More than two years after the first Irish navigation of the hazardous North-West Passage, skipper Paddy Barry is returning to snow and ice again. This time, the target is the North-East Passage across Asia's roof from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean.
The tranquil shores of Killary fjord under a snow-capped Mweelrea on the Galway-Mayo border was the venue yesterday for one of the expedition's first meetings.
Sailing with Mr Barry, a Dublin engineer, will be Mayo boatbuilder and skipper, Jarlath Cunnane, Galway doctor Mick Brogan, his brother and fluent Russian speaker, Colm Brogan, information technologist, Gearóid Ó Riain, accountant Kevin Cronin and film-maker, John Murray - all three of whom are Dublin-based. The group will also take an ice pilot as part of their permit conditions from the Russian authorities.
Most of the group were crew members on the successful North-West Passage voyage from June to September, 2001, when they took the 47-foot ice-strengthened boat, Northabout from Rosmoney, Co Mayo, via Greenland and Arctic Canada to Nome in Alaska. The vessel is currently in British Columbia, and, as Jarlath Cunnane, quipped yesterday, this latest adventure is "just an excuse to bring the boat home!"
Paddy Barry, skipper of the first Galway hooker to cross the Atlantic, has already sailed to the edge of the Polar ice pack. He was a participant with Jarlath Cunnane in the 1997 South Aris recreation of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic rescue from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Another member of the South Aris team, Kerry mountaineer Mike Barry, is currently trekking across Antarctica in a bid to become the first Irishman to walk to the South Pole.
Just as the North-West Passage proved a challenge for centuries, the North-East passage has long tantalised explorers. It was first navigated by the Swedish sailor Nordenskold over two seasons from 1878 to 1880, and Roald Amundsen also completed it after his historic trek to the South Pole.
"Several Soviet ice-breakers did parts of it in the 1930s in a bid to make new supply routes on the northern coast," Paddy Barry told The Irish Times. However, less than half a dozen yachts - including some sailed by a number of Russians, French sailor Eric Brossier and the German Arved Fuchs - have completed the circumnavigation successfully.
The Northabout will be delivered to Provideniya in the Chukotka province, where the crew will set sail in August. Of the total 7,000 miles, some 3,000 miles will be through ice.
The expedition has applied to land in various small harbours en route, where it will trade for reindeer meat. However, it will carry enough food for eight months in case the vessel does get trapped in ice, and will be equipped with guns for "bear protection".
They will have a very short weather window. "The ice closes in on September 30th, so if we haven't completed the journey by then, we will have to consider our options," Paddy Barry said. The vessel will return to Ireland via the White Sea to St Petersburg and through the Baltic.