Since the creation of 69NORD in 2002, Olivier Pitras has steered his polar sailboat “Southern Star” to Arctic regions on the list of the most entrenched regions on the planet. Among the 17 polar campaigns carried out aboard “Southern Star” are major expeditions that you can discover below by visiting the sites dedicated to them. Unfortunately only the website of the expedition “Around North America” has an English version. We are sorry about that ! The most passionate can use an automatic translator to discover our adventures. Thank you for your understanding 🙂
Around North America
2008-2009
12 months expedition, 21 700 nautical miles, 21 legs, 9 seas, 9 countries, to call attention to the necessity for international initiatives in favour of the environment.
“The Earth is like a ship and we are her crew. We have to act in unison so that its voyage may continue. Let’s act together for an international consensus in support of the environment and its natural resources. The world of tomorrow must be preserved today!”
On the tracks of the Fram’s second expedition
2014
In 2014, in partnership with the Fram’s Museum in Oslo, « Southern Star » set sail following the tracks of Fram’s second expedition. A definitely modern sailing adventure on the tracks of the elders. We’ll sail to Iceland, West and North-West Greenland, North of Baffin Bay, the Canadian archipelago, and Ellesmere and Devon Islands.
North-east Greenland's national park
2011/2013
In 2011 and 2013, The desire to discover the North-East National Park in Greenland was too great. Those who have sailed this region are rare. The crew embarked on this journey cleared virgin ground. The steep and steep fjords that cut the coast in fine lace are among the most isolated and wild on the planet. The difficulty of access explains why there are few images of this region. The mountains there draw crazy arabesques whose beauty has left us speechless.
Transarctique
1999
In 1999, Olivier became the 1st French skipper to sail across the Arctic Ocean by connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans through the north of the American continent, the Northwest Passage.
“Lulled since adolescence by stories of polar expeditions in the Far North, I dreamed for a long time of discovering this ocean of ice where the human adventure seemed to me to take on its full dimension. I lived my navigations in Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia and Alaska as an initiatory journey, with a view to a great passage. Sailing from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean by the North Face, that is to say by crossing the icy Ocean, seemed to me from the outset to be the project bringing together all my aspirations, my Everest. »
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