Cruising, adventure sailing and expedition travel are a few of the terms that have been used to generalize what we do. Yes, it is true that Snow Dragon is a comfortable, well equipped boat that is designed to go anywhere in the world and we do take her to some pretty cool places. However, Snow Dragon is more complicated than just a method of travel, she is our home, way of life and at times our most demanding team member. Together we have crossed oceans, survived our share of disappointments and have made amazing friends along the way. After spending the past year and a half making our way from Alaska to Europe, Snow Dragon is now ready for the far north and will be spending the next 2-3 months exploring the arctic wilderness of Svalbard.
Svalbard, located just below the North Pole, is heavily regulated and anyone who wishes to go out of the Longyearbyen vicinity, also known as Area 10, without being part of an organized tour must obtain permission from the Sysselmannen (District Governor) before they can proceed. We found the application process to be fairly straight forward but it did take awhile for the Governor's office to respond. All expeditions must be entirely self-sufficient and once the Governor approved our request to explore the area in depth he set a bond of 200,000 NOK ($31,841) to cover potential search and rescue expenses (SAR). We decided to purchase SAR insurance instead of providing a bank guarantee and have spent much of the last week in Tromso organizing the insurance which turned out to be a nonstandard item.
Our plan is to arrive in Svalbard by the second week of June and explore the west coast while we wait for the ice to clear before going around to the east.
