In the spring of 2002 I intend to sail from Maryland, where I live, to Greenland and Baffin Island with small crews of family members, friends and volunteers. In order to reach the Arctic during the short northern navigation season, we must leave the Chesapeake in early May. This will give us enough time to stop in New England and Nova Scotia for crew changes, while still making Newfoundland in June. Ice conditions in the Strait of Belle Isle between Newfoundland and Labrador will determine how quickly we can make the 600 mile crossing to Greenland.  

Whalers and explorers have long ago established that for a sailing vessel there is only one route North. The west coast of Greenland is navigable most of the year while Baffin Island and Labrador are ice bound till late summer. We will therefore follow the Greenland coast, hopefully as far as Thule. In many years, however, Melville Bay in Northwest Greenland cannot be crossed because of the ice. In that case we will try to reach Baffin Island from a point further south. From there we will sail back, trying to reach Newfoundland by early September. It will be well into October before we return to the Chesapeake.

Engraving from Elisha Kent Kane:

Arctic Explorations (1853)

In The Bahamas:

Jana on the foredeck

Three years ago I sailed with my wife Olina and our children Nico and Jana to The Bahamas. Olina arranged a leave from her job at the World Bank in Washington, we rented out our house and took the children out of school. We traveled down the Intracoastal Waterway, sailed offshore along the coast of Georgia and Florida and crossed the Gulf Stream to Bimini. In The Bahamas we made it as far south as Georgetown on Great Exuma Island.

It was an extraordinary trip, full of new experiences and discoveries. We home schooled the children and they led us in learning to appreciate a simple and self-reliant way of life. Like all good things, however, it cannot be repeated. Olina is very busy at work again. She also prefers warm climates. Jana will start high school soon and Nico is already receiving college brochures. Olina and the children will be able to sail during their vacations, but cannot come on a six-month expedition. I therefore have to rely on friends, relations and possibly complete strangers to join me on different legs of the trip. To find crew members and to organize the logistics of crew changes in the far north is one of the main purposes of this web site.

On Galliot Cay:  Olina and Nico  with fresh conch

 I am a novelist. The purpose of my Arctic expedition is to write a book. My travels in the U.S., Central America and Eastern Europe have resulted in two previous novels and several collections of short stories, all published in Dutch by Veen in Amsterdam. They are not travelogues, but fictions that through a process that I only partially understand, came out of my experiences on the road. After our cruise to The Bahamas I wrote a new novel that appeared in Holland earlier this year. For this novel, which I plan to translate into English, I will try to find an American or British publisher..

Physical experience is, I believe, a profound source of knowledge, not of the academic kind, but of the type that interests an artist. I do not look, like a journalist would, for things that change, but rather for the human condition that doesn't. Sailing to the Arctic in a small boat will be a great challenge and a test of the crew's endurance, their navigational and human skills, and their luck. The Arctic also offers a unique native culture, a rich history of whaling, exploration, heroism and folly, and a landscape that is overwhelming and fantastically strange.

In Maine:

at anchor in

Winter Harbor

The purpose of the Due North web site is to outline my plan and to gather support for it. I especially want to reach four groups:

• Sailors who have experience in high latitudes. Last summer I sailed with my family to Maine, but that's my farthest North. I am very eager to get comments and suggestions from more seasoned skippers.

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• People who are willing to lend or donate equipment to the expedition. I already know that we'll need a small inflatable dinghy (ours gave up the ghost in Maine), a cabin heater, exposure suits, a radar, a fairly heavy rifle, a Macintosh laptop computer, and countless charts. This list will undoubtedly grow much longer in the coming year.

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• People who are interested in crewing. My friend Chuck McDermott has signed on for the whole expedition. His story is on Due North's News page. I do not expect to find anybody else who is able, or willing, to commit him or herself for six months. I will try to divide the cruise into several legs. There are some logical stops along the East Coast: Cape Cod, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the Spring, and vice versa in the Fall. There is regular air service to Greenland, and Baffin Island has two or three small airstrips. The big problem is going to be the timing. The further North we go, the harder is will be to predict when we will be where.

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• Finally, I would like to reach editors, agents and publishers who would be interested in the expedition and its results.

Visitors to this web site should pass on the address to anyone they like, but I hope they will make an effort to keep these four groups in mind. I welcome e-mail from all readers, not only about the plan, but also about the web site itself, since I am a complete amateur at web publishing. Readers should frequently come back to Due North's News Page for additional information, updates and special features.