A distance of 208 miles — equivalent to travelling from York to London — is the key barrier between the Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and his place in the record books as he seeks to become the first person to sail to the North Pole.
As he and his team prepare to leave the Alaskan port of Nome this week in two 50ft yachts, that is the extent of the solid sea ice that awaits them. “There is less ice cover than last year,” said Hadow, 55, after viewing satellite images. “And there are still six weeks of melting to reduce this . . . further.”
Before they tackle the sea ice, the two yachts, Bagheera and Snow Dragon II, must first cover 1,550 miles of ocean.
Hadow will then try to demonstrate that climate change has opened the way to yachts not unlike those used by weekend sailors in British waters — albeit with heavily reinforced hulls. His team will receive navigational help from satellites tracking navigable channels as cracks open up the remaining ice.
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