Brazilian Sailor Completes Solo Arctic Passage Amidst Record Low sea Ice
IQALUIT,Nunavut – Brazilian sailor Tamara Klink has successfully navigated the Northwest Passage solo,completing a challenging two-month journey in July 2025,her team announced October 17,2025. The feat marks Klink as only the 14th person to accomplish the voyage alone, occurring against a backdrop of rapidly diminishing Arctic sea ice.
The completion of Klink’s journey underscores the dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic region due to climate change. The Northwest Passage, historically impassable due to thick ice, is opening for longer periods, enabling increasingly frequent transits. This has implications for global shipping routes, resource extraction, and the fragile ecosystems of the Arctic. Klink’s voyage, following an eight-month period stranded in Greenland between 2023 and 2024 wiht her boat frozen in ice, highlights both the allure and the increasing accessibility – and inherent risks – of this once-impenetrable waterway.
Klink’s route took her through the remote western region of Nunavut, Canada, near the Beaufort Sea. prior to entering the Northwest Passage, she spent eight months weathering the Arctic winter in Greenland after her vessel became icebound.
“When I’m at sea, in my boat I know that my gender does not matter. The sea doesn’t care if I’m female or male,if I’m old or young,if I’m strong or weak,if I’m there or if I’m not there anymore,” Klink stated,according to her team.
© 2025 AFP
