momo goes northwest
spring 2004 a voyage from norway via the faroes, iceland and greenland to alaska through the northwest passage was planned.
as planes tend to change, this one was changed.
but since the northwest passage has been a dream for many years, i suppose i will end up there some time.
the route:
the northwest passage is the seaway that was possible fought for hardest in the history of seafaring. good men like frobisher and franklin were lost there, fine ships like the terror and erebus destroyed by ice pressings, and after a 400 year long struggle by many nations, the norwegian boat “gjøa” was the first to complete the passage. the nature along the way is maybe to beautiful to be described by words, but the high latitudes can also show its teeth at times. apart from pack ice, drifting icebergs and –flukes the solitude and the cold must be mastered. navigation is difficult, since the route leads nearly over the magnetic north pole, which makes any compass useless.
the mission:
most poar expeditions had a scientific mission. the scientific work on board will be devided into three separat fields: antropologie, human diagnostic and social emendations:
anthropologie: anthropologists in the 19th and up to the 20th centurie have described the offer of intercourse with the wive of the home as beening part of polite hospitality. on our voyage we want to examen empiricaly in how many procent of the visited homes we actually perform coitus with the hostess.
human diagnostic: peter lukas is going to take his flute with him, and we want to find out wheather or not long periodes of solitude in the arctic night will influence the relative hearing in humans as a result of gradual replacement of speech by music. this theory is not suported by scientists yet as a lack of experimental reverence sources.
social emendations: we will try to find the american popsinger elvis pressley (74), who has settled in canada's new province, nunavat.
no, serious: this trip has no mission and no purpose. it is about experiencing one of the worlds most beautiful places and living boy's dreams about beeing savage, drinking whisky with glacier ice and squcking a faw.
the skipper:
peter lukas, born 1969 in austria, resident of norway, has spent the last 17 years traveling. for 10 years he lived aboard. after having sailed the north for the last years, he decided to move to the other side of the globe without using the “barefoot root”. this voyage was planned some years ago, but becoming father in 1997 kept him in norway. a few of his earlier travels, by land and sea: hitchhiking from mexico to alaska in 1989, sahara crossing in 1990/1991 from algeria to nigeria, in an (already then) old bedford van. walking through the negev dessert in 1993. in 1995/96 sailing in scandinavia, the uk, ireland and biscay, and through the english channel back to germany (in s/y mapitom, a mahogany boat without working engine). 2000 crossing haiti from south to north by bicycle, 2002 sailing to shetland, faroer and iceland. the gaps between these travels were filled by other journeys. he makes a living as a writer and photographer and painter.
sponsorship:
we want no sponsors that give us money. (boats full of stickers that look like a comic designed by dalt wisney look silly)
but there are some producers of quality equipement of the kind you need in the arctic, and some of them give us their products, or give us a good discount, or people who helped the trip in other way:
yachtbau jannsen & renkhoff, kappeln, germany
grimstad jakt og fiske, norway, www.gjf.no
dr. claus jaeckel, germany
richard a. nordahl, grimstad, norway