Press Release
Saturday September 1st 2001
Bering Strait, Alaska.

Irish expedition completes the elusive Northwest Passage.

The Irish Sailing Boat "Northabout" entered the Bering Strait today (Saturday, September 1st) at 04.00 am local time, thus completing the first Irish navigation of the historic Northwest Passage. The voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through the ice clogged maze of islands and peninsulas of the Canadian Arctic, was completed in a very fast time of 24 days from sailing in to Lancaster Sound off Baffin Bay on August 7th to reaching the Bering Strait, Alaska today Sept 1st.

The Northwest Passage is a historic route across the top of the world and early European explorers hoped the passage would open up a new route to the Orient. The efforts to find a new way through the ice to the Pacific took hundreds of years and turned into one of the greatest sagas in the history of exploration. Without success, dozens of ships and men headed into thefrozen arctic often for many years in a fraught quest that transfixed public attention. The culmination was the disappearance of the Franklin Expedition and the loss of all hands in the mid 1840's. Because of the tortuous nature of the route and the ever-present dangers to boats posed by pack ice, the Northwest Passage is seldom traversed to this day.

The expedition leader Paddy Barry from Monkstown and skipper Jarlath Cunnane from Co Mayo said: "We have surpassed our greatest expectations. There are very few classic sailing routes left in the world as redolent with history and as rarely sailed as the Northwest Passage. And even with today's technology, it still remains a huge challenge. The Arctic ice has swallowed ships for centuries and continues to do so to this day - which is why so few boats now even make the attempt. We planned well, and working from first class information with a spirited and competent team, we met all the challenges presented. We got good breaks from the weather and managed to stay one step ahead of the ever-present pack ice."

Jarlath Cunnane, who supervised the building of 'Northabout' at Knock, said the 47 foot boat did all that was asked of her, and stood up well to the wind and ice. Her specially constructed aluminium hull and four-foot minimum draft allowed the vessel make good progress in shallow leads of water through thick ice. Jarlath praised the crew for what was an adventurous and demanding voyage and included in his praise the team members who crewed the first leg from Westport to Ilulisat, Greenland. (See crew list below).

The expedition left Westport on June 23rd, crossed the Atlantic to Cape Farewell in Greenland, and sailed north up the west coast of Greenland hiking and climbing en route. Northabout then headed through the ice packed waters of Melville Bay (a graveyard of countless ships over the centuries) after stopping at the remote island of Kuvlordssuaq, where Frank Nugent and Paddy Barry climbed its famous mountain - the Devils Thumb. The expedition's farthest north was 77°30' N at Qaanaaq or Thule from where they sailed west across Baffin Bay for North America, entering Lancaster Sound and the Northwest Passage proper on the cold clear morning of August 7th.

Challenges encountered en route included the boat being stuck in ice with no apparent way out, dense fog making ice navigation extremely difficult and heavy weather. Many fascinating places were visited, whales and polar bears were sighted and great contacts made with local people.

Paddy Barry, with many of the expedition members, has made a number of famous voyages in his Galway Hooker, the St Patrick, to Greenland, Spitzbergen and New York. Frank Nugent from Palmerstown, who with Barry and Cunnane, previously retraced the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1997, and who accompanied Dawson Stelfox, to the second step on Everest's North ridge in May 1993, said it was a great to be a member of such a crew. They did all that was asked in keeping up the great Irish Arctic sailing tradition, whose figures included Capt Francis Crozier, Banbridge Co.Down, who lost his life on the infamous Franklin expedition, Robert McClure of Wexford, who made the very first passage by land and sea in 1854, and Sir Leopold McClintock from Dundalk who uncovered the fate of the Franklin Expedition in 1858 and was one of the first great polar land travellers..

The other members of the crew who completed the Northwest Passage are Dr. Michael Brogan, GP from Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo and a native of Kinvara - Co Galway, Mr. Kevin Cronin an accountant from Foxrock Co. Dublin, and Gearoid O Riain, an IT Project Manager from Dun Laoghaire, Mr. Terry Irvine of Co Antrim and John Murray, filmmaker, of Greystones, Co Wicklow who is producing a documentary to be shown on RTE next year.

The support crew, who sailed Northabout across the Atlantic from Westport to Greenland, were Dubliners Pat Redmond, Harry Connolly, Cathal De Barra and Galway man Eoin Coyle and special mention also to our Irish radio contact Brendan Minish.

Further information, detailed biogs and progress reports can be obtained on the expedition website www.northabout.com or via e-mail northabout@tradcentral.com