About The Arctic Explorer Project

... or why on earth does anybody want to travel to cold and remote areas?

The idea behind these expeditions is to sail to the areas & spots of the Arctic that are inaccessible by other means of transportation. By using a sailing boat, we can attain that with a maximum of comfort and a minimum of noise and pollution.

All the expeditions presented in this program are founded upon the human curiosity to nature and culture(s), but we do not always know what we are looking for! The expedition's participants always possess the most different knowledge, and in combination with our library, this normally enables us to judge the things we find, and together assemble it to a more complete picture than we had prior to the exploration. If we on the contrary cannot solve it, we simply enjoy it. Each program has different fields of interest, but that does not mean that the only thing to be focused is the topic in the headline. We always try to get as much different facets out of a visit to an area as possible.

The skipper (on several expeditions together with an extra mate), does the navigation the cooking and many tasks onboard, but it is inherent in the whole concept that your own active attitude and participation is needed. On longer expeditions, we often divide and delegate the different tasks onboard between us before starting- to get an optimal experience for all of us.

Though not gambling, getting out of the ice at Fiskfjord, Tjeldøya. Waiting for the right conditions are important in order to stay out of problems. Snøtind (Snowpeak) 1000m in the background.

By trying to keep the prices on the expeditions low, we can make them last longer, and thus make the program more interesting for all of us. Longer programs make us all come to know each other better, which normally gives us a more enjoyable time. We therefore normally charge NOK 900,- (£90) pr. day: all costs, food, skipper, harbour fees and fuel included. If some programs have a higher day rate, it is due to extra insurance for the boat for that area of operation.

So the principle is: We have a boat with which we are doing expeditions in Arctic waters. We want to share this with enjoyable people, and this program invites you all to buy a leg on one of the expeditions.

Sailing close to 10.000 nautical miles each year in Arctic waters, no one is better used to the conditions than «Arctic Explorer» and its crew. Arctic areas are quite comfortable for expeditions, as long as one do not have to or try to push the nature, and we do not. By such a defensive way of thinking, there will be a minimum of rough sailing, unless of course the group feel comfortable with it. If they are not and the conditions are rough, we rather spend an extra day ashore, waiting for better conditions. In addition, the midnight sun gives us the opportunity to turn the nights into days and move on in the nights, so we are almost always fulfilling our planned program without any problems.

However, to keep a freedom, it is necessary not to have a too strict day by day schedule. Setting up a too detailed program seems also a bit old-fashioned. A successful expedition to us, is a trip where the participants take an active part in the planning. For instance, we have navigated close to 81 dg. North, which is about as far north in the world a sailing vessel can go (except for 'Fram' and Nansen of course). By not telling anyone in beforehand or using it in an aggressive way of marketing, we could do this without any danger because we had no pressure from the participants - which is often a more dangerous factor than the conditions themselves!

We also do some research and pollution control for The Norwegian Pollution Inspection (SFT), as well as some small observation tasks for The Norwegian Polar Institute. This helps us keeping us well informed on the latest research news in this part of the world.