A learning opportunity
I’m not sure why I was so late to the party when it comes to the channel Alluring Arctic, but having taken the bait on a recent title which included the words ‘Pan-Pan’ and ‘Tørshavn’, I was hooked.
Juho Karhu is a modern day Bill Tilman (if you can picture Tilman as a dreadlocked, kitesurfing Finn... a stretch, I know). A freelance games translator and free-skiing fanatic, Juho first wintered aboard his 1984 Beneteau Idylle 1150 in Finland in 2017. Having survived that, he sailed to the north of Norway and spent the following two winters alone, taking himself on sail expeditions to watch whales and ski remote peaks. Other times he was joined by friends for adventures including a trip to Svalbard for scientific data collection, wildlife observation and, of course, more skiing. He eventually shared all of this in beautifully crafted videos, full of stunning drone photography.
In July of this year he moved onto Arktika, a 1984 META Voyageur 47 motorsailer which had been on the hard in Tromsø for years. This aluminium expedition vessel, built by the same yard that produced Moitessier’s Joshua, had in 2013/14 transited both the Northwest and Northeast Passages in the hands of French explorer Gilles Elkaim.
Determined to reach
Iceland before winter, the refit was necessarily more rushed than ideal. After motorsailing down the coast to Ålesund with friends, Juho made his first ocean passage on the boat to Tørshavn, Faroe Islands with his girlfriend Sohvi as crew. As the title suggests, this featured episode shows them running into difficulties as they motor towards an anchorage in Vestmanna on the west side of Streymoy. The engines fail, and with strong tidal currents, no wind, and no hope of anchoring, they are compelled to call for assistance. An embarrassed Juho then talks through the basic error that led to this unfortunate situation, and how they could have avoided the incident altogether, resulting in a super learning opportunity for us all. What the recent vlog-style episodes lack in production values and stunning scenery, they more than make up for by being more relatable and
educational. PAN-PAN-PAN, Torshavn radio – No maneuverability & no engine! youtu.be/TejVQxtPo70