'Green, what a colour!' - after the North West Passage
by Blackwattle Studios on 15 Sep 2009
No more ice floes for a while David Thoreson
http://bluewaterstudios.com/
Last May, the expedition sailing yacht from Sailors for the Sea set out from Seattle to circumnavigation the Americas. Now,four months later, they have made it through the fabled North West Passage and have arrived at St Johns in Newfoundland, Canada, and their joy is palpable.
Dark night. Waning moon. Big stars. And over to starboard? Lights. Shadows. Headlands. Earth.
Landfall.
As every sailor knows, that never, ever, ever gets old.
Even so, it's better when you haven't seen it for a while. We hadn't seen it for a while. The coast of Labrador, along which we'd supposedly been sailing for several days, had been no more than a rumor.
Then: Dawn. High pressure had settled over the Maritimes. The crystal-clear morning light put a sharp, hard edge on the broad, wide vista; it was the sort of tint and glow that defines the angles and shadows in ways that are hard to describe. It made the world look fresh and clean.
Scrubbed anew.
Landfall.
A trio of headlands were lined up in a row, three solid chins of Kirk Douglas-like real estate, big pronounced jaws of land flecked with green.
Like, green. What a color. Has there ever been a color more underrated than green?
The coffee was the best coffee we ever tasted. The light was the cleanest light we ever saw. The birds wheeling overhead were the coolest birds that ever flew.
After all the waves and wind and drama and tension of the last ten days; after the final 1,800 miles of this journey from distant Seattle across a storm-tossed sea; after the icebergs and the cold and the barren, wild, unforgettable Arctic: Landfall.
Then everyone and everything had risen, including the sun and the wind. Big bullets of breeze came pulsing off the promontories. More whitecaps? More whitecaps. Fishing boats were working the inshore waters, right there off the famousGrand Banks. Look at it all! Buildings. Houses. A castle?
A bloody castle.
The helmsman pointed the boat into the breeze, setting the new course, straight for the coast, towards a lighthouse perched on a rock...it was a cleft in the cliffs, dark and severe, a supposed gap where there obviously was none. David Thoreson was peering through a camera lens; he stopped; posed a question.
'Are we going in that cut?' he wondered, the most improbable of queries.
Yeah, man, said Logan the helmsman, or something to that effect. We sure are.
Thoreson lifted his camera. 'Cool,' he said.
We motored into the cut, into the amazing, open harbor of St. John's, swung the bow into the wind. Down came the mainsail. Out came the fenders and docklines.
Cars. Skyscrapers. For heaven's sake, after weeks and weeks and weeks: A city. People strolling down a sidewalk. Parallel parking. Ocean Watch is feathered alongside a pier.
Moments later: Tied up. Secure. Stopped. Parked. Over.
We looked at each other. Took deep breaths. Laughed out loud.
Landfall, Newfoundland.
Landfall.
.................
The number of yachts who have negotiated the North West Passage this year is growing, but still small - single digits. On the way, photographer David Thoreson has taken amazing photos - but this journey is not just a junket.
The Around the America's voyage was launched on the premise that the continents of North America and South America are, in essence, large islands surrounded by a complex, fragile ocean environment that's at risk on countless fronts.
A major objective of the 13-month, 24,000 nautical-mile journey 'Around the America's' is to demonstrate the inter-connectedness of these seemingly independent continent-islands, and bring the message of necessary sustainability to coastal communities along the way.
The journey plan include negotiating the North West Passage in the northern hemisphere summer, and then rounding Cape Horn in the southern hemisphere summer
From now, travelling southwards, the crew will make several stops along the U.S. East Coast and in San Juan, Puerto Rico. From there, they'll embark on the longest voyage of the trip, a 3,500 nautical-mile passage across the fickle doldrums that dot the equator en route to the welcome destination of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
South of Rio, the crew will again enjoy the friendly, bustling ports of Punta del Este, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. But once south of 'B.A.' the landscape will again become rugged, as Ocean Watch calls at the remote Falkland Islands and enters the high, cold latitudes that define the coast of Patagonia before engaging Cape Horn. Sailing from east to west, against the strong, prevailing westerly winds of the Southern Ocean, the mighty Cape will offer a test every bit as challenging as the Northwest Passage.
Once north of Cape Horn, Ocean Watch will call at ports in Chile and Peru before stopping in the enchanting Galapagos Islands, then heading on to Costa Rica and Mexico before once again tying up in U.S. waters in the sunny enclave of San Diego. From there, it will be one last bash to windward, up the coast of California and back to Seattle, the city from which it all began.
That's the plan - so far so good, and now, for Cape Horn!
To learn more about Sailors for the Sea, join the organisation, or donate to their cause, click http://www.sailorsforthesea.org/!here
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