“I'm an Arctic addict,” says Mariacristina Rapisardi, with what I can only describe as pure joy in her voice, bubbling up from deep within. She may be a successful patent lawyer, well used to defending clients in court, but get her on the subject of boats and high latitudes and it's as if she's discussing a favourite child.
“I don't know how I first got this idea to go to the Northwest Passage,” she says a little dreamily. “It was probably a story I read when I was young. I was fascinated with the stories of the people who went there, and those that were lost. But I never thought that I'd be able to do it myself.”
All that changed in August 2004 when she attempted the passage as part of an eight-person crew under the leadership of Skip Novak, who has since become a close friend. Aboard his original yacht Pelagic Australis, they undertook an expedition that many still believed impossible – all the more so in a 22.5-metre sloop.
“We stayed there for one month waiting for the ice to break up, but it was too thick,”
