In August 2017, two polar yachts attempted to sail to the North Pole to send a message to the world about melting sea ice and the opening of the Arctic to watercraft. One of those yachts, the Snow Dragon II, is currently home ported in Sitka.
Three skippers from Arctic Mission – Frances Brann, Krystina Scheller, and Erik de Jong – talk about what they saw in the Arctic from the deck of a sailboat, why they decided to turn around before reaching the North Pole, and how the journey changed them.
“I never expected to do something that really hadn’t been done before,” said Scheller. “To realize that sailboats haven’t sailed in the water that we’ve sailed in and that there is this newly accessible ocean that we as a planet can decide on its future is an opportunity we don’t get everyday.” Read more and listen to the interview.
