Fiona Sails the Northwest Passage in 2009

Thursday, October 6 – “ The Inner Reaches of the Northwest Passage ” Airline pilot, sailor and broadcaster, Captain Russell Roberts will ...

News report from the Orange County Review :  Come to the  Orange Historical Society's Research Center , 130 Caroline Street, at 7 p.m. A...

Russ Roberts' "The Inner Reaches of the Northwest Passage," is scheduled for Wed March 16 7PM at the Mariners' Museum in...

Click here for a YouTube video of Fiona in Resolute

Fiona arrived in Dutch Harbor, Alaska yesterday morning with her captain, Eric Forsyth, 77, the only person on board.  After the two remaini...

From the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder (September 17, 2009): Arctic sea ice reaches annual minimum ex...

Having returned from the "Summer of Cold" on the Northwest Passage, I am in the process of editing my journal, sorting the thousa...

Fiona arrived in Cambridge Bay in fine "shirtsleeve" weather Tuesday evening, just in time for Happy Hour. Sprague Theobald and ...

Saturday Fiona anchored in McClintock Bay and waited for the wind to moderate before pushing west early Sunday. Russ reported via SSB d...

Email from Russ Thursday August 20 after arriving in Gjoa Haven: "We arrived in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut this morning around 10AM. Rain...

Entry from Russ Roberts journal on 8/20/09: 46 miles to Gjoa Haven at 0815.  It will feel good to get there. Rae Strait is bumpy this A...

Entry from Russ Roberts' journal: Nice day - like a Caribbean cruise.  

The winds have shifted from the south to the north slowly pushing the ice in a more southwesterly direction and hopefully opening a passage...

From Russ Roberts' journal entry: 0400:  On watch.  Quiet.  Occasional whale songs.  In the last hour we've started a drift to the...

[Joe Waits photo] Sunday August 16, email from Russ: "FREEZING, sleet, wind, ice everywhere, like world's biggest game of Dodg...

Entry from Russ Roberts' journal: Due to lousy weather and increasing concentration of ice Eric called the Coast Guard to give them ou...

Fiona left Resolute Friday morning, 14 August, sailing south down Peel Sound. Progress Saturday was made more difficult with south winds a...

Fiona's Resolute departure was set for noon today.  At 0530 Eric woke us up, concerned about several big ice floes surrounding us (again...

Eric wanted to leave Saturday.  I had recommended leaving today, Thursday the 13th, in order to get down close to the ice.  That way we woul...

Here's the August 4th article from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. It shows the ice melting at a record pace. But, for Fiona...

entry from Russ Roberts journal: The Mounties, Carol and Ted, came down to the boat yesterday to tell us about the bear.  It had been in t...

"Russ, Russ, hurry up on deck!  Look behind you!" Eric called from the dingy.  I turned to see a polar bear swimming into the bay...

entry from Russ Roberts journal: Three times this morning we rousted out to reset the anchor.  The first time, at 0500, was when the ancho...

Resolute was established in 1947 as a weather station and military airfield. It is Canada's 2nd northernmost town with a population ju...

On Friday, August 7th, we awoke at 4:30 to someone "you-hooing" from shore. My first thought was, "Damn kids, don't they ...

From Russ Roberts journal: It is the 6th of August.  The days are ticking by.  I remember a couple of weeks ago, the whole boat not only d...

Fiona arrived in the small Inuit hamlet of Resolute the morning of Tuesday, 4 Aug. In an email from Russ this evening he writes, "We...

Entry from Russ Roberts' journal: We approach Resolute through 4/10 coverage pack ice at 4AM.  There is some confusion where the actua...

On August 2, Russ, Eric, and Joey visited Beechey Island where Sir John Franklin's Expedition wintered over 1845-46. Armed with Fiona...

Fiona is bound for Erebus and Terror Bay.  We should arrive tonight.  We will visit the gravesite of Sir John Franklin's first sailors t...

Fiona sailed from Baffin Bay into Lancaster Sound at 10:30 am 1 August. The water has been calm with enough wind to sail at 5 knots. ETA to...

Fiona was sailing at 4:00AM.  By 6:00PM the winds died again so we start to motor once more.  But, we did get an ice chart for Resolute whi...

It's the midnight watch.  We are becalmed at 74N/6430W.  Time to think.  I'm thinking we don't have enough fuel on board for thi...

The sails aren't a lot of help today.  The wind is very light. We tried to get some ice charts today via the Iridium telephone.  No jo...

We changed a squeeky, rattling engine belt this morning.  It powered the alternator and refrigerator compressor.  My job was to hold a wrenc...

Fiona departed Upernavik on 28 July bound for the entrance to Lancaster Sound with an August 1 ETA. Winds have been light resulting in more...

Today we put on 300 liters of diesel (about 79 gallons).  The tanks are now topped off. While in the Pisifik grocery store today I met the...

Fiona left Sisimiut on 24 July, sailing and motoring north toward Upernavik ("Springtime Place" in Greenlandic). The settlement i...

It is midnight.  The sun does not set tonight.  Fiona is at 70 degrees north [latitude].  More than twenty icebergs are in sight.  More keep...

Fiona is off Disko Island.  This is the birthplace of many of Greenland's largest, most spectacular icebergs due to the many glaciers t...

We are in Sisimuit, Greenland.  Fiona pulled in here to avoid continued beating into north winds and to top off the fuel (we need approximat...

Russ met the Fiona in Nuuk, Greenland on July 17. After spending a few days in harbor Fiona left Nuuk on Monday, July 20. She was under mo...