After months of planning, administration, boat preparation and hard work we’re finally almost ready to head north to Svalbard – something I’ve aspired to do for several years.  Rosinis is in good shape and an extensive winter re-fit seems to have paid off: time will tell.  All that remains is to load up provisions and personal gear and attend to the inevitable flurry of last minute things that always seem to need doing.

 

I’ll then be sailing from the Solent next week on a solo passage round to the east coast and up to Hartlepool where my first crew, Julian, will join in the middle of June.  After that we’ll be heading directly to Bergen, where Steve will join, and we’ll then sail up the Norwegian coast, through the Lofoten islands, to Tromso.  We’ll be leaving Rosinis in Tromso for a few days and returning to UK.  Then I’ll be flying out again with Meryon and Giles before heading a further 600nm almost due north to Svalbard, taking in a stop at Bjornoya (Bear Island) en route.  We have almost 3 weeks in Svalbard where we’ll explore the largely ice-free west coast and hopefully get to 80N (just 600nm from the North Pole), before starting the return journey.  It will be via a similar route with a few variations on ports of call, but more about that when we get to that point.

 

For those who don’t know Rosinis, she’s a 1992 Rustler 36 and I’ve owned her for 8 and a half years.  During that time we’ve been to SW Ireland, the Azores, the west coast of Scotland, Galicia, France and the Channel Islands many times, and all over the south coast of UK – overall around 16000nm.  Here are a couple of pics of her sailing in the Solent and at anchor below the Cuillin ridge in Skye.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing scenery on this trip that even surpasses the west coast of Scotland.

 

Our aim is to update this blog whenever we can, including photos.  When we have shore wifi that should be straight forward, but at sea it will be over a very slow satellite phone link, so will be less frequent and almost certainly with fewer photos.  In the meantime here are a couple showing the growing pile of provisions which will take several car loads to get to Marchwood Yacht Club and will fully test our stowage plan. 

 

Many thanks to all those who have provided advice, loaned equipment, and generally helped to get us to this point. Oh, and many, many thanks to Claire for letting me go! Wish us luck!