“ And so , in June 2023 , I flew to the Arctic to join The Arctic Cowboys . I ’ d never met my three teammates - Americans West , Jeff Wueste and Eileen Visser .”
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“ And so , in June 2023 , I flew to the Arctic to join The Arctic Cowboys . I ’ d never met my three teammates - Americans West , Jeff Wueste and Eileen Visser .”
West then posted on FaceBook that he planned to return for another attempt in 2023 . This time , he was going in two tandem kayaks and needed more paddlers . I tentatively reached out . I was not prepared to wait another year for a rowing team that may or may not go , and most of my friends had left the rowing team anyway .
To my surprise , West accepted my application .
And so , in June 2023 , I flew to the Arctic to join The Arctic Cowboys . I ’ d never met my three teammates – Americans West , Jeff Wueste and Eileen Visser . is open for so long . There have been multiple attempts over the last decade .
COVID-19
Covid-19 delayed both West ’ s kayaking and my rowing expeditions , so neither of us set off in 2021 . Then , in 2022 , my rowing team delayed the departure again . But West and the Cowboys set off . I wished them luck on FaceBook , but part of me was jealous that they were finally starting . They would set the world first before we ’ d even taken a stroke .
As it happened , they only made it a few hundred miles before they stopped . Delays in flying the kayaks to the Arctic had meant they started too late .
THE AMAZON AND THE VOLGA
West and Jeff are old friends and have already completed two world-first expeditions along the Amazon and the Volga . They had both attempted the Northwest Passage the year before . Like me , Eileen had joined the team at the last minute , but she at least had the chance to train with the others before flying north .
They were taking a gamble that I could switch from rowing to kayaking . Each one had a CV of ultra kayak victories as long as my arm . In a real sense , I was a novice among experts .
We cast off from shore on July 2 . The water was full of shifting sea ice . We naively thought we could skirt along the edge of the sea ice and then kayak to shore when we needed to set up camp .
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