SAILING THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE IN A 43 FT GENTLEMAN’S CUTTER WAS THE FRUITION OF YEARS OF PLANNING FOR WILL STIRLING
Integrity set sail from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on 1 June bound for Alaska via Greenland and Arctic Canada. It was a Thursday. With naval superstitions rife among the crew and the trouble of folklore’s HMS Friday, there was no option to delay.
Having misdiagnosed one of several narrow channel entrances passing between two low lying islands and out onto the sea, we almost encountered the sea bed within a mile of departure port. Running aground on mud is not too bad, rocks tend to have a more serious impact.
Having overseen various sailing mishaps and therefore accustomed as I am to general embarrassment and small scale humiliation, a call for help so close to the start would have been a little difficult to wear with grace. But the misadventure was soon forgotten and by dark we were roaring up the Nova Scotian coast. The crew of four divided into two watches; one to steer and one to pump.
By the time that the small electric bilge pump had packed up and the rebuilt engine-driven emergency pump had broken down, a rota of the off-watch team clearing the well once every 10 minutes with the manual pump was in place. By the end of everyone’s first night out at sea, we’d done 20 miles of the 6,000 ahead. There was no sickness on board, but a general distaste for the job in hand.
THOROUGH TRIALS
Integrity is a replica of a Victorian cutter circa 1880, designed and built at our small Plymouth shipyard in 2012 in seasoned English oak, copper and bronze with a heavy dose of lead underneath. Five years of use in all seasons within hailing distance of the shipyard had allowed us to test and improve the boat, but also to teach ourselves how to sail her.
Following the extended Plymouth-based sea trials, Integrity spent five years in Iceland with a number of summer voyages to Jan Mayen and East Greenland, while the Northwest Passage expedition was set for 2023.
These years based in northern Iceland brought a different type of boat preparation and training. Each successful voyage cultivated a deepening assurance in the qualities of the boat and the crews and, crucially, experience of navigation in ice. We also learned about ourselves; having to deal with the boat and manage our own behaviour when tired, cold, hungry and at times frightened.
After each voyage spares and repairs were considered in two categories: the immediate in order to make the boat safe after an incident, and the onward in order to have the ability to continue a journey. We had to be sure of our own ability to service, maintain and repair the boat. Time in Iceland before and after each excursion also brought another element
