The Arctic Circle has always exerted as fascination for me, partly because it is imaginary, and partly because it spells the start of real adventures. My most recent voyage from Shetland to Arctic Norway non-stop, was born of this fascination – coupled with two historical failures. The first, a few summers ago, was my failure to get to Muckle Flugga, the most northerly point in Shetland (and of the British Isles), when discretion or lack of nautical valour beat me back. The second failure was the summer of 2022, when I baulked at the opportunity complete a circumnavigation of Iceland (whose northern extremity is just within the Arctic Circle) because of the possibility of ice in the Denmark Strait (being singlehanded makes ice particularly problematic).
So last year I decided to attempt to right both these wrongs, in a single voyage, from Aberystwyth in Wales, to Bodø, which is just beyond the Arctic Circle – and to do this non-stop and singlehanded, from Muckle Flugga in Shetland. For the singlehanded sailor this is a better route to Arctic waters than the route via Iceland, because the Gulf Stream’s warmth ensures there is no floating ice to contend with.
Why non-stop? I thought if I took the shortest route to Norway from Shetland, I might encounter adverse or absent winds and never make the passage north, or be seduced by the beauty
