"INTO THE ICE"
Roger Swanson's 3rd and successful attempt to sail E to W, across the NorthWest Passage to Alaska, in 2007
Published on Mar 13, 2014
INTO THE ICE April to October 2005
A sailing voyage by Roger Swanson
The Ham Radio Club meets every Tuesday in St, Thomas, US Virgin Islands, at 'Hook, Line and Sinker'. All sorts of interesting characters drift, in on Tuesdays. This is because of our WINLINK repeater which enables yachts at sea to send e-mails to the internet. The WINLINK plays a 'commercial' every time it is accessed by a yacht. The 'commercial' invites users to come to the Tuesday Ham Radio Club Lunch.
During the cruising season we often welcome a dozen or so visiting yachts; mostly from Europe and the UK, but plenty of Americans too.
Late July in 2007, a dignified older gentleman joined us for a Tuesday lunch, and I began a conversation by asking if he was on his way to Trinidad for hurricane season. He said "Oh no, I just came from 'Trini', I'm on my way to The Arctic; we are going to try to sail through the North West Passage, again"!
This is a voyage that I would never make, so, not surprisingly, I asked him "Why?".
"Well, we tried to do it in 2005, but we failed; we were frozen in, and The Canadian Coast Guard broke the sea ice for us, so we could return. Would you like a DVD of that voyage?" he asked.
Well of course, I said, and hastily scribbled my mailing address.
Two weeks later, to my great surprise, a package arrived from Roger Swanson, containing a DVD entitled "Into the Ice".
Just a week ago, I decided that this marvelous video should be available to the entire world of 'Sea Gypsies', so I did a Google search to try to find an e-mail address for Roger Swanson.
Sadly, my Google search returned an OBITUARY for Roger Swanson; he was 82.
So, in remembrance of an adventurous yachtsman, and a wonderful gentleman, I have uploaded his DVD - "Into the Ice".
This is the link to the entire channel :- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqIIJFeDW1NUgA6gmSd4LA/videos
Take a look. Stan Louden
