Seminar Introduction
http://www.sv-touche.dk/svalbard
The summer of 2014, while most of Northern Europe, sweltered in the highest summer temperatures in many years, Judith and Haakon chose to sail their IP380 up into the very high latitudes way up above the arctic circle to visit Svalbard, which is only sailable in the short summer, due to a small sidearm of the Golf stream. We had hoped to sail all the way around the island of Spitsbergen, but too much ice blocked that idea. But what a trip we had, anyway. We sailed through the foreland sound in gorgeous sunshine, was snowed in, in Ny Aalesund one day, had to sail slalom between small bergy bits and icebergs in Lilliehöek fjord and got to visit Virgohamna, place of the famous balloonists, the Swede Andree and the American Wellmann, who tried to reach the North pole by hot air balloon just before the turn of the 20th century (19th?– it was in 1897). We did get to sail around the small island of Moffen and thus crossed 80 degrees north and later we met polar bears, thankfully at a safe distance and also saw many walros and even some White whales (Belugas) and a couple of other whales. In the beautiful Magdalene Fjord, the women found their inner Viking and took a dip in the icy cold water, among small icebergs, in front of the glacier.
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Biography:
Judith and Hakon met in 1995, as crew on a sailboat that needed to be sailed from La Rochelle, France to Oslo, Norway. Three months later they bought their first boat, a Hallberg rassy 26' even though at the time, Haakon was still living in Oslo, while Judith were living in Denmark. A year later they married. The first boat was used to sail all around Denmark, with trips to Sweden and Southern Norway over 9 years.Then they moved up to a Malo 31' which they sailed in the Med for 7 years, before buying their dream boat, an Island Packet 380. In this boat, they have sailed three seasons in Scotland, to the beautiful outer Hebrides, including the extremely remote St. Kilda.
This past season, they then went as far north as possible in a sailboat - to Svalbard - up to 80 degrees (and 2 minutes) North, only 600 nM from the North pole.
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LOCATION:Coconut Sailing Club, 2990 S Bayshore Dr, Miami, FL 33133 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR