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Attached is a list of completed transits of the NW Passage as of 2019. As far as I know, there was only one completed transit by a pleasure craft in 2020, the year of the pandemic when Canada closed its borders, which was by Peter Smith. He not only transited the Passage, Kiwi Roa challenged Canadian restrictions to innocent passage rights. "His successful transit marks the first time that a vessel invoked innocent passage and navigated through the Northwest Passage in defiance of explicit Canadian disapproval. Canada’s claim of effective control will now always have the Kiwi Roa asterisk hanging over it." I was following Peter the entire way last year and wrote about it in my blog. He did it without ever going ashore and sailing much more of the distance than most. Meanwhile, in February, Canada announced a one-year ban on pleasure craft transiting the NW Passage. What a long strange year it's been.
Vice Commodore, OCC
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+x+x+xIs the NW Passage Canadian or International waters? If the latter as is claimed by Peter, it seems to me the Canadians had no right to close it. If Canadian, then by all means, they should be free to keep everyone out. Whether the Northwest Passage (or parts of it) is in Canadian waters seems the crux of the issue, and the answer is that it's disputed (the Lawfare link in Daria's original post explains this well). So it's not clear that Canada can legally control transits of the NW Passage. While I agree that cruisers absolutely should respect the laws and customs of the places they visit, I think Peter Smith was put in a difficult situation. He had been in contact with the Canadian government, which had initially said that non-stop transits were acceptable ("Foreign pleasure craft exercising the right of innocent passage"). The Canadian government then reversed that and told Peter Smith six days after he left Nome, that he was not going to be allowed to transit the NW Passage ( https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/new-zealand-yacht-cambridge-bay-nunavut-1.5698347 ). Six days after leaving Nome would have put Peter a fair ways into the NW Passage (which is generally considered to start in the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Russia), somewhere along the north coast of Alaska. From a position off the north coast of Alaska, to be told by a country that has just reversed it's decision, on allowing transit through waters that may or may not be part of that country, should one abort and head for Panama? Would the Panama Canal be open by the time one got there, or could it have locked down for Covid? Would it be better to sail nonstop (in case Chile locked down) for Cape Horn instead? Or, as a foreigner on a foreign yacht, to ask the USA for permission to stay in Alaska until Covid was over? Again, I absolutely do agree that cruisers should respect the laws and customs of the countries they visit and 'leave a clean wake', but I think in this case, there were extenuating circumstances. Hi Richard and all, There sound to be extenuating circumstances in what you describe. My only knowledge was the recent posts and the details included there. As with many of my comments, I respond to Forum posts sometimes specifically or sometimes to make broader and more general observations when I feel that my comments apply and might be of benefit/interest to our wider cruising community. My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy Hi Dick, I thought your comments on this topic were both well-stated and valuable. I agree with your points in general, I just wanted to mention what I saw as extenuating circumstances in this particular situation. Richard
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