High Latitude Sailing - Book of the Week

Jon and SV Explore North - high and dry in the Arctic SW

Personally I am a warm-water girl, loving the leap into the briny almost as much as the sail, but maybe that's why I just love reading about those who dare to sail in the High Latitudes. Now Climate Change has (sadly) made the high latitudes more and more accessible for adventurous sailors.

High Latitude Sailing © SW

While every year more and more sailors venture in to areas like the North West Passage on their own keel, there has been little to guide them except the tales of those who went before.

Now the first book on how to sail the High Latitudes is available on Kindle.

'It is not without risks to sail in the high latitudes, but the rewards are far greater – given you prepare our self, the crew and the boat in the best possible way. This is what this book is about,' says Jon Amtrup, Norwegian sailor and journalist and the author of this book, 'High Latitude Sailing – How to sail in the cold waters of the world'.

Bob Shepton, Tillman Award winner, YJA Apollo Yachtsman of the Year 2013 and one of the most experienced Arctic sailors around, have also contributed to the book. Last week Shepton published his biography 'Addicted to Adventure – between rocks and cold places' - so the 79 year young reverend has been very busy. He now prepares for yet another Sail & Climb trip to Greenland this summer.

Jon Amtrup has circumnavigated Svalbard, crossed the Atlantic twice and the North Sea ten times, and cruised extensively in the high latitudes along the Norwegian coast summer and winter. He is the author of Sail to Svalbard, Harbour Guide Bergen-Kirkenes and the authorized sailing biography of HMK Harald V of Norway. Amtrup is a member of The Explorers Club and Royal Geographical Society.

The book is very practical and offers how-to advice on a number of different themes such as how to prepare your boat, anchors, equipment, clothes, areas and weather.

'Our hope is to inspire and prepare the ones who want to sail in areas few seldom explore or to use the boat all year round in colder climates,' says Jon Amtrup.

The Polar Circumnavigators Trond Aasvoll and Elena Solovyeva hava also contributed with insight on the North West Passage and the North East Passage respectively.

The book is now launched as Kindle edition on Amazon