The Passage in the strict sense is about 5,000 nautical miles, which have been defined as the most difficult route in the world because the ice, even in this warming period, is present along the entire route, even in summer, being able to still block it completely.

The route was traveled for the first time by the Norwegian Amundsen in three years, from 1903 to 1906, in which he also devoted himself to many important scientific observations.

No Italian boat had yet succeeded in the attempt. Arctic Sail Expeditions - Italy with the Best Explorer sailboat was the first to sail the North West Passage.

The expedition started on 1 June 2012 from Tromsø, in the north of Norway, touching Iceland, going up the west coast of Greenland, then entering the labyrinth of the Nunavut archipelago, north of Canada, continuing along the low coast of ' Alaska to the Aleutian Islands.

The sequel

Best Explorer, after wintering in Alaska in the windy King Cove, set off on new adventures in spring 2013 to touch the island of Kodiak, the Kenai Peninsula, Seward, Prince William Sound, the capital of Alaska Juneau. He walked the famous Inside Passage with its fjords, humpback whales and grizzlies. He then sailed to British Columbia in Desolation Sound and reached the tip of Vancouver Island where he wintered in the small harbor of Canoe Cove.

In 2014, leaving the Strait of Juan da Fuca again in the Pacific, he descended the American coast touching San Francisco and San Diego and entering Mexico at Ensenada.

From there it descended the outer coast of Baja California penetrating the coastal lagoons, where gray whales go to give birth, reached its southernmost tip in Cabo San Lucas, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, and rose again into the Sea of Cortez, rich in whales, sperm whales, sea lions, dolphins of various species and the incredible flying manta rays.

The future

After crossing the Pacific Ocean and arriving in Japan, Best Explorer is preparing to face the next challenge: the Northeast Passage that will bring it to close the circle in 2019, concluding both the world tour and the circumnavigation of the Arctic Ocean