Icebreaker MSV Nordica sets new Northwest Passage record
MSV Nordica set the record for the earliest crossing of the Northwest Passage, after completing the Arctic voyage in 24 days
The Finnish icebreaker, MSV Nordica, has entered the history books by making the earliest crossing of the Northwest Passage.
The vessel’s crew sailed more than 6,214 miles from Canada to Greenland to smash the previous record.
It set off on 5 July from Vancouver, arriving 34 days later on 29 July in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, according to The Independent.
The Canadian Coast Guard ship, Louis L. St-Laurent was the previous record holder.
It left Newfoundland on 5 July 2008, arriving in Point Barrow, off Alaska, on 30 July 2008.
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This latest record comes as British explorer Pen Hadow announces his latest expedition – to sail a yacht to the North Pole.
Hadow will be leading the six-week Arctic Mission, which will set off from Nome in Alaska (USA) in the first week of August.
The team will use two 50-foot yachts – Bagheera and Snow Dragon II – which have been specially built to sail in waters with sea ice.
Last August, Ben Edwards, 14, become the youngest person to circumnavigate the North Pole anticlockwise in one season.
Part of the Polar Ocean Challenge crew, he successfully circumnavigated the North Pole anti-clockwise in one season, sailing the Northwest and Northeast Passages.
American single-handed sailor, Matt Rutherford, holds the record for sailing the smallest boat through the Northwest Passage.
He took his 27-foot Albin Vega yacht, St Brendan through the Arctic route successfully completing the voyage on 19 September 2011.
It was part of his non-stop 43,576-km (27,077-mile) circumnavigation of North and South America. which started 13 June 2011 at Annapolis City Dock in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA, and finished back at the port 310 days later on 18 April 2012.