It's Over

 

The Yeva has been docked in Nome, Alaska since the 13th of August, and Ella Hibbert finally announced today that Russia's Northern Sea Route Administration had told her to end her attempt at crossing the Northeast Passage this year due to an unusually heavy amount of ice blocking the entrance to the Chuhchi Sea. She is therefore abandoning her plan to complete her Arctic circumnavigation this year, but vows to try again next year. 

Her permit for the NSR states that she must remain in “ice free waters” during her passage, unlike Canada's Northwest Passage, where one is allowed to find paths through the ice fields. Presumably, the permits for Matt Rutherford and Tamara Klink (if she had one) had the same or similar stipulation.

Tamara made it about halfway to Wrangell Island (the olive-colored blob at the very top of the map north of the red-colored ice field) before being ordered to turn back. Unfortunately, that means she had to pass through the thickest portion of the ice field again although open water was accessible just a little further to the west. She's been having an absolutely harrowing experience returning, fighting sleep deprivation and worsening weather conditions, and has complained of hallucinations and ice damage to the boat, the Sardinha. Her updates have become confused and garbled, often self-contradictory from one sentence to the next. To be honest, I'm worried about her, but take some comfort that she's currently rounding Cape Dezhnev, entering the Bering Strait and out of the Chukchi ice field. It gets better, Tamara. Hang in there.

I'm also suspicious of Russia's motives. Sure, there's ice in the Chukchi and no one wants to have to make a rescue in easternmost Siberia even in August, but I wonder if they have other reasons for closing the Northern Sea Route. They're at war against Ukraine, which has been using unconventional strategies including drone warfare to overcome Russia's conventional military superiority, and who needs some random sailboats along your northern coast doing god knows what under those conditions? Also, with Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen taking hostile actions in the Red Sea, I wouldn't be surprised that Russia wants to assert it's sovereignty and control over passage over the NSR and not show the world that young women can sail right through in solo sailboats. Better to allow only large, corporate cargo ships accompanied by nuclear-powered Russian icebreaking vessels to show the world that they're in charge up there.