Veronica Lysaght has become the first New Zealand woman to co-skipper a yacht through the Northwest Passage, one of the world's most demanding ocean routes.
Lysaght and her husband Nigel Jollands made the crossing aboard their 60-foot aluminium-hulled yacht Novara, navigating the waterway that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Planning began in 2019, though Lysaght admits she needed some convincing. Speaking on Morning Report, she recalled that Nigel had long harboured the dream of sailing home to New Zealand, while she was initially reluctant.
"My husband Nigel had always dreamed of sailing back to New Zealand and I kind of wasn't that keen."
Her sister's death in 2019 changed her outlook. Lysaght reassessed her priorities and decided to embrace the adventure.
"My sister died in 2019, so I kind of got the bull by the horns and said well, life is for living. We were living in London and he said he wanted to go home with a purpose, and I wanted to go home an interesting way."
That "interesting way" turned out to be the Northwest Passage. Planning got underway in 2019, with the voyage eventually taking shape over the following years. The couple departed in 2023, and the trip carries a broader mission to help coastal communities adapt to climate change.
The route took Novara from Greenland across the Davis Strait, along Baffin Island and through Lancaster Sound, on to Fort Ross, the site of the historic Hudson Bay Company depot, then through the Bellot Strait and out through the Amundsen Gulf. The former owner of the yacht served as ice pilot throughout the passage.
Conditions across the two halves of the Arctic proved quite different. Lysaght noted that the Eastern Arctic had lost nearly all of its ice, while the Western Arctic remained considerably more blocked. The crew encountered ice along the way and faced at least one frightening moment, though Lysaght drew confidence from Novara having been ice strengthened.
"It's quite strange because climate change is meaning that more ice is melting," she said, describing the contrast between the two regions.
Lysaght said it was only as Novara pushed further north into the Arctic Circle that she realised she stood to become the first New Zealand woman to co-skipper a vessel through the passage.
With that leg now complete, Lysaght and Jollands are in the Bering Strait region. They have spent a few days ashore in Nome, Alaska, and plan to winter Novara at either Homer or Kodiak as they prepare for the next stage of their journey home.
