Experiences

The Allures 44 Opale has crossed the Northwest Passage: 1/5 - History of a mythical route

The success of this 4500-mile route is the culmination of years of passion for sailing in the Far North on the part of Marc Pédeau and Bénédicte Michel, the unassuming authors of this achievement. Before going into more detail on the story of this crossing, let's first look at the conquest of this famous passage, endowed with mythical status in the history of navigation.

In August 2019, the Allures 44 Opale crossed the Northwest Passage,
a mythical passage in the history of navigation
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‍Thequestion of crossing the Northwest Passage has long been central to the community of European navigators and explorers, who were convinced that they could reach Asia by bypassing the American continent to the north.For three hundred years, most of those who ventured from the North Atlantic into these waters bordering the islands of far northern Canada to the east, then the Alaskan coast to the west, were guided by economic considerations and most often saw their enterprise financed by their respective states.

Although it alone represents a journey of 4,500 miles, three times the distance across the Atlantic Ocean, the Northwest Passage is in fact the shortest route between Europe and the Far East, if we consider that, with 8,500 miles from London to Tokyo, this maritime route represents a saving of 3,000 miles compared with the route via the Suez Canal (11,500 miles) and over 4,000 miles compared with the route via the Panama Canal (12,600 miles). Many of these explorers, no matter how renowned, and even though they led expeditions that were heavily manned and equipped with ships, were unsuccessful. More often than not, they were overcome by ice, hunger or scurvy, not to mention other difficulties linked to imprecise geographical knowledge and the errors of cartographic science, still in its infancy from the ^17th to the ^19th century.
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So it is with Henry Hudson
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In 1611, he was convinced he had reached the shores of Asia, when he came upon the immense bay to which he gave his name, and where he eventually lost his mind and his life, ending up abandoned in a rowboat after a mutiny. Baffin's first attempt at adventure was in 1615, when he explored the northern part of what is now Hudson Bay, but failed to find the western route - which did exist. Then, in a second attempt the following year (1616), he meticulously explored the Davis Strait between Greenland and Canada (the northern part of which was renamed the Baffin Sea in his honor), and finally convinced himself that such a passage was a pipe dream.

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Baffin's mistake was not to enter Lancaster Sound, the wide channel facing Greenland's west coast (on the western shore of the Baffin Sea) and leading very indirectly westwards - but at least it survived both expeditions.

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Captain Cook's third voyage
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One hundred and sixty years later, Englishman James Cook made the search for this famous Northwest Passage the focus of his third and final expedition, from 1776 to 1778. The glorious captain, explorer and cartographer had the distinction, compared to his peers, of attempting the route in a west-east direction, exploring the American West Coast in the process. Cook set out in search of a strait and did not aim to bypass Alaska and the Aleutians to the north. He was misled by a Russian map published in 1773 by the German academician Jacob von Stählin, which was highly speculative in that it depicted Alaska as an island separated from America by a wide strait.

With no passage available to his ships Discovery and Resolution, and soon confronted with the cruel reality of the ice age, Cook had to give up: he headed west, then across the Pacific to Hawaii and the Sandwich Islands, where the explorer died in 1779 without ever having seen his native land again.

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John Franklin Expedition

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Another major conquest project that ended badly, even catastrophically, was the Franklin expedition, from 1845 to 1846. Setting out from London at the head of two ships and 130 sailors, all well prepared for the ardors of the Far North, John Franklin tried to find the long-awaited route via the already famous Lancaster Sound, but in April 1846, the ice trap closed in on his two ships Terror and Erebus, blocked by the pack ice for over a year. With Franklin himself and over twenty men dead, the survivors, led by Crozier, left the ships and attempted to head south, but in vain. The loss of this expedition was a failure for Victorian England and its Admiralty, but it also led to unexpected advances in the mapping of these lost territories, which were examined by several relief expeditions.

Scurvy, disease, cannibalism, or simply the cold: conjectures about the causes of the loss of these men and of several members of the expeditions launched to their rescue have been vivid, to the point where, in 2016, the Franklin expedition was still giving rise to archaeological research around the remains of the crew, then the wrecks of the two ships, found in scattered order between Beechey Island, on Lancaster Sound, and the outskirts of King William Island, 300 km further south.

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*Roald Amundsen explores the Northwest Passage*

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Roald Amundsen Expedition

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It was finally with the 20th century and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen that the North-West Passage was delivered. This expedition was conducted between 1903 and 1905; the future winner of the South Pole (in 1911) was at the head of a reduced crew and aboard a small meters boat - the Gjøa - which gave its name to Gjøa Haven, the shelter where he wisely decided to winter. This "light" option (the possible equivalent of alpine style for mountain lovers) proved to be the right one, enabling Amundsen not only to triumph over this major difficulty and thus open up a new sea route, but also to deepen Western knowledge of Inuit culture, while carrying out scientific observations relating to the North Magnetic Pole. On this expedition, Amundsen was the first to demonstrate that the North Magnetic Pole does not have a permanent geographical position, but moves regularly (note 1).

Having joined up with an American whaler from the West Coast on August 26, 1905, Amundsen can soberly mention in the Gjøa's logbook:

‍"The Northwest Passage issue is resolved".

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What the explorer doesn't know is that this feat will fan the flames of dreams of the Great North among many amateur sailors, to the extent that, at the end of 2019, exactly 313 boats of all kinds - from sailing boats to icebreakers - had been counted to have crossed the Northwest Passage since the beginning of the 20th century. Of these, 180 boats have attempted to cross the famous passage since 2010, and 23 in 2019 alone.

This growing traffic is the sign of a strong craze for this maritime route which, before inevitably becoming a regular trade route in the future, has in recent years become a popular destination, now offered by specialized cruise operators and on which more and more intrepid people are venturing, sometimes unwittingly, on jet skis, kayaks or other rowing skiffs, counting on the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker to ensure their safety in the event of an incident.

We'll soon see that Marc Pédeau and Bénédicte Michel, who successfully crossed the Northwest Passage in August 2019 aboard their Allures 44 Opale and made it all the way to the Pacific without any notable incident, thanks to their determination to make their way through the maze of islands, bays and channels that this passage actually is, are not to be classed among the inconsistent.

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