He’s Attempting Mission Impossible: Sailing Around the Arctic

Matt Rutherford is attempting the first nonstop, single-handed circumnavigation of the Arctic Ocean, a trip that shouldn't be possible except that Arctic sea ice has fallen below last year's record low. He departed Aasiaat, Greenland on June 25, the same day a severe heatwave hit Western, Central, and Southern Europe.

Rutherford already holds two Guinness World Records: solo nonstop circumnavigation of the Americas, and smallest boat through the Northwest Passage. This route runs from Greenland to the Russian border, along the Northern Sea Route, north of Alaska, through the Northwest Passage, and back to Aasiaat. Over 10,000 miles solo. He expects to finish by early October and gives himself a 75% chance of completing it.

He calls sleep deprivation the hardest part, sleeping in 25-minute bursts to watch for ice. Storms and an overladen boat carrying extra fuel add danger.

Rutherford grew up in a religious cult, lived on the streets as a teen, and found sailing at 25. The voyage funds his nonprofit, Ocean Research Project, studying Arctic climate change, at a time when polar science funding has been cut sharply. He discusses his prep, daily routine, the geopolitics of Russian Arctic waters, and what he hopes people take from the trip.