Clara tells us:" As you already know, this year is extremely difficult in terms of ice. Much more than in previous years..
It is therefore with a very big pinch in my heart that I must announce that we are abandoning the record under sail. The road to success is strewn with pitfalls and the land of ice has decided not to give us a gift this year. It is so and we must accept it, it is only part postponed.
The nights are getting longer, the cold is more and more intense, the sea is harder and the ice chart is still as red. The far north is definitely giving us a hard time. It's also what makes the adventure so exciting. It is difficult to understand what is really happening this year. Why is the surface of the poles melting, but the passage remains unusually congested by ice? Funny phenomenon that animates our discussions and our theories with my father these last days.
Three critical points were blocking our route and it was becoming too dangerous to sail at night under these conditions in Alaska. It's been half a century since the Northwest Passage has been in this situation!
We are disappointed, of course, but we keep smiling. We still have so much energy to go on, but nature has decided otherwise. The experience remains incredible and our Happy Trip boat will be waiting for us in Nuuk until next summer. It's only a postponement. In addition we still have the navigation back to Nuuk to enjoy. We can afford to make small hooks in beautiful places.
Shortly after making our decision we received a MAYDAY from a boat in great difficulty further down the passage. This distress message came from our Argentine friends with whom we were leaving Nuuk a month ago, smiling to our ears, convinced that our next dinner together would be in Nome, Alaska. Unfortunately their boat Anahita got stuck and crushed by ice in the Bellot Strait. After several hours of waiting on a plate of ice pack, Pablo and Dario were hoisted. They are now safe. We think a lot about them and the hell they've been through. It reminds us that we are in a dangerous and hostile place. "
