Future Capital Partners and Bear Grylls - Northwest Passage

Having wrapped up a great day of sea survival, capsize and rough weather training for the FCP North West Passage down at the RNLI we were quickly shown that mother nature is indeed unpredictable as we set out for Jersey in our RIB.

By the time we reached the St Helier Marina on the island of Jersey which took over 6 hours, we had substantial following seas and winds of approx 25 knots testing the crew and the kit we had. But all came through well, even if we did feel quite tired by the end. (And it was only 150 miles whereas each leg in the Arctic is a minimum of 800 miles!)

But as a team it was fantastic to be out together and working together.

On Sunday we awoke to worsening weather situation and the sea state had deteriorated considerably.

But we also knew that this would provide a great test for the arctic passage as this could well be the normal daily weather we could see inside the Arctic Circle.

It was certainly a long trip, demanding constant concentration as well as communication with John our expedition manager in order to keep the team all in the loop to our location and our progress. We all felt pretty battered by the time we got home but there is nothing like a little fear and focus to bind you together!

Many things were highlighted during the training weekend and so many thoughts and job lists arose from that, which is precisely what we had hoped to gather from this training - and as they say "it's best to train hard and fight easy".

Bear

We have uploaded the photos from the training session at the RNLI (10th April). You can view them all in the image gallery here.

The first interview with Bear about the Northwest Passage trip is out this month in Motorboat Monthly. More interviews and press coverage to follow soon, after the official launch of our trip, down in Poole, this weekend.

Bear talks about how he and Tim came up with the idea for the trip, about the environmental angle, the kit, the preparations and the dangers.

You can download the full interview in this PDF.

David Smith (from Shockwave) testing shock absorbers for the ICE - the world's first fully suspended cockpit, which we will use in the trip. Amazing!

It has been a crazy few months getting the RIB and engines sorted - Mercury V300s and Shockwave Seats have been amazing over in Canada sorting this.

Having Dave Smith's expertise has been priceless and he is overseeing the RIB's final fitout, including the long range fuel tanks, new engines, seating and storage configurations and where we are going to sleep! (Current idea is to wedge a waterproof mattress between the seats- basic but practical as it will wrap around our bodies.)

The navigation equipment, helmets, comms, water-boilers etc are all coming together, and the delivery and exfil team are coordinating logistics, including fuelling plans.

The delivery team will consist of John Coffey, expedition manager, Dave Smith from Shockwave Seats and two of his most adventurous staff, and Ben Mobley from Sunseeker.

We will bring the RIB by sea, north, up the whole length of Eastern Canada - no mean feat in itself!

Musto our clothing sponsor and Craghoppers have delivered all the latest team kit, as have Simrad who have supplied us with the most advanced electronic navigation equipment including Broadband radar and AIS RAB sleeping systems will keep us warm and dry, God willing.

We still need a practical anti-polar bear solution, beyond just flare guns. We are looking into this. Some sort of simple perimeter wire would work well if we are forced to camp on the ice or shelter in a storm.

Predicted ice conditions will be a constant feature for us to monitor over the next few months. The concern is that shrinking ice caps means the ice tends to fragment, which in turn has in the past choked up key straits for us on the North West Passage route. But who knows? We might well, alternatively, encounter a pretty ice-free route.

We have great air support from our pilot Charlie Thompson, in two planes. These will fly the main team into Pond Inlet and extract the delivery team.

Likewise the plane will pick us up at the end of the expedition in Tuk. (And be on stand-by in case of any emergencies. Thanks to Dave Segel for this cover.)

The team is flying in from all over the world next week for our first sea trials together, including capsize drills down at the RNLI HQ in Poole. Should be a fun time! (I hope Poole doesn't bring back too many bad memories of physical beatings for Dave Pearce, our Royal marines helmsman!)

Bear