Ella Hibbert: first British woman to sail the Northwest Passage solo

28-year-old Ella Hibbert is the first British woman to sail solo through the Northwest Passage during her Arctic circumnavigation

Ella Hibbert has joined an elite group of sailors who have successfully sailed solo through the Northwest Passage.

The 28-year-old RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and PADI divemaster is the first British woman to sail the route single-handed as part of her attempt to solo circumnavigate the Arctic Circle.

Previous solo sailors to achieve the feat include David Scott Cowper and Germany’s Susanne Huber-Curphey, the first woman to navigate the Northwest Passage single-handed.

She left Gosport in late May aboard her 1978 38ft Bruce Roberts offshore steel ketch Yeva, and has sailed past northern Iceland, southern and western Greenland, and through the Northwest Passage.

But she has now had to halt her Arctic challenge due to safety concerns, but has vowed to continue again next summer.

Yeva was prepared in Gosport

“Yeva and I are behind schedule, from equipment failures in Greenland, to battling weather and ice through the Northwest Passage, to my unfortunate running aground, we are late,” said Ella Hibbert.

She has liaised with Russian authorities about the northern sea route and said: “The Deputy General for Navigation for the Northern Sea Route (Northeast Passage) had advised against going this late in the game. He has told me that there is young ice starting to form between the Kara and Laptev Seas, in a stretch of water I can’t avoid; there is no way around it. Best case scenario would be I get that far and then have to turn around; worst case scenario could be that I end up getting trapped in the ice because I can’t sail through quickly enough.”

Ella said her priority has always been the safety of herself and her vessel, and “as disappointing a decision as it is to make, it is the safest decision not to proceed to Russia this year.”

“I am very disappointed. I feel like I have done everything I could, and I am so incredibly proud of what my team and I have managed to achieve this year,” said Ella.

She thanked her father for working “day in, day out” for three to four months to provide her with weather and ice routing, and her sponsors for getting her this far, and said: “I have absolutely every intention of coming back here next summer to finish what I started, to do the Northeast passage and to finish my single-handed circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle.

Ella Hibbert sailed Yeva to Nome in Alaska, but there was no room to lift her out on shore, so she is now sailing a further 1,200 miles south towards the Aleutians, and plans to lift the boat out at Kodiak or Homer.

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