Short Communication
Giovanni Acquarone
Abstract
After having successfully sailed the Northwest Passage in 2012 with the first fully Italian expedition, Best Explorer, a 51 feet steel recreational sailing yacht, will complete the circumnavigation of the Arctic Ocean in 2019, from Japan to Norway, sailing north of the Eurasian continent (Siberia), from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. The Northern Arctic Sea Route – NASR is an extremely long and challenging route: 8,500 nautical miles, most of which (4,500 n.m.) in the Arctic Ocean. The Team, on board and on shore, is composed by all members of “Arctic Sail Expeditions – ITALIA” association and Giovanni (Nanni) Acquarone, the skipper and expedition leader, is one of Italian guys having had an extensive knowledge of the Arctic, having sailed the most difficult sea courses of the world, even more in the legendary Northwest Passage. This is a project that will bring Italy’s name to the attention of the public once more and, if properly supported and advertised, will be an incentive for many to valiantly start other similarly outstanding feats. Cultural and scientific projects will be carried out in parallel with the expedition, such as meetings with local communities or experimentation of satellite technologies (positioning such as GPS and Galileo, telecommunications and Earth observation), depending on partners or sponsor requirements. Keywords: NASR; Maritime navigation; Arctic; GNSS; GPS; Galileo; EGNOS; QZSS; Satellite communications; Iridium; Globastar; Earth observation; Cosmo skymed Introduction Best Explorer, under the command of Giovanni (Nanni) Acquarone [1], was the first S/Y in the history of Italian navigation which, in the summer of 2012, successfully crossed the legendary Northwest Passage. Best Explorer is a cutter steel S/Y of the following dimensions: Length 15.17 m and 17.00 m. with the aft bridge, and 4.34 m width. With a lift keel, the draft varies from 1.40 m and 2.90 m. It has a 95 HP Solé Diesel Engine. The sail area is 181 m². Best Explorer is ranked 100 A 1.1 by RINA. It displaces about 25 tons. The lift keel allows the approach and navigation on shallow waters, which are found frequently in the north. The bow has been reinforced and is in stainless steel with a thickness of 6 mm against the 5 mm of the rest of the hull (Figure 1). Discovered between 1903 and 1906 by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who spent a long time studying - among other things - terrestrial magnetism, the Northwest Passage is that maritime itinerary that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean passing through the maze of islands and ice of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (Nunavut), which extends well above the Arctic Circle. Best Explorer left Tromsø – in northern Norway – on the 1st of June 2012 and ended its trip to King Cove – on the southern coast of the Alaskan peninsula – on the 14th of October same year, after 140 days of navigation and a measured distance on the sea of 8.181 nautical miles (about 15.000 km), touching the maximum latitude of 74° 30' North (less than 1.700 km from the North Pole) in Dundas Harbor on the southern coast of Devon Island. Difficulties were not lacking in its pilgrimage. From an instrumental point of view, the proximity of the magnetic north pole has rendered the compass unusable for all the central part of the journey (from the Davis Strait to Gjøa Haven on the King William Island) and the lack of GPS signal, guaranteed up to the latitude of 70° North, it has further complicated things; in addition, the cartography has not been of great support fundamentally because there is not (fortunately) still a commercial interest in those areas of the planet, nobody cares about detecting the depth of the waters and coastlines with the necessary accuracy. Literature Review From the meteorological point of view, the forecasts were found to be somewhat unreliable due to the extreme variability of atmospheric conditions and, once again, to the scarce commercial interest; the melting of ice that occurs from year to year with different effects does not simplify navigation because, due to the currents and winds, the huge pack slabs wander unpredictably and clog the narrow passages between an island and the other. We have had the opportunity to experience the distressing experience of getting stuck in ice on several occasions, sometimes only for a few hours, sometimes for several consecutive days (Figure 2). The whole travel experience, already told by the media, is now transcribed in the book "Senza Bussola Fra I Ghiacci", published by Mursia-Italy, presented in preview at the event dedicated to the sea literature "Lerici Legge Il Mare", Lerici (SP) Italy, on the 10th of September 2017 [2] (Figure 3). From 2012 to date, Best Explorer has not stopped and sailed along the southern coasts of Alaska, western Canada, the United States, Mexico and Baja California, the Galapagos, Polynesia, Rarotonga, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Australia and its coral reef, and finish on August 2017 in Sorong in West Papua (Indonesia). In 2018, then, Best Explorer sailed from Indonesia to the Philippines and Japan, touching the major towns to promote the "made in Italy", in collaboration with the Italian chambers of commerce.