Tim Riley & Carol Osborne

Some might say that an east-to-west transit of the Northwest Passage is no longer particularly unusual or exploratory, but the two-handed passage made by new OCC members Tim Riley and Carol Osborne as recounted on their blog www.yachtlumina.co.uk is more than worthy of recognition. They explored the west coast of Norway as far north as Svalbard. After crossing from Scotland to Greenland they cruised the west coast of Greenland to Uper navik before crossing Baffin Bay to Pond Inlet to begin the transit proper. It wasn’t long before they encountered serious ice. With commendable persistence and good seamanship they reached Nome in mid-September, having hand-steered from Cambridge Bay after their autopilot failed. Tim remarks, ‘Four-hour watches are not too bad double-handed once you get used to it but when you have no autopilot it is very tiring’.