I had the great pleasure to sail as assistant Ice Navigator to March Polar’s Captain Duke Snider onboard the Finnish icebreaker Nordica from Vancouver to Nuuk Greenland in July, being present on the earliest recorded transit of the NWP. The voyage was a repositioning transit for Nordica but was able to host an ongoing dialogue between maritime professionals (Cdn Coast Guard and US Coast Guard also embarked) and a spirited group of academics and social scientists from Scandinavian and Australian universities and research institutes.
After a brief respite in Victoria, I returned to join the Chinese research ship Xue Long (“Snow Dragon”) to guide her from Nuuk to Nome, her first NWP transit, to complete her circumpolar voyage since leaving Shanghai in July.