Location: UK to Svalbard on Hal, a 35 ft Halberg-Rassy sailing yacht.
Leader: Frances Wensley, Members: Gareth Watkins, plus occasional crew.
Objectives
Our aim is to sail Hal across the North Sea to Norway, up the west coast of Norway to Tromso and from Tromso across the Arctic Ocean to Svalbard. We plan to sail around the West Coast of Svalbard, where we expect most of the ice to be clear in July. If time and weather permit, we aim to sail as far as 80 degrees north, 600 miles from the North Pole and the most northerly latitude travelled by an Imperial College student. Our trip will start in March and over the course of three months, we aim to sail from England to Tromso via the Lofoten Islands. In early July we will leave Tromso for a four-week expedition aboard Hal to Svalbard, returning to Tromso in time for Fran to start her job in August and Gareth to return to work.
Dates: 3 April – 31 July 2015
Follow them on: halventures.wordpress.com
Route taken
12 April: Into the Arctic Circle
5 July: Our Adventures
12 July: Into the Barent’s Sea
13 July: Welcome to Svalbard (capital city Longyearbyen)
14 July: North Again
15 July: Sunshine in Kongsfjorden
16 July: Ny Alesund
17 July: The Sound of Icebergs
18 July: Magdalenefjorden
18 July: Ruins galore round Virgohamna
19 July: Sallyhamna
20 July: Up, up and away
21 July: I am the walrus
21 July: Birdwatching in Bellsund
Watch Drone vs Arctic Tern
22 July: Calypsobyen
24 July: Communism prevails
25 July: The end of the road . . . For some
3 August: Sail south ’til the butter defrosts
6 September: Lofoten, Gin and Tonic (Don’t tell Dr F)!
