become a busier trade and transportation corridor, which would require the construction of new interior roads.

Notwithstanding, the negative effects are the most salient. In their report, the ECCC draws attention to increased pollution, that will alter ecosystems, and they also comment on how physical changes to the environment will pose new challenges for coastal communities, as shifting wind and wave conditions affect infrastructure development in this already harsh environment.

The Canada’s Changing Climate Report [2] states that since 1948 annual average temperatures in Canada have increased by 1.7°C and 2.3°C in Northern Canada, whereas the average global temperature on Earth has increased by approximately 0.8°C since 1880 according to NASA.


"Previous calculations of sea ice thickness are based on a snow map last updated 20 years ago," Robbie Mallett, the lead author of a study [3] from the University College London, said in a UCL press release [4]. "Because sea ice has begun forming later and later in the year, the snow on top has less time to accumulate. Our calculations account for this declining snow depth for the first time, and suggest the sea ice is thinning faster than we thought."

[1] “Impact of 1, 2 and 4 °C of global warming on ship navigation in the Canadian Arctic” ~ by Lawrence R. Mudryk et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01087-6

[2] “National Issues Report” ~ June 2021
➥ https://changingclimate.ca/national-issues/

[3] “Faster decline and higher variability in the sea ice thickness of the marginal Arctic seas when accounting for dynamic snow cover” ~ by Robbie D. C. Mallett et al
➥ https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/2429/2021/

[4] “Arctic sea ice thinning faster than expected” ~ 4 June 2021
➥ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/jun/...aster-expected