In August of this year I will set off from Iceland on a one-of-a-kind trip. I am part of an expedition sailing from Reykjavik, Iceland to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland. This trip of 1300nm (2400km) will bring us across the Denmark Strait to the east coast of Greenland, around the southern tip, and up the west coast as far as the Arctic Circle.

We include; 

• Karen Darke*, 3 time Paralympic Games medal winner, professional athlete and full time inspiration
• Felicity Aston, scientist and the first woman to ski solo across Antarctica 
• Madeline St Clair, underwater photographer and adventurer
• Sophia Scott, award-winning documentary maker and climate activist
• Emma Wolstenholme, solo Atlantic rower and ex-RAF officer
• Anjuli Pandit, corporate climate activist
• Sarisher Mann, sustainable finance expert 
• Me, a solo offshore sailor with the environment at the top of my list of priorities. 

Drawn together by a mutual love of adventure and a desire to highlight climate change, we have never physically met. However, there is already a strong feeling that we can achieve anything. The collective drive of this team would be enough to launch a rocket into space, but we have set our sights instead on using sport to tell the story of how climate change is affecting Greenland.

*due to illness Karen sadly wasn't able to join the expedition.

Our planned mission is to leave from Reykjavik and head for the west coast of Greenland. Along the way, Felicity will supervise us collecting data. She will use this data in her research on micro plastics. Then we hope to pass through the Prince Christian Sound, a network of spectacular fjords in the southern tip of Greenland to the West coast. This passage has historically been tricky to navigate as it’s been choked with sea ice, swept down the eastern coast of Greenland by ocean currents. Sadly, as sea water temperatures rise, the presence of this ice is becoming less and less marked, as passage by boats are more and more common. This is just one tiny demonstration of the rapid and dramatic changes in the Arctic region that we want to call attention to.

The melting of the ice cap in Greenland happens every year seasonally, but the rate of these annual melts has been rising steadily, and the area of ice melting in 2021 is even larger than the extreme melting event that happened in 2019. Felicity’s research will also show how airborne microplastics make their way into the Arctic from Europe and the Americas.

Once we reach the west coast, we turn north and head for the fjord of Kangerlussuaq. The idea of the trip was first born when we were intrigued by the interesting work that Extreme-E race is doing, using extreme sport to draw people’s attention to climate change and serious environmental issues around the world. Extreme-E is a rally race in electric SUVs. They choose locations that are deeply affected by climate change, with the idea of highlighting these places and the problems they are trying to deal with. In Greenland, the rally will be held in the glacial moraine left behind due to the retreat of the Russell glacier. We will use our trip to help the Extreme-E scientists in their research on the Greenland area.

Sophia and Madeline will document our journey, telling each of our individual stories and showcasing the fantastic landscape being destroyed by climate change.

For the trip, we are renting the 60ft Arctic sailing boat, Qilak, along with a crew of 3, to support us on our mission. Karen, along with her partners, Williams Advanced Engineering, has designed a hand bike that she can use to generate power during our trip, which can then be used to run the boat's desalination plant.

I will focus on sailing the boat! For me, this trip is also a way to mix my professional sailing with my commitment to stopping climate change and helping improve our environment. My ultimate sailing goal is to compete in the Vendée Globe solo around the world race, and a central theme of my campaign is focused on the environment.

The rate that climate change is happening is still news to so many people. We want to bring awareness to this, stop the world from being so oblivious, and start taking action. I think we have created an amazing and strong team of diverse women, and I feel that we can really make an impact.

Joan Mulloy is a solo offshore sailor from the west coast of Ireland. In 2018, she was the first Irish woman to compete in the Solitaire du Figaro race, and in 2019, she was part of the only all-female crew on the double-handed transatlantic race, the Transat Jacques Vabre, racing 4MyPlanet. Her ultimate goal is to compete in the Vendée Globe solo around the world race. Joan lives on the shore of an Irish fjord with her husband and their young son.

Images courtesy of GROUNDTRUTH Global.