Sailor says FSB halted his Arctic voyage — Live Science

In Russia, sailor Matt Rutherford was forced to abandon his attempt to circumnavigate the Arctic Ocean alone, without stops or outside assistance. According to him, officers of the FSB of the Russian Federation — an aggressor state — boarded his vessel twice and ordered him to change course.

As Live Science reports, Rutherford set off from western Greenland on June 25. His route passed the southern tip of Greenland, through the Denmark Strait, the Greenland, Norwegian and Barents seas. In mid-August, he reached the area of Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago and planned to continue toward Canada.

Two boardings

Rutherford said he had progressed about 1,600 kilometers along the Northern Sea Route. After the first boarding, he was turned back, and later the vessel was inspected a second time. Two days after changing course, the ice he had been waiting to open up broke apart, but the Northern Sea Route Association in Moscow said that returning would mean violating the permit that had been issued.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

According to the publication, some parts of the High Arctic were impassable this year due to a relatively cold summer and continuous ice fields. Rutherford's longest uninterrupted sailing stretch this season was 59 days.

A new attempt

Rutherford, the founder and executive director of the environmental nonprofit Ocean Research Project, plans to try again next year. The organization collects and analyzes marine data from aboard a sailing vessel. The sailor said he wants to travel north of Svalbard and Franz Josef Land and not approach Russian land closer than 12 miles, or 19 kilometers.