Off to the Arctic!
Saffron Walden grandfather and environmental campaigner, Edward Gildea, is setting sail once again, this time to the Arctic Ocean.
Having completed his circumnavigation five years ago, he will be setting off from Portsmouth, and sailing up to the Hebrides. From there his 68 foot, professionally skippered yacht will head across the North Atlantic to Iceland and on to Greenland, heading north into the Arctic Circle as far as the ice permits. The return journey will be via the Faroes and then south either side of the British Isles, stopping off in Holland or the Scilly Isles, depending on the winds.
“I am looking forward to being back at sea again, whether in light airs or gale force winds, feeling that intense connection with the planet. When you are helming you have to be sensitive to every shift in the wind or change of pressure, to the lift of the waves and the behaviour of the sails. If you don’t anticipate those forces, you could be in trouble!”
Sailing around the world turned Edward into an environmental campaigner. “It took my awareness of the planet and how it is changing to a new level, intensified by the birth of my grandsons. They are what motivate me. This expedition north is also about gathering more first-hand experiences of the climate crisis because temperatures are rising so much faster around the North Pole than they are here. It could well mean that I campaign all the more passionately as the Green Party Parliamentary candidate when I get back to Uttlesford!”
Edward Gildea