Route.
The Expedition started in 1999 and was
continued each summer since this time (except for 2002 and
2005).
The season 2008 has become the final
one. The team of Anders Bilgram passed the section from
Dikson to the Tiksy settlement, turning round the northern
extremity of Eurasia – the Chelyuskin Cape. The length of
this section is 2 500 km).
The tactics of sailing in the Arctic Seas
of Russia was simple: waiting till the most favourable weather
conditions quickly to overcome the parts of the route using
the speed performance of the motor boat. The crew of Anders
Bilgram had to avoid storms, as the waves higher than one
meter, do not allow the motor boat to use the gliding mode
and considerably reduce the speed.
The Expedition started from Denmark in
1999. The crew passed the sector Denmark – Shetland
Islands – Faeroe Islands – Iceland. Next year the Expedition
managed to reach the coast of Greenland and to sail around
it from the south. Thus for the first time in history the
crew in an open motor boat crossed the North Atlantic. Further
the route was continued along the islands of the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago. In 2001 the Expedition sailed along
the Canadian and American coasts to the Bering Strait.
In summer 2003 the seafarers crossed
the Bering Strait and on July 19 entered the port Providenia,
Chukotka, here the forth participant Sergey Epishkin joined
the crew. There was the start of the Russian stage of the
Expedition.
The Expedition passed the Chuckchee Sea and
the East-Siberian Sea and by August 30 reached the mouth
of the Indigirka River. The failure in the work of the motor
engines considerably reduced the speed and the crew was
not able to find the shelter during severe storm. On August
30 at 5.00 a.m. (local time) Anders Bilgram took a decision
to give SAS signal because of the existing threat of lives
of the explorers and the danger to lose the boat. The SOS
signal was received by the COSPAS-SARSAT Centers. A helicopter
of the Russian Air Forces was ready to depart for rescue
works. At the same time the members of the Russian Emergency
Ministry of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) found out that
in the area of disaster there was a dry cargo ship "Captain
Bogatyrev". This ship provided assistance to the explorers.
The crew with the boat was transported to Tiksy Port.
In 2004 the Expedition managed to pass the
section Tiksy – Nizhneyansk – the Cape Svyatoy Nos. Then
the motor boat was transported back to Denmark for repairs.
In 2006 the Expedition again started
from Copenhagen from the famous monument to water-nymph
and sailed to the East. The explorers crossed the Norwegian
and the Barents Sea and left the motor boat for winter in
Narjan-Mar.
The stage 2007 started on August 5.
In a week after enduring one storm in the region of the
Ust-Kara settlement, the motor boat reached the Cape Kharasavey
(Yamal Peninsula). By August 15 the explorers arrived in
Dickson, leaving behind one of the most dangerous sections
of the route: Obskaia Inlet and Gydansky Bay – the lengthy
parts of the route far away from the coastal line. For two
weeks Anders Bilgram and his crew were waiting for improvement
of the ice conditions in the Vilkitsky Strait. Ice breakers
were working in the Strait at that time but for a small
motor boat sailing among the ship's convoy was dangerous.
The ice did not disperse and on September 11 the boat was
conserved till the next year.