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In response to the Belt and Road Initiative, we call for people to pay attention to, protect and rationally use the Arctic. Zhai Mo, the first Chinese solo sailor to sail around the world, set sail from Shanghai on the "Global Pass" sailing ship and began a non-docking journey around the Arctic Ocean. The Paper Reporter Zhang Chengjun Zou Jiawen Trainee Editor Ma Xiao(02:54)
Some ships are born to belong to the sea, just as some are born to sail long distances.
Stretching the sails and not stretching the sails makes the Global Pass look like two ships. This brig is 25 meters long and 27 meters high. In the waters of Shanghai's inner harbor, it generally puts away its sails, except for the mast more, it looks no different from ordinary ships, and sways with the waves warmly; And once the sails are opened, it suddenly rises up, tightens the rope, and rides the wind, as if it can go anywhere.
In November 2022, Zhai Mo was sailing a boat. All pictures in this article, except for the byline, are provided by interviewees
In fact, this is a great sailing ship that has just completed "no man's land". It set sail from Shanghai in June 2021 with its captain Zhai Mo and two crew members, taking more than 500 days and more than 28,000 nautical miles back to Shanghai, completing the feat of circumnavigating the Arctic Ocean without docking for the first time.
From Shanghai, all the way north, through the East China Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Western Pacific Ocean, through the Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Laptev Sea, Kara Sea, Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea, Greenland Sea, Danish Strait, North Atlantic, Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and other seas... Along the way, they encountered storms brought by polar cyclones, experienced the sudden failure of the dashboard at 75 degrees north latitude, and were hit by three typhoons at the same time but had to rush forward.
"The worst and best idea of sailing is to come back alive." Zhai Mo told the surging news reporter, "Your extremely strong vitality will expand in a harsh environment, and tribulations make life stronger." ”
Icebergs and boats.
Of course, Zhai Mo also saw the iceberg in his dream, pure white and quiet, some towering to tens of meters, and some with shocking nudity. Crushed ice hits ships all with a crisp sound, wonderfully fragile awesome iceberg. This is also one of the purposes of this trip - to promote ecological environmental protection and sustainable development, and call on people to pay attention to, protect and rationally use the Arctic.
Go sailing, for twenty years of dreams
"'Contemporary Zheng He', 'Chinese Robinson', someone described him as such. And I know that he saw the sea for the first time when he was fifteen years old, and this is the mountain people of Tai'an, Shandong. ”
In August 2020, well-known director Jiang Wen wrote this passage in Beijing to his friend "Shanmin Lao Zhai", who had opened a studio with him in a courtyard. At that time, he knew that his friend had plans to sail to the north and south poles.
On the morning of November 15, Zhai Mo disembarked from the ship, and the representatives of the citizens laid garlands and bouquets. The Paper reporter Zou Jiawen Photo
Time flies, and in November 2022, "Mountain Man Lao Zhai" has returned with the feat of circumnavigating the Arctic Ocean without docking. On November 15, an official homecoming ceremony was held in Shanghai for Zhai Mo. During the live saxophone performance of "Going Home", he disembarked from his sailboat, waved to the citizens on the pier, and accepted the flowers presented to him. This tall, thin Shandong man, with bronzed skin, his trademark long hair pulled back, and hidden gray hair - he is 54 years old.
Zhai Mo has been famous for a long time. Before entering sailing in 2000, he was an artist who held exhibitions around the world. An experience in New Zealand in 2000 changed him, and in the middle of an exhibition, he met an old captain and learned about sailing, the freest way to travel around the world, and he decided to own a sailing ship that could travel only by the wind, and he has been out of control ever since.
From January 2007 to August 2009, Zhai Mo spent two and a half years sailing around the world on a solo sailboat, becoming "China's first person to sail around the world with a single unpowered sailboat", and won the 2009 CCTV "Moving China" Person of the Year; From April to September 2015, he led the large-scale sailing activity of "2015 Re-walking the Maritime Silk Road", led the fleet to set sail from Fujian, passed through Singapore to 8 countries in Turkey, carried out cultural and artistic economic and trade exchanges in various countries along the way, and returned home at the China Pavilion at the 2015 Milan World Expo; The following year, he traveled from Qinhuangdao to South Korea and Japan, completing the "2016 Re-Walking of the Maritime Silk Road".
The "legendary" passage around the Arctic Ocean that is now completed has taken root in Zhai Mo's heart for nearly twenty years. In 2002, Zhai Mo met a navigator named Hank while circumnavigating the Netherlands, who told him that he had circled the earth five times, and by the sixth lap, the ship was frozen in the Northland Islands, and he was able to come out the following year when the Russian icebreaker came. This experience made Zhai Mo set a goal in his heart - "I think I can do this thing".
Icebergs and boats.
The Northeast and Northwest Passages of the Arctic are known as the "legendary passages", and it is not the first time that they have sailed alone, but they add up to circling the Arctic Ocean without docking, which has increased in difficulty and has always fascinated countless navigators. Because the two channels have been frozen for a long time, in order to connect the northeast and northwest sections, it is necessary to accurately calculate the navigable window time, and the "force" such as climate and ocean currents does not occur special circumstances, so there is no one who has not realized the circumnavigation of the Arctic Ocean without docking.
Zhai Mo didn't just do it, and for nearly twenty years, he began to prepare in two major aspects. The first is to accumulate sailing experience. Zhai Mo set himself a plan to do a solo round the world on the first lap, and he realized it from 2007 to 2009; The second circle is to go to the Maritime Silk Road to do cultural activities.
Second, ships, Zhai Mo predicts, ships going to the ice area are very likely to collide with icebergs, so the most suitable material for ships is aluminum alloy, and the toughness is better than that of ordinary fiberglass, carbon fiber or wood cement ships. After several selections, he met the current "sea lover" more than two years ago and named it "Zhai Mo 1", which was later renamed "Global Pass". The boat is like home, with a wheelhouse on the ground floor, a living room on the basement floor with brushes and books, and a bedroom, washroom, kitchen, storage room, etc.
In 2019, Zhai Mo began to make specific preparations for sailing the Arctic Ocean, doing his homework and obtaining support in technology, routes, funds, materials and other aspects. In terms of food, he brought at least enough to eat for a year and a half, including rice, pancakes, naan, Gansu yak meat, and a sufficient amount of alcohol and drinks, including fresh water processors. Out of sight, the ship was stuffed with tinkering and necessities, as well as fishing rods, and medical equipment including sprains for falls, anti-inflammatory drugs, fracture splints, anesthetics and even scalpels. The ship also invited the statue of Guanyin and Mazu in the South China Sea, and a friend asked for the peace talisman of Putuo Mountain for him, and he posted it in a conspicuous place in the cabin to pray for safety at sea.
In terms of personnel, he found an old Russian sailing friend and a new friend who had experience circumnavigating the globe as crew members. On board, they usually change shifts every three hours, one is responsible for driving the boat, and two are responsible for watching out on the left and right sides of the ship.
Everything is ready, in June 2021, carrying the ardent expectations of all aspects, Zhai Mo set sail from Shanghai Qinhuangdao Road Pier with some apprehension and excitement about the unknown.
Go sail and challenge the limits
Without stopping at the circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle, Zhai Mo spent 4 months, and in his opinion, he was generally lucky.
Zhai Mo loves the ship as much as his life, and the hull has been caught and collided by ice floes on both sides, and he feels like a sullen crash into himself, but because it is ice, the sound is "clicking", and it sounds a little brittle.
The first time it touched the ice was in late July 2021, when the sailboat crossed the Bering Strait and entered Chukotka waters.
The Chukchi Sea is located within the Arctic Circle, has a cold climate, and is affected by the warmer waters flowing into the Pacific Ocean, and the freezing period is more than 7 months, and it is generally navigable only in summer. It turned out that when he was doing navigation design, Zhai Mo imagined that he could take advantage of the navigable window to drive through the nearshore part near land, where there was generally less broken ice and ice floes. Unexpectedly, because of the unexpected polar cyclone, the unmelted crushed ice was blown to the shore, and the broken ice came closer than expected.
Dolphins on the side of the boat.
The ship was "clicked" by the ice floes on both sides, and Zhai Mo took out the technique of the twenty-year-old captain. The speed of the boat is pulled to 1 to 3 knots, specifically looking for gaps in the ice floes, but if you can't wear it, you take the pole to support the ice and snow, and the boat moves forward a little bit. Under the extremely high driving difficulty, Zhai Mo and his party took 3 days to pass.
And that's actually scary. If they delayed their voyage, a week late and returned to the Northland Islands, their ship would most likely freeze, so that they would only have a chance to pass when the icebreaker arrived the following year—although the experienced captains were prepared to be saved for the next year, and in addition to bringing enough food reserves, they also brought firecrackers to scare away polar bears that might raid them if they froze. Only the temperature of more than minus 70 degrees Celsius to more than minus 50 degrees Celsius may be difficult to bear, that can only be hardened.
Before he could calm down, in August 2021, the interference of polar cyclones caused another big problem. When the ship was sailing to Greenland, there was a sudden wind of 46 knots (close to 11 magnitude winds) on the sea. When he was circumnavigating the earth alone, Zhai Mo had encountered the coming of a big storm, and he knew that this was a tough battle, but he was not so panicked, but he didn't expect it - a crew member panicked and mistakenly operated the sails to be put away into release. The sails were instantly filled with strong winds, hoisting the hull into a near-vertical shape, almost turning the ship overturned, and it was almost impossible for people to move on it.
In the nick of time, Zhai Mo made a decision: cut the rope that tightened the boat and the front sail. As the rope broke, the huge front sail could not be supported, and the "boom" broke into the water, and at the same time, the full wind withdrew in an instant, and the strength of holding up the boat was also reduced. Zhai Mo and the two crew members struggled to control their balance, and without hesitation, they began to fish for the sails. Before and after, three people tossed the sail for five or six hours in the wind and rain.
Thinking back on this paragraph, Zhai Mo couldn't help but laugh, "Hey, I was depressed, I really wanted to kick the crew down." But this is also excusable, people are easy to panic when they are nervous. Zhai Mo's smile was put away, and he was right: "Navigation is like this, a small mistake is likely to cause a fatal blow, so it puts forward very high requirements for the quality of people." But that's also what makes this extreme sport fascinating. ”
Sailing around the Arctic Ocean, the ship is in Baffin Bay.
Fortunately, the storm caused by the polar cyclone came and went quickly, and after the foresail was broken, the "Global Pass" navigation around the Arctic Ocean was completed by the storm sail at the front of the ship. After successfully completing the challenge of circumnavigating the Arctic Ocean without docking, the sailboat underhauled and rested on the west coast of the North Atlantic, where the ship's foresail was repaired, and then traveled south along the east coast of North America, through the North Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific Ocean, returning to Shanghai, the place of departure.
Go sail for the beauty of the North
Difficulties large and small still exist. For example, when sailing to 75 degrees north latitude, located in the Arctic magnetic region, navigation instruments almost all failed, and finally only a fiber optic compass remained, under normal circumstances, navigation is not the most accurate equipment, pointing out the general direction for them in that dimension; For example, they were summoned back for inspection three hours after the ship left the post of a certain country, and they were told to "shoot if they don't go back"; Due to the epidemic, on some of the original shipping routes, they were rejected by some countries and had to take a detour, and the itinerary exceeded the original expectations.
"Close to the 75th parallel north, there are almost no charts." Zhai Mo could only try it while sailing, and he had to find a way, and he didn't know what problems he would encounter. Along the way, he marked the globe at hand with a red route map, and when he reached 80 degrees north latitude, Zhai Mo drank some wine, and a little pride rose in his heart, "I found that I was still quite bullish haha, because there were no ancients before, and later... There will be comers. ”
Zhai Mo circumnavigating the Arctic Ocean. Source: Zhai Mo Weibo
This is indeed an unprecedented journey, but he seems to be receiving the "gaze" of the people before him all the time. "It seems that when you come to the Arctic, you will know that there are so many sea straits in the Arctic that are named after navigation pioneers." The names of the Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, and Bering Island are derived from the Danish explorer Vitas Bering who died on the island; The Barents Sea is also one of the continental seas of the Arctic Ocean, named after the Dutch navigator William Barents who died in this area. "The Arctic Ocean Passage seems to be a 'road of death', coupled with the silence, in the days when there is no storm test, the eerie feeling still makes me shiver, like facing the tombstones of my predecessors." Zhai Mo's expression was serious, "But I think this is also a kind of awe." ”
But the Arctic, as well as the ocean, does have a haunting charm. The unknown realm in the depths of the ocean and at the end of the earth also made Zhai Mo willing to gamble everything to explore and challenge.
Sailing the boat, they went north of the Arctic Ocean and met the Inuit, who were killing a whale at the time. The boat was very close to them, but did not stop, and the Inuit pointed them out where there were fish, so that Zhai Mo and his party had a good harvest.
Some icebergs are taller than buildings, like an island, and the large area of icebergs is spectacular. And in the polar day, the day and night are bright, it is a kind of foggy light that cannot see the sun, making people wonder where this night is.
There are also a lot of dolphins on the road. On the return journey close to China's waters, more than 30 dolphins gathered at the bow of the boat as soon as they saw Zhai Mo's boat, hugging each other and hugging each other, beautiful and healing. There are also whales, they have encountered no less than twenty or thirty large whales, probably in the northeast Pacific, there are whales so close that they can almost hear a sound like breathing, they watch the whales spray water, about two meters high. There are also walruses, seals, sea lions, and life has a shocking beauty in the white far north.
Zhai Mo has not forgotten his mission to bring attention to and protect the Arctic, and these beautiful scenery are excellent material.
At dusk, sail around the Arctic Ocean.
Seabirds along the way
Walruses along the way
In fact, he felt that his identities as navigators and artists were not in conflict. He thought about making this whole voyage a conceptual art, or performance art. "Navigation is a technical thing, but the act itself can be used as a carrier and medium to carry ideas. Therefore, you can follow me to see the tides, ocean currents, wind direction, icebergs, walruses, dolphins, to pay attention to the problems I care about and want everyone to pay attention to. ”
In the Far North, he photographed an iceberg and compared it with an iceberg in the same direction 100 years ago, "You can see that the change is very fast, 100 years ago it was all ice, and now it is much naked." ”
He wants to bring more and more young people to understand the Arctic and care about climate issues such as global warming. Therefore, on the way, Zhai Mo often posted Weibo with small videos, and accepted the media's Arctic live broadcast invitation, under the themes of Voyage Day, marine garbage, climate change, typhoons, coral reefs, date change lines, Mariana Trench, Homecoming 12 territorial waters and other themes, turned on the camera, popularized navigation knowledge and culture, and connected with all viewers who wanted to get a glimpse of the Arctic or were simply curious about how he sailed.
Zhai Mo's voyage may have no end, just like his old friend Jiang Wen wrote in the article, because "the sea is always there." Now, the idle Zhai Mo is planning his next voyage, and he wants to sail around the South Pole, which he has also missed for a long time, and the departure may be next year.
Zhu Bichen design