Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4

 

Last night, Anthony Seigler went 4-of-5 at bat, including a leadoff home run in the first inning and an RBI double in the eighth. He hit a single in the third and then Rafaela brought him home with a homer to deep left center. A Monasterio sac fly brought Yoshida home from third in the sixth to make the score 4-0 before Toronto even scored their first run. 

Back on February 9, the Red Sox got Seigler, Monasterio, Durbin, and a draft pick from the Milwaukee Brewers for Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and Shane Drohan. I think it's now safe to say Boston came out ahead in that deal. Boston is 24-14 since Seigler's June 4 MLB debut in a Red Sox uniform, which along with Durbin and Monasterio's contributions, may account for the Sox' midseason turnaround as much as anything. Also, Seigler is the second Navajo to ever play in MLB, as if there weren't already reasons to cheer for him.

The 15-game streak now in the record books, the Sox are back to winning again. Last night, the Jays challenged Boston's 4-0, sixth-inning lead, scoring three in the seventh and another in the eighth. But rather than give up and collapse like the first-half Red Sox might have, the new, improved team came back in the bottom of the eighth. Gonzalez doubled to left field, scoring Durran, and then Seigler hit his RBI  double to bring Gonzalez home. The Sox won, 6-4.

In only his third start since 2024, Patrick Sandoval went 4⅔ shutout innings, striking out three and giving up five base hits. Weissert and Whitlock gave up the Blue Jay runs in the seventh and eighth, but Guerrero was perfect in the sixth and Chapman gave up a walk in the ninth because of course he did, but also ended the game with a Toronto K.

Boston (53-49) is now 6½ games back from first place Tampa Bay and 4½ back from New York. With last night's win, they move up in the Wild Card standings and now control the second berth, a half game ahead of Cleveland.    

Tonight, both teams will throw their pitching aces onto the mound. The Red Sox will start their 20-win contender, Sonny Gray (12-1, 2.48), and the Jays will start Dylan Cease (6-5, 2.67). In his last start against Toronto, Gray went seven innings and gave up three runs in a 4-3 defeat, although Chapman took the loss, while Cease last went five innings in a 6-1 Jays win, so the Sox have their work cut out for them.

Meanwhile, Down in Philly

 

Life just got a whole lot harder in the NBA's Atlantic Division. 

The Knicks won the NBA Finals in five, and marched undefeated through the playoffs before that single-loss series. They're now officially a power to be reckoned with in the division, the conference, and the whole NBA.

To further the agony, the Sixers, who last season came back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Celtics from the first round of the playoffs in seven, still have Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe to support their championship hopes. Then to add insult to injury, they acquired Jaylen Brown from Boston, breaking the heart of many a Celtics fan. And today, it was announced that they won the bidding war and will sign LeBron James to a two-year contract.  

Sure, James is now 41 and his best playing days are behind him. But he's still the league’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time NBA champion, and four-time MVP. His basketball knowledge, combined with Embiid's shooting, Brown's athleticism, and Maxey and Edgecombe's skills, are going to be a challenge for the Celtics, the Knicks, and any other NBA team playing them. 

But at least we picked up Paul George, lol.

Meanwhile, Up In the Arctic

 

With the Red Sox off last night, our attention naturally turns once again to the Arctic Ocean. 

Elle Hibbert is still on St. Paul Island (57° N) in the Bering Sea. She took her ship, the Yeva, on its first test run and everything checked out fine. Now it's just a waiting game for the weather and the Russian authorities to align so she can make her trip through the Northeast Passage over Asia and Europe and complete her clockwise Arctic Ocean circumnavigation.

Mike Rutherford is currently at sea working on his counter-clockwise, single-season Arctic circumnavigation. He's currently west of the Svalbard Islands at latitude 78.7°, and is hoping to reach the 80th parallel, the northernmost point of his voyage. There's currently a storm brewing northeast of Svalbard, so he has to decide whether to try to pass north over the islands or to cross the 80th and turn back south and pass below the islands. It's all up to the weather.

Tamara Kling is in Nome, Alaska (64.5° N), where she's been in harbor for the past couple of days. Still no word on whether she's planning to bring her ship, the Sardinha 2, home to Brazil by way of the Northeast or the Northwest Passage - either route would be epic and record setting.

Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources announced that three research icebreakers, the Xuelong, Xuelong 2, and Jidi, set sail from the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian to conduct an Arctic  mission. Another research vessel, the Tansuo 3, is expected to join the expedition later. 

As the research ships pass through the Bering Sea, the U.S. Coast Guard is carefully monitoring their activities. Per international law, countries enjoy sovereign rights over natural resources and economic activities within their exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, which extends up to 200 nautical miles from shore, but they do not possess full authority over the space. The Coast Guard said that while the foreign vessels were permitted to operate within the zone and shelf, they remain vigilant to ensure thar activities comply with international law.

As climate change has opened new shipping routes, exposed untapped resources, and raised the Arctic's strategic value, China’s interest in the region has grown, as has the U.S.'s and others'. China lacks an Arctic coastline, but described itself as a “near-Arctic state” in a 2018 policy paper. It's northernmost point is at latitude 53.5° N, roughly the same latitude as Unalaska Island in the Aleutians, but also as Dublin and Hamburg, although it's recognized that with its subarctic climate, Mohe, the northernmost city in China, has more in common with Siberia than Liverpool. 

Orioles 5, Red Sox 1

 

The streak is over at 15 games. Northing lasts forever and impermanence is swift. Even Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr couldn't win sixteen in a row.   

Last night, in the second half of a double header, the Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, who hadn't tasted defeat since July 1. Like the first game of the DH, there was little question of the outcome, but in the opposite direction - this time, it was the Orioles who scored four runs in the first inning. Rookie starter Eduardo Rivera, making only his fourth MLB appearance, didn't even last a full inning. 

Brayan Bello came on with two outs and the score, 4-0, and quickly forced a ground out to end the painful opening inning. Bello pitched pretty well thereafter, with five K's over 5⅓ innings and no runs on four hits. But the problem was the old, familiar lack of offense - the Sox didn't get a base hit until a Monasterio single in the third inning, and their lone run came in the fourth when a Yoshida single brought Contreras home from second. 

I can't speak for Red Sox Nation as a whole, but at least this fan kept thinking a miracle, some supernatural event, was going to descend upon Fenway Park any inning now. Just as the Sox had been able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in previous games during this streak, it felt like something was going to happen to get win number sixteen. But it wasn't to be and Boston is now the proud owner of a shiny, spanking-new 15-game win streak.

Before the streak started, the Red Sox were 37-48, last place in the AL East, and 14½ back from first. Now, they're 52-49, in third place, and seven games back from first. Even more importantly, they now hold the third and final Wild Card berth, two games up on the nearest contender. Boston's path to the World Series - and we're still going to the World Series, baby! - doesn't run through an AL East championship but runs through the Wild Card. 

The Red Sox have played 101 games this season and have 61 left to play. Already, this back half of the season has a distinctly different flavor than the horrendous first half. Instead of trying to claw up from behind in the standings, their mission for the next two months is simply to defend their Wild Card spot, continue to improve on offense, and keep the pitching healthy (young Connelly Early, Garrett Crochet, Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford, and Tanner Houck are all on the IL, and Ranger Suarez is still a question mark). 

Boston's off today. Take a breath and relax, the pressure's off. Friday, they start a three-game homestand against the Blue Jays (46-56), and then start another West Coast road trip where they'll face the A's (43-59) for four and the Dodgers (65-38) for three. Sweep the pesky Jays and the woeful A's, and try to salvage at least one win in L.A., and if they can go 8-2 or even 7-3 over the next ten, it should be clear sailing for the rest of the season.

Go, Red Sox! Love you guys!

Red Sox 6, Orioles 3

They did it! Those magnificent bastards actually did it! Today, in the first half of a double-header (last night's game got rained out) those amazing, never-say-die Boston Red Sox have won their 15th consecutive game, tying a franchise record that goes all the way back to 1946, when Harry S. Truman was President. The 2026 Red Sox tied a team record that was set by the legendary players Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr.  

Just one month ago, Boston was one of the worst teams in major-league baseball. Now they're the hottest team in either league. The last five wins were in Fenway Park, but prior to this streak, they were a dismal 17-27 at home. How things have changed! 

I'm going to keep posting these trophy pictures as long as they keep winning. It's not superstitious if it works. 

Since July 3, the Sox have swept the Angels, the White Sox, the Mets, and the Rays, and now they're one very significant win away from sweeping the Orioles, too. 

There was never any doubt about this win. The Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on a two-RBI Caleb Durbin single and a two-RBI triple by Jarren Duran. Duran added another RBI with a sac fly in the third, and Ceddanne Rafaela hit a solo home run in the fourth. Big Jake Bennet went 5⅔ innings with four K's and three earned runs, and the bullpen of Slaten, Whitlock and Chapman shut out the O's for 3⅓ innings.

To add an almost cinematic drama to the final innings, storm clouds were creeping up on Fenway in the last two innings, threatening to cut off the game after last night's rainout. The storm held off just long enough to finish, but the rain started before the post-game interviews were over. The front is forecast to pass over before the start of tonight's second game of the DH. 

And if you needed any more proof of the existence of God, the Yankees lost the first game of their double header today. Both teams play again tonight, but right now the Red Sox trail the Yankees by only 3½ games. Yankees suck.

Tonight, Boston plays for destiny. The Sox were thinking about starting Ranger Suarez, fresh off the IL, in this DH but announced that instead rookie Eduardo Rivera (0-0, 2.89) will start tonight. Rivera has only played in three MLB games, but two of those games were during this current 15-game streak. 

Baltimore will start Kyle Bradish (6-9, 3.61). In Brandish's last start against Boston, Contreras hit a two-run homer and the Sox combined for three runs on four hits before knocking him out of the game after five innings in a 5-3 Boston win and Chad Tracy's debut as interim manager.  

Fifteen consecutive wins. Fifteen (15!). Tonight, the Sox have their eyes on history, and will try to go from a Taylor Swiftian Fifteen to Sweet Sixteen. Whatever the outcome, tonight will be historic. 

Red Sox 6, Orioles 5

 

Those amazing Boston Red Sox, just one month ago one of the worst teams in major-league baseball, have now won an astonishing 14 consecutive games, one short of their all-time franchise record. Coming into the second half of the season, the Sox were a disappointing 17-27 at home, but the 14-game streak now includes five consecutive wins in Fenway. The last time the Sox won this many in a row, Ted Williams was their star slugger and your grandparents were a pair of young hotties sitting in the stands. 

I'm going to keep posting these trophies as long as they keep winning. It's not superstitious if it works. 

Since July 3, the Sox have swept the Angels, the White Sox, the Mets, and the Rays, and last night, the Orioles came into Fenway with a seven-game win streak of their own. Spoiler alert: their streak ended last night, but not without drama.

Those tough, gutsy, never-say-die Red Sox had to come back from behind three times to win the game, and finally needed a two-out, runners-on-second-and-third, end-of-season highlight-reel catch of a line drive by shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng to seal the win. 

The O's scored first with an RBI double in the top of the first, but Jarren Duran tied up the game with an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning (comeback number one). Abreu and Contreras made it 3-1, Boston, in the third with a pair of base hits, but Baltimore earned a 4-3 lead in the sixth. Contreras brought Abreu home from second in the bottom of that inning for comeback number two, but those pesky Orioles jumped back out to a 5-4 lead in the seventh. In the bottom of that inning, Rafaela brough Cheng home with a single to tie the game back up (comeback number three) and then Caleb Durbin lined a homer 403 feet into left center for the game-winning run. But even then, we needed Cheng's spectacular catch in the ninth to preserve the lead. 

No one ever said winning fourteen consecutive games was easy. 

Tolle struck out nine and walked only one over six innings, but also gave up four earned runs. Guererro and Whitlock did what they had to do in relief, striking out four more but giving up one more run on two hits. Chapman once again made the ninth more interesting than necessary with a walk and a hit, putting runners on second and third. That ninth-inning line drive off Chapman that Cheng ultimately caught could have cost Boston the game if it had got past him, and the streak survived only by the millimeters and split-second timing involved in that leaping catch. 

The Rays beat the Jays last night, so the Sox are still six back from first-place Tampa. Meanwhile, Boston is putting some distance between themselves and the other teams in the Wild Card standings, and are now 1½ ahead of Texas and three up on Minnesota and Baltimore. 

Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15) will start for the Sox tonight (7:10 pm). Suarez last started back on July 5, the third win of this streak, when he was forced out of the game in the third inning with lower body pain. Testing revealed a minor adductor strain, and he wound up on the 15-day IL. But his recovery went fine, and that's great news for the Sox as the good times just keep right on rolling. Ranger's had his struggles with Baltimore over his career and in four starts is 0-2 against the O's, but by the logic of this suddenly kind season, he's due for a win over them.

Baltimore will start Kyle Bradish (6-9, 3.61). In Boston's last start against Brandish, Contreras hit a two-run homer and the Sox combined for three runs on four hits before knocking him out of the game after five innings in a 5-3 Red Sox win and Chad Tracy's debut as interim manager.  

Fourteen consecutive wins. Fourteen. A fortnight of winning. Since 1916, only thirteen teams, including the 1946 Red Sox, have had win streaks of 15 or more games. One more win ties our franchise record.

Arctic News

 

Tamara Klink is currently sailing straight north, about to cross the western edge of Norton Sound. She's currently west of the Yukon delta in the Bering Sea and heading in the direction of Nome. She hasn't said anything about Russian visas or Siberian sea-ice charts, so it seems most likely that she'll be sailing eastward through the Northwest Passage, reversing the course she sailed last summer. 

To date, the Northwest Passage has only been traversed by women in solo sailboats three times. Last summer, Klink and Ella Hibbert separately completed the passage, and in 2017 German sailor Susanne Huber-Curphey navigated the route, becoming the first solo woman to complete the trip. If Klink completes the trip again this year, she'll be only the fourth to ever have made the passage and the first woman to have done it twice.

Last weekend, Hibbert finally broke weeks of radio silence to announce that she's been given August 10 as her entry date to the Northeast Passage north of Russia. She's still at St. Paul Island, 450 miles south of Klink's current position, and will give her boat, the Yeva, a final test run this week before heading north herself to enter Russian waters and complete her Arctic Ocean circumnavigation. 

And lastly, we have a new entrant! American Matt Rutherford is attempting what could be the first non-stop Arctic circumnavigation. He'll be sailing counter-clockwise, the opposite of Hibbert's route, and left Aasiaat, on Greenland's western coast, on June 25. He's already sailed around the southern tip of Greenland and over the northern side of Iceland, and is currently heading north through the Norwegian Sea toward Svalbard for what will be the northernmost point of his trip (latitude: ~80° N, he's currently at 74°). Rutherford, no stranger to long-distance sailing, has previously (2011) completed the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of North and South America.

It's not impossible that Matt and Ella will meet as they cross the Northeast Passage in opposite directions. After all, Ella ran into Tamara last summer up in the Northwest Passage. However, unless Tamara puts down anchor and decides to spend some significant time harbored somewhere up in the Canadian archipelago, it's unlikely she'll encounter Matt (should he make it that far).  

   

Red Sox 6, Rays 1

 

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Un-freaking-believable. The Boston Red Sox, a month ago one of the worst teams in major-league baseball seemingly all but incapable of winning at home, have completed a four-game sweep of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in Fenway, after sweeping the second-place Yankees in four at home late last month. They've won 13 straight games, a feat Boston hasn't achieved since 1948, back in the days of Ted Williams. 

I'm going to keep posting these trophies as long as they keep winning. It's not superstitious if it works. 

At the start of the All-Star break, back when this streak was at nine consecutive wins, I was worried about Boston collapsing in the second half of the season. My best hope was that the Sox could get a 2-2 split in this series with Tampa Bay - a sweep seemed like too much to even wish for. But despite my Calvinistic clouds of self-doubt, the Red Sox kept winning, taking the first game of the series. And winning, taking the second game of the opening double header. And winning, coming from behind yesterday. And then winning again today, completing the sweep.            

And none of those were easy wins. Once again, the Rays scored first, this time on a solo home run in the second inning off of starter Sonny Gray. As it turned out, that would be the only Tampa Bay score of the game. Gray went six innings with five K's, five hits, and only that one run. 

The Sox answered in the bottom of the second, tying the game on an Andruw Monasterio RBI double. New guy Jahmai Jones walked to start the third, and then advanced to second when yesterday's hero, Wilyer Abreu, got hit by a pitch. Tampa Bay starter Shane McClanahan (wasn't Shane McClanahan the singer for The Pogues?) walked Willson Contreras, loading the bases, and then Jones came home from third on a Rays' fielding error. Abreu came home when Caleb Durbin hit into a fielder's choice, and Contreras came home on a Romy Gonzalez ground out. 4-1, Boston, after three. 

To put an exclamation point on the game, Contreras hit a two-run homer in the fifth for the final score of 6-1. 

The Red Sox are now six back from the Rays. The Yankees lost the first game of a doubleheader against the Dodgers - a second loss today would put them a mere three games ahead of Boston.  In the Wild Card standings, they're two games ahead of Minnesota, who lost today. As I write, Seattle, currently 1½ back from Boston in the Wild Card race, are tied with San Francisco, 2-2, after four innings. 

Thirteen back-to-back consecutive wins. It's still hard to fathom. Is this the real life? 

The fourth-place Baltimore Orioles (48-51) come to Fenway next to challenge the streak. Payton Tolle (5-6, 3.11) will start the first of the three-game home series. Tolle faced the Birds on June 3, back when we still sucked, and struck out five over six shutout innings. The O's will start Shane Boz (4-9, 4.19), who struck out six over seven innings on June 2 (back when we still sucked), but gave up two runs. 

For those of you wondering and so that you don't have to ask, the all-time Red Sox record is 15 straight wins back in 1946 (the Fightin' Forties!). Not to jinx the team or anything, but a sweep of Baltimore in this series would set a new franchise record.

Red Sox 7, Rays 6

 

Twelve in a row! The Red Sox haven't won a dozen straight since June 2006. Twenty years ago, back when Alex Cora (RIP) was a player and not a manager, and they had Big Papi, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia, with Tim Wakefield and Curt Schilling on the mound. 

We're in historic territory right now. Turnaround of the Century! We're going to the World Series, baaaaaaby! I never doubted it (don't read any of my posts from last June, however). 

Yesterday was another come-from-behind win. Down 6-3 in the seventh,  Yoshida hit an RBI sac fly, followed by a Rafaela RBI base hit, and then Abreu hit his second homer of the game - 15th of the season - bringing Rafaela home with him and giving the Sox the 7-6 lead that won the game. It was the second straight day that Abreu had two home runs, something the Red Sox haven't done since Mookie Betts in 2018.

Bonus points: Jahmai Jones, recently acquired from the Tigers, hit a first-inning, two-run homer in only his second plate appearance in a Red Sox uniform.

Boston improves to 49-48 (over .500!) and now trail the first-place Rays by seven games and the Yankees by five. They also now hold the last Wild Card berth, one game ahead of contenders Minnesota and Seattle.

I've seen a lot of wild shit in my years watching sports, but this turnaround, from a dismal 29-43 back on June 18 to winning 12 straight and improving to 49-48, is virtually unprecedented. What a great time to be alive and to be a Red Sox fan!

Will the Sox sweep the Rays? Today, Sonny Gray (11-1, 2.54) starts for Boston against Tampa Bay's Shane McClanahan (8-5, 2.83). The game's already started, so I'm not breaking it down here any further than that.

Go. Boston! Sweep the Rays and make it a lucky 13!

Red Sox 5, Rays 3

Another day, another trophy, but on this day there are even more rewards than usual. After the Boston Red Sox swept their Friday doubleheader against the Tampa Ray Rays last night, their first doubleheader of the season, they improved to 48-48, the first time they've been at .500 this season. Hooray! We're mediocre now! Which is a whole lot better than being below .500 and officially "bad."

The win was the 11th straight victory, a feat Boston hasn't accomplished since 2016, back when they had Big Papi, Mookie, Xander, and Pedroia, and pitchers Price, Porcello, Kimbrell, and Fighting Joe Kelly.    

But wait, there's more! The third-place Red Sox are now eight games back from first-place Tampa Bay and 5½ back from the Yankees, who lost last night. In the Wild Card standings, they're now tied with Minnesota for the third and final slot, but because of their head-to-head record (5-1 for the Twins), the berth goes to Minnesota. For now. 

I'm going to keep posting trophy pictures as long as they keep winning. It's not superstitious if it works. 

After soundly thumping the Twins, 10-0, in the first game of yesterday's doubleheader, the Sox fell behind, 2-0, in the first inning of the second game. Game over, right? End of the streak and all that. But no, those gutsy Boston players struck right back in the bottom of the first with back-to-back homers by Abreu and Contreras (back from his suspension) to take a 3-2 lead. 

The Rays tied it up with a homer of their own in the third, but Abreu reclaimed the lead with his second homer of the night. 4-3, Boston. 

The Red Sox starting pitcher, Eduardo Rivera, only lasted 2⅓ innings (3 runs, 3 hits, 3 strikeouts), but the bullpen carried the game and not only shut out the Rays the rest of the game, but gave up only two hits over the last six innings. Siegler added an insurance run with a double in the 4th, and that was all the Red Sox needed to win their 11th straight.

With the win, the Sox secured at least a tie in the weekend series against the Rays, and a tie was all that I had asked for. Anything more (12 straight?) is pure gravy. 

This afternoon (4:10 pm), Patrick Sandoval (0-0, 2.08) will make his second start of the season. On July 9, in his first start since coming off a years-long stretch on the IL, he struck out five and gave up only one run in 4⅓ innings against the White Sox for the sixth win of this current hot streak.

The Rays will put Ian Seymour (6-2, 4.59) on the mound.  In his last start against Boston back on June 9, he had the exact same record as Sandoval's against Chicago - 5 K's and one run - in a 3-1 Red Sox loss. That loss sunk Boston to a dismal 27-38, eleven games below .500, and they would sink even lower after a loss in Tampa Bay the next day. Our darkest hour. 

But here we are, just a little over a month later, at .500 and holding a 2-0 lead in a four-game weekend series against the first-place Rays. Isn't life grand?  

Red Sox 10, Rays 0

 

Are you fucking kidding me? Ten in a row! And with today's win coming at home, where the Sox were a dismal 17-27, and after four days off for the All-Start break, and against the Rays, the first-place team in the AL East, at that. And not just a "win." but a dominating 10-0 shutout of Tampa Bay. 

Holy smokes! We really are going to the World Series, baby!

Yoshida homered in the fourth and Narvaez homered in the seventh. Narvaez also hit RBI singles in the first and sixth, and Duran in the first and sixth. And in the sixth, in addition to Narvaez and Duran, Cheng, Rafaela, and Durbin also had RBIs. Eight out of the nine batters had at least one base hit today.

Big Jake Bennett allowed only one hit in six innings and struck out three. Gamboa kept the shoutout going for the next three innings, and Boston started the second half of the season - and today's doubleheader - with a  win. Tenth straight, the longest streak of this season and tying their longest streak of last year. With their tenth win, the Sox earned the coveted X-Wins Award. 

Rookie Eduardo Rivera (0-0) will start tonight's game against the Rays. Rivera's only pitched seven innings this year in two games, both against New York teams (Yankees and Mets) and has yet to give up his first run, so his ERA is a perfect 0.00. He'll be opposite Tampa's Mason Englert (0-2, 3.82), who pitched 3⅓ innings of relief in the Rays' 2-0 loss to Boston back on May 8.   

A win tonight would put the Sox (47-48) at .500 for the first time this season. They were 14 games underwater as recently as June 18 of this year, not even a full month ago. Will they make it 11 straight tonight? Will they clinch at least a series tie with the Rays? It's a high-stakes game with two unlikely starting pitchers, so anything could happen.      

Klink in the Bering

 

It looks like she's actually going to do it. After spending several days in King Cove on the Aleutian Peninsula, sailor Tamara Klink has passed through False Pass and is now heading north across the Bering Sea. 

Her stated mission is to retrieve her sailboat, the Sardinha 2, from its winter storage in Homer, Alaska and take it back to her native Brazil. The problem is that Alaska is north of the Pacific Ocean, and Brazil fronts on the Atlantic. To get to Brazil, she could sail south to the tip of South America, cross the Southern Ocean around Tierra del Fuego, and then head north in the Atlantic and home to Brazil. 

It appears she's not doing that. She's heading north.

She could sail back the way she came - around Alaska, through the Northwest Passage, around Labrador and Newfoundland, the thence south through the Atlantic to Brazil. Or she could sail over Russia and Scandinavia through the so-called Northwest Passage, Elle Hibbert's planned route for this summer, and then down and across the Atlantic from there. There's been no indication yet which way she intends to go.

Speaking of Hibbert, she's gone strangely radio-silent, not posting any updates in over two weeks. Presumably, she's got her sailboat, the Yeva, up and running and is waiting for the ice to clear in the Siberian Sea, which typically is about this time of year.  I hope in these politically fraught times she's not having visa or other entry issues, or somehow lost her enthusiasm for completing her Arctic circumnavigation.