YachtTeleport.com

What's this all about?

Jess and I have bought a little wooden 29 foot junk-rig yacht called 'Teleport', and we've registed her as an Australian vessel, homeport: Sydney. The problem is, we bought her in Halifax, Canada - that'd be the 'wrong side' of Canada.

This problem is complicated further by Jess and I being adventurers at heart, and the idea of sailing her home the 'normal' way down to the balmly Carribean Sea, through Panama and across the tropical Pacific Ocean sounds, well, a bit tame. So instead, we've decided to sail her home up the coast of Greenland, over the top of Canada, through the bitter Northwest Passage, across to Alaska, then siberia and so on.

Other problems include Jess never having been sailing in her life, us buying the yacht sight-unseen and thus having to basically re-build her first, and that we both get sea sick, and, also, we're not quite sure what we'll do with this little green yacht once we do get her home. Sail little 'twilight races' every Wednesday in Sydney harbour? I don't think so. To postpone this conumdrum, we have opted to bring Teleport home via as many exciting, exoitc and remote locations we can find, over as many years as possible.

After Alaska, Siberia sounds good, and down the Kamchatka Peninsula, maybe onwards to Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and home that way? Who knows....

First things first though: The Northwest Passage. We have decided to sail through the NWP in two stages, this will give us more time to explore, document and take great photos along the way, rather than the whole thing essentially being a race to try and get through in one season before the ocean freezes over again for winter.

2010 July - Oct: Visit Teleport for the first time; Try to remain positive while stripping out all the rotten wood; Re-glass the whole deck and cockpit; Majorly refit the inside; Cut out and replace delaminated keel section; Re-glass bilge; Get prehistoric engine to work; Made a double bed; Create bookshelves; Kit Teleport out with the best safety gear; Put backing plates behind important mountings; Install ducted heating; Re-paint inside and out; Teach Jess how to sail; Survive initial ocean-trials; Put Teleport back on cradle in Halifax, ready for next year's departure. DONE! (Watch the 2 heartbreaking videos!)

2011 May - Oct: Finish getting Teleport ready - install Radar, wind turbine, solar panel, overhaul engine, etc, then sail the first half of the Northwest Passage - head up along the coast of Greenland, then wind our way through the arctic archipelago - that tangled mess of islands - stopping eventually at Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island - approx half way through the passage. (Happening right now!)

2012 May - Oct: Sail the second half of the Northwest Passage - Drag her back into the water at Cambridge Bay, Vicoria Island, and carry onwards to the west, to Alaska.

2013 April - Oct: Across to Siberia? And then...? We make it up as we go along.