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Perseverance is my only ally
12:25 p.m. EST Jan 20, 2004
Dutchman Henk de Velde has been roaming the world's oceans for over two years now aboard The Campina. His goal: “The Impossible Journey” - a sail around the world via the "impossible" Northern Seaway along the North East Passage above and along Siberia, Alaska, then South to Cape Horn and Antarctica before returning home to the Netherlands.
Henk's journey began in June 2001, and if it comes to the end he envisions, Henk will have traveled 30,000 miles rounding both poles on the epic cirucmnavigation – a voyage he'd been thinking about for 12 years. Henk is traveling aboard The Campina, a 17m steel-built vessel fortified with extra steel plates on the bow and stern and around the waterline.
That fortification is coming in handy now. Since December, Campina has been encased in the ice of the Arctic Sea near Tiksi, Russia. Blasted by the full effects of the Siberian winter, the ship and her skipper face gale force winds and sub-zero temperatures reaching –50º C. (Fortunately, Henk is close enough to town to buy fresh, warm bread from the bakery.)
Recently, Henk has enlisted help to begin digging a hole in the ice around Campina’s rudders and propeller in an effort to forestall damage in case the ice pushes the boat up from pressure.
Now stuck nearly two months, Henk reflects on life in Russia and his need to be a free spirit:
“Here, too, people drink much too much and here, too, like everywhere in the world, people go to bed with each other. The Arctic Port of Tiksi was once a complete Russian town, without many locals. I heard that 16,000 civilians and 32,000 military once lived here. Now, including the military, there are only 4,000 people left, in large part local Sakha and Evenk. The central government in Moscow has forgotten the North.
“But I am not interested in how people live in a town. A house is a house. Furniture is furniture. Food is food. Also here the most important thing is how much you earn and how much you spend.
Like everywhere it’s working to live or living to work.
“I do not want to be part of this kind of community, not here, in Holland, anywhere. I am a free spirit, interested in ships, the sea, nature and that’s more than only animals, trees and grass, mankind, freedom, the impossible, the challenge, off the beaten path destinations, nomadic way of live, the road to nothing and the Way to No-thing.
"I am wintering in Siberia. The cold is bearable…. other times, when the blizzard blows, I do not see anything. The cold wind from the tundra takes your breath away. Sometimes I look in the eyes of a beautiful Russian woman.
"Back on board I take my atlas like I did when I was a little boy, still dreaming about being a captain or explorer. The little boy who did not listen to the advice of teachers at school. And if I close my eyes, I can still see the sorrows in the eyes of my parents but I was too young to explain. I could not explain that nothing was impossible, as long you really wanted it to happen. Here in this hostile Arctic environment I have time to think and time to learn patience. Perseverance is my only ally.”
Henk de Vekde has previously sailed around the world four times, three times non-stop and solo. The first trip lasted between 1978 and 1985… so Henk is known to take his time when out exploring. The reason for traveling like this is to experience new things and enjoy life to the fullest. No Henk is on "The Impossible Journey" - a sail around the world via the "impossible" Northern seaway along the North East Passage above and along Siberia, Alaska, then South to Cape Horn and Antarctica before returning home to the Netherlands.
Image of ice being cut away from Campina and inset of cut ice blocks piling up courtesy of henkdevelde.nl
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