Flanagan sets sail for Chukotka and beyond

by Adrian Flanagan/event media on 19 Jul 2007
The Alpha Global Expedition aims to achieve the first ever single-handed ‘vertical’ circumnavigation. British yachtsman, Adrian Flanagan departed from the south coast of England in October 2005 aboard his Stainless Steel sloop, ‘Barrabas’. He has sailed 26,000 miles to Alaska following a route westabout around Cape Horn. Adrian plans to complete the voyage in the summer of 2007 by making the first ever single-handed transit of the Arctic Ocean along Russia’s Northern Sea Route returning to the UK towards the end of August.

Last night (July 17th) at 14.30 Alaska time, 11.30pm UK time, Adrian Flanagan slipped his moorings from the Port of Nome and set sail for Chukotka, Russia. It is here in the north-eastern settlement town of Provideniya that his yacht Barrabas will be inspected prior to completing his attempt to sail the first ever single-handed vertical circumnavigation of the globe via the Russian Arctic.

In May 2006, the Alpha-Global Expedition contacted Roman Abramovich, governor of the Russian Far East region of Chukotka where the Northern Sea Route (NSR) begins, for much needed assistance in receiving the required permits for Adrian to travel along the NSR. Governor Abramovich generously agreed to help and representatives of his administration were in the process of trying to obtain those permits when circumstances required that the Expedition be put on hold for the winter.

Over the past few months, in preparation for the restart, those efforts were renewed and Governor Abramovich’s administration provided invaluable assistance in obtaining the necessary documents from the Transport Ministry’s Northern Sea Route Administration as well as the national and local divisions of the Federal Security Service.

Adrian’s account of his departure:

I finally got away from Nome at 1430 local time, three weeks to the day and almost to the hour since I arrived back in Alaska to prepare for the Arctic Phase. I had allocated myself exactly that, three weeks, to prepare. I could have got going sooner but the time was as much for mental preparation as for the various jobs and procedures that Barrabas needed done.

Winds are light and out of the west. The next three days look to be similarly fair. Provideniya is 200 miles across the northern part of the Bering Sea so I expect to make port sometime on Friday. However, I will be crossing the International Date Line so will warp forward 24 hours. It will be Saturday local in Provideniya, which gives me Sunday to rest from this first stage.

Barrabas and I need to become reacquainted. This short crossing should see to that. I was naturally anxious when I slipped my lines in Nome Harbour. The Crowley team saw me off and Joy Baker, the Harbour Master (is there such a thing as a Harbour Mistress?). I spoke at length with Louise on the eve of departure and I told her that part of the mental tuning is to stay in the moment - not to project back and certainly not forward. It’s a technique that works well for me and does much to still the worry that would otherwise be tugging uncomfortably.

A slight hiccup at the outset was the unwelcome discovery that the ship’s main GPS unit was not working. The instruments are wired into this so I was getting no display. I went to a handheld GPS back-up, then traced the problem to a section of cabling in the dark recesses of the lazarette. The protective sheathing had been breached and corrosion broken the core connection. I cut, cleaned, spliced and soldered, tried the unit and bingo, we picked up six satellites and Barrabas and I were back in business. I followed this with a meal of fried eggs, Malinda’s ‘historic’ fried bread, salami and wild Alaskan blueberries.

As I make my way towards Russia with the reassurance of having all the requisite permissions to hand, I have Roman Abramovich to thank. As Governor of Chukotka Province, Mr Abramovich has allowed his head of communications in Moscow, John Mann to act as liaison between the Alpha Global Expedition and the various ministries and departments of the Russian administration. For this I owe them an immeasurable debt of gratitude.

After motoring clear of Nome harbour which was in the lee, Barrabas seemed to settle comfortably back on the open water. I kept the engine running but not engaged for 24 hours - after nine months of standing I wanted to make sure she worked well and that the fix to the cutless bearings had held true. Had there been a problem, I would then have been close enough to Nome to return, if somewhat ignominiously to sort out the problem. As it was, the engine ran sweet as a nut.

Although I could have left Nome at an earlier date, I wanted to wait for a decent weather window. Usually winds are straight out of the west making getting to Provideniya a horrible beat into wind. Yesterday morning I spent six hours tacking back and forth and going precisely nowhere. Then, the wind backed to SSW and we were cruising, nose to target. Range to Provideniya as I write is 100 miles. These winds are expected to hold until late this evening. I should be able to close by 50 miles. I then go through the back and forth and nowhere routing for 5-6 hours while the winds veer north which should be enough to see me into port sometime Saturday (having jumped forward 24 hours after crossing the IDL).

5 hours decent sleep last night and I am feeling okay. My appetite has gone on holiday, destination unknown, but I’m putting that down to the process of getting my sea legs back. Maybe Russian food will go some way to luring it back…

The final countdown - July 16th, 2007

Barrabas is ready and I am ready, pending two deliveries - one, the final authorisation letter from the Russian authorities and the second, some replacement instruments which have been ordered up from California. Both items were supposed to have been here last week.

The fuel tanks are full as are the 108 20-litre jerry cans. I have put off loading the jerry cans until the instruments and letter arrive, which I expect on Monday. If they arrive, I will depart on Tuesday, three weeks to the day since I arrived here in Nome to prepare for the Arctic Phase and exactly in line with my scheduling. However, further delay beyond this and I would begin to see ‘mission creep’.

On Saturday I went to the A&C store out of town to provision - 60 litres of long life milk being the most essential purchase, plus tins of fruit, chilli beef, creamed corn, cheese, salami, butter, jams, biscuits, butter, margarine, tinned milk, energy bars, sweetner, paper towels (for mopping up oil and fuel spillage when I make filter changes on the engine) and fruit juices. I already had porridge oats, rice, tinned tuna and salmon together with other provisions good for 30 days already on board, not to mention the essential coffee, tea and drinking chocolate and assorted nuts and confectionary.

The new radar is working. I finally managed to sort out the communications issues I was having with the computers.

Yesterday, I did a large laundry load and was carrying my newly freshened socks and thermal under layers back to Barrabas in a thin canvas knapsack. The tide was out and Barrabas was sitting five feet below the top of the harbour wall. I swung the laundry onto the deck. With agonizing slowness, the bag landed on the port side block, bounced the wrong way and rolled with almost malicious intent towards the edge. I leapt on board, pulling my groin in the act of doing so. But too late. As I reached for the knapsack, it plopped into the harbour. I grabbed the knapsack from the oily sea by the scruff of its soaking neck and marched it and its contents back to the laundry room.

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