The second part of documentary „Sailing Around the Americas“.

“Sailing Around the Americas” was an expedition of Clark Stede and Michelle Poncini. They were the first who made this circumnavigation on a sailng boat.

„From here it is still 230 nautical miles to the Behring Sreet, where the North West Passage ends. Here we want to spend the winter. The place is perfect. It is protected, sheltered from large icebergs. And we are also prepared to spend the winter. We have provisions for over a year, we have wood and coal for the stove.“

„In the arctic, you have to be patient and wait, even you did planning carefully. Everything depends on the weather. And on the ice. Here we are in a safe bay as you can see. Pack ice to the horizon. The ice is floating. I think we could reach the next couple of islands. But it will be very hard.“

„Through the Canadian coastguard we get radio contact to the icebreaker Martha L. Black. They tell us that there is still a chance to get through the ice this year.
The icebreaker wants to help us. For us, of course, that would be one more chance to make it this year. And: The Canadian government is not interested in having us up there in the Arctic.“

The first plan is to follow the icebreaker, but it is not possible. The hudge props spit out big chunks of ice. So Captain Willis decides to lift the yacht onto the deck. In this way we travel 80 nautical miles through the Franklin Street.“

„Now we can pass the fields of pack ice with less problems. But there is a new problem:
ice is creeping on our deck. Into our mast. Into our sails. We have to de-ice the ship constantly, so that it doesn’t become too top-heavy, capsize and sinks.“

„4,000 nautical miles and 100 days of north west passage are behind us. We are in the mood of dancing, of laughing. The journey through the Arctic, a hard, but wonderful adventure, is behind us.
A northerly storm blows us through the Bering Street into the Pacific ocean.“

„From the Bering Strait we sail to the Aleutians, and then non-stop to the winter camp in Canada. This is a break for us and for our yacht. We spend the winter time in a small harbour on the beautiful Vancouver Island. Here we service everything on the yacht. We sew seams, repair little things, maintain all the mechanical parts. We buy our provisions here, we write reports and edit our radio programs. There are still 25,000 nautical miles in front of us.“

„After a rainy winter we sail non stop to San Francisco. San Francisco is just a technical stop for us. We check our wind vane steering Monitor, buy the last provisions for our trip to South America, fill up diesel and water.“

„Almost 3,000 miles to reach Mexico.“

„For us, travelling is not just sailing . We like to travel inland, get to know the cultures and like to talk to the people. in the village of San Francisa we learn that it was 5 years ago that white tourists visited them.“

„Tropical winds are blowing us first to Costa Rica and then to Ecuador.“

„Our bait for fishing is very primitive. Just rubber strips, a piece of fabric, and a hook.
We caught fish everywhere. Modern cooling system is powerd by solar energy lets us keep our fillets fresh for weeks.“

„We didn’t eat fish non-stop. We also had freeze-dried and canned food on board. A lot of variety. We also had a lot of vitamins from fresh fruits. We collected rainwater and filled our water tanks.“

„Next is the Andean Country Equador. Everything is different there. The people, the cultures, the climate. We travel to meet the people of this world. And our philosophy is: only those who start the journey will arrive. We meet Carlos de Torre here. An Indian weaver in the Andes of Equador.
Is the western way of thinking really the only one? On the contrary. Here we experience an unbelievable warmth and it is the people which inspire us again and again on this trip.“

„There are more than 300 moving parts are on our yacht. They need maintainence all the time. We depend on them. if something breaks, the journey is over.“

„Many people think that cruising is just gliding over blue water, drinking champagne and enjoying the sun. Around Americas is repairing, taking everything apart, a lot of service work too.“

„We have no insurance. Another reason why we constantly check the entire technology. On the ocean our life depends on it.“

„3,000 nautical miles we tacked against the prevailing south west passat to reach the Patagonian canals in Chile.“

Why you see this on Umadum Sailing? Because Guenther was a professional filmmaker and he made this film. Just before he decided to live on his own sailing boat 25 years ago.

Part 3 is coming soon: “Sailing Around the Americas: Patagonia and the Cape Horn, Antarctica, the east coast of America and the Caribbean”.

The first part of the film: “Sailing Around the Americas. The Arctic: Germany – Greenland – the Northwest Passage.”

Wave Art Photography made on our ocean passages – Umadum Art