Right now, two Brazilian sailboats are attempting to do what no other tour boat in Brazil has ever done: cross from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean across the top of the world, through the maze of frozen Arctic channels, a route known as the Northwest Passage and only a few seafarers dared to ask that.
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However, the double and unprecedented crossing, about 5,000 kilometers long, winding around (and not infrequently hindered by) floating blocks of ice, was a fluke, however, since the two sailboats were one of the BahiaUkraine Aleixo Belov , another from São Paulo, Beto Pandiani and FrancoBrazilian Igor Bely are not traveling together they are following more or less the same route and with the same destination, distant Greenland, where they intend to arrive early next month.
“We had the same project to traverse the Northwest Passage, but since our boats are very different, we couldn’t navigate together,” explains Pandiani, whose journey can be followed almost in real time through the expedition’s website, called the Polar Route click here to follow the route.
“So we decided that everyone would go the route at their own pace and that we would meet up on the way if that was possible, which fortunately happened for the second time,” adds the navigator.
Meeting between FrancoBrazilian Igor Bely, São Pauloborn Beto Pandiani and BahiaUkrainian Aleixo Belov
Image: Leonardo Papini/Disclosure
Encounter among the Eskimos
The second meeting of the first Brazilian sailors to make this Arctic crossing took place this Thursday in a remote Eskimo village in far northern Canada, marking the end of the first half of the voyage, which for both began earlier this month.
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It was a very pleasant reunion as the Belov is not only an admirable navigator but also has a crew that is almost entirely Bahian and partying everywhere. Even in the arctic ice!” Pandiani said over the internet.
Sea that freezes over in winter
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The crossing of the two Brazilian sailing boats in one of the most difficult and challenging seas on earth has so far been characterized by comings and goings (because the floating blocks of ice often force the boats to turn) and moments of tension and boredom sometimes it is too windy, sometimes it disappears the wind quite as is typical in the arctic summer, the only time of year this crossing can be undertaken as it freezes completely in winter.
That’s why the Brazilians are also running against the clock.
You have until the end of the first half of September to complete the trip.
Otherwise, your boats will be stuck in the frozen arctic winter sea, where temperatures drop to 50 degrees below zero.
Image: Alexandre Socci
“We have less than a month to get to the other side and we don’t know exactly what lies ahead,” says Pandiani, who has suffered more than his friend Belov for being on a much smaller boat and without any comfort sails.
Pedalpowered boat
Image: Alexandre Socci
The sailboat of the duo Beto Pandiani and Igor Bely is a small open catamaran, just seven meters long and weighing 400 kilos, equipped with two features to meet the peculiarities of this crossing that few sailors (until now no Brazilian) have already had the audacity to do.
Image: Alexandre Socci
One of them is a curious pedal system, similar to that used in pedal boats in lakes and ponds, that allows the sailboat to keep moving even when there is no wind, since the Brazilian boat has no motor.
Image: Alexandre Socci
The other feature is two minicabins in the form of capsules (which Pandiani blithely dubbed the “glove box”) where one can lie down only to sleep sailing conditions permitting…
coated thermal hull
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The sailboat from Bahia but Ukrainianborn and naturalized Brazilian Aleixo Belov is an 80ton boat with a twentymeter steel hull covered with a thick layer of foam to act as thermal insulation and protect the cold occupants.
In addition, it has a powerful engine and a cabin that mimics a real house, with room for the seven people it takes on board including a student, an oceanographer and the electrical engineer Igor Stelli, whose job it is to manage the ship to constantly monitor movement of blocks of ice across the sea on the internet to determine where the boat will attempt to pass in order to move forward.
I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve had to turn back and try another way. Navigating the Arctic is not easy,” says Belov, using the experience of someone who has sailed around the world five times.
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He recently even had to spend 10 days with his boat stuck on a large block of drift ice, waiting for a breach in the frozen sea to continue, as he says in a video released this week:
are not adventurers
Despite what they may look like, Belov, Pandiani, and Bely aren’t exactly adventurous in the strict sense of the word.
On the contrary, they are experienced navigators who know exactly what they are doing.
Among other things, Beto Pandiani, 64 years old and more than 40 at sea has sailed the entire American continent from top to bottom (in addition to Greenland and Antarctica), always with this small boat resembles a hobby cat.
Image: Alexandre Socci
“This is my favorite way to sail: feeling the wind on my face and the sea on my body,” he says.
Igor Bely, 38, was born and raised on a sailboat because his parents, both French, spent most of their lives on boats, particularly off the coast of Brazil, where they stayed for a long time when he was a child hence Igor considers himself Brazilian as he is French.
Biggest navigator in Brazil
Aleixo Belov, on the other hand, is 79 years old and holds the title of the Brazilian sailor who has sailed the most miles to date, with no less than five trips around the world, three of them alone in the boat.
If he manages to complete the Northwest Passage, which everything indicates, Belov will add another accomplishment to his impressive résumé as Brazil’s greatest navigator in terms of distance covered.
“Why don’t I stay at home?”
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However, Belov admits that age is already weighing on his travels especially this one, which has been quite cold, challenging and tiring.
“I don’t know why I don’t stay calm at home,” jokes the BahiaUkrainian, who spent five months sailing from Salvador to Alaska, where he began the Northwest Passage.
“People have been saying we’re catching a cold, but so far we’re going on, despite the ice stones on the way,” jokes the nearly eightyyearold sailor, who has five children, three grandchildren, one greatgrandchild and an unstoppable desire to live forever end of your days to sail.
a mythological route
The Northwest Passage is something of a mythological route for seafarers from all over the world: a tangle of islands and channels above the Arctic Circle, accessible only in the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, when the sea partially thaws and labyrinths form between floating blocks of ice. a recurring problem that Brazilians have faced since the beginning of the trip.
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Nothing stands in the way.
Ice everywhere, making the Northwest Passage one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
Only discovered in 1906
The terrible fame of the Northwest Passage precedes its own discovery, which, although ancient navigators already suspected its existence, took place only 116 years ago, in 1906, after a series of attempts, almost all tragic, with boats and men trapped in it arctic ice.
stage of terrible tragedies
The worst of all Northwest Passage tragedies occurred in the mid19th century and claimed the lives of all 128 crew members of two ships in an English fleet led by explorer John Franklin, who was sent out precisely to discover the passage already believed to exist exist. .
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The saga that Franklin and his men faced in their quest for survival after their boats were trapped in the ice resulted in one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of polar exploration, with desperate acts even of cannibalism click here to view it Amazing story to learn, hope it never happens again.
Even less so with the fearless Brazilian sailors who, for the first time, carry the Brazilian flag on the most difficult stretch of the infamous Arctic Ocean at the top of the world.