A glacier front meeting the sea in Svalbard

Expedition · CAP II · High Arctic

Hondarribia
to the ice edge.

Extreme sail-training expeditions aboard Cap II, our 77 ft aluminium CNB — the pack ice and midnight sun of Svalbard in summer, the northern lights of Arctic Norway in the dark season. Briefed and skippered in Spanish and English.

Request the expedition brief See both seasons

Vessel

CAP II · 77 ft aluminium

Ice season

Svalbard · May – Aug

Aurora season

Tromsø · Sep – Mar

Crew list

Open

Two expeditions

Pick your Arctic.

The midnight sun and the northern lights cannot exist on the same trip — under 24-hour daylight there is no dark sky to see the aurora in. So the programme runs as two seasons with two different souls: the ice in the endless light of summer, the lights in the long night of winter.

May – August

01Svalbard · 78–80°N

Ice Season

The pack ice, under the midnight sun.

North along the west coast of Spitsbergen to the edge of the Arctic pack ice — glacier fronts calving into black water, walrus haul-outs, polar bears on the floes, and a sun that never sets on any of it.

Sail to the ice edge, as far north as ice and weather allow
Glacier-front anchorages and Arctic fjords
Polar bears, walrus and whales on their own terms
24-hour daylight — the ship never really sleeps
Full ice curriculum, stood on watch with the skippers

78–80°N24 hrs daylightWater 2–6°C

Berths from €4,200 · 10-day expedition · full board

September – March

02Tromsø · Senja · Lofoten · 69°N

Aurora Season

The northern lights, from the deck.

Dark-season sailing out of Tromsø, through the fjords of Senja and the walls of the Lofoten Islands — snow to the waterline, black water, and the aurora overhead when the sky clears. The extreme one: short days, real cold, real watchkeeping.

Aurora watch from a dark deck, away from town lights
We chase clear skies — anchorages picked by the space-weather forecast
Winter seamanship: snow squalls, short daylight, cold-water drills
Fjord pilotage under snow-covered peaks
Sea eagles, and orca and humpback encounters in season

69°NDark skiesDrysuit sailing

Berths from €2,400 · 7-day expedition · full board

No one can guarantee an aurora — anyone who does is selling you weather. What we guarantee is the hunt: dark anchorages, clear-sky routing, and nights on deck at the right latitude.

En español

The Arctic,
in your language.

Polar sailing has always spoken English or Norwegian. Ours speaks Spanish: the captain and skipper are native Spanish speakers, and every briefing, training session and watch runs in Spanish and English alike.

For sailors from Spain, Mexico and across Latin America, that changes what an expedition is — you learn ice navigation in the language you think in, and the boat departs from Hondarribia, in Spain.

Briefings

Español · English

Departure port

Hondarribia, Spain

Crew

Spanish-speaking skippers

The delivery north

Five legs to the Arctic.

43°N → 78°N
Route and timings subject to ice and weather

Hondarribia → Falmouth

Bay of Biscay

The shakedown: the full Biscay crossing, out of Txingudi Bay and across the shelf edge to the English Channel. Watch systems start here.

from €1,450

Falmouth → Faroe Islands

North Atlantic

Up the Irish Sea and out past the Hebrides into open North Atlantic. Long swells, long watches, first taste of high-latitude weather routing.

from €2,900

Faroe Islands → Tromsø

Norwegian Sea

Crossing the Arctic Circle under sail. Landfall in Tromsø — the last full provisioning stop, and home base of the aurora season.

from €3,200

Tromsø → Bear Island

Barents Sea

North across the Barents opening, past the lonely weather station on Bjørnøya — halfway between the mainland and the archipelago.

from €1,650

Bear Island → Svalbard

Arctic Ocean

Landfall under the glaciers of Spitsbergen at 78°N. Then the coast, the fjords, and — ice and weather permitting — the edge of the pack.

from €1,450

Sail one leg or the whole delivery. Every leg logs real offshore miles toward ISSA Offshore Skipper and Master of Yacht. Prices are per berth, full board, sailing as working crew — dates and full terms come with the expedition brief.

The ice

What the Arctic
teaches.

Above the Arctic Circle the sea itself changes. Drift ice, glacier fronts, fog banks, auroras and a sun that either never sets or barely rises — none of it can be taught in a classroom, and all of it is on the syllabus. This is the curriculum, run by the skippers on watch with you.

Ice navigation

Conning a sailing yacht through drift ice: reading leads, keeping steerage way, and knowing when the answer is to turn around.

Sea-ice charts

Working with ice charts and satellite imagery — concentration, ice edge position, and how the forecast changes the passage plan.

Ice watch

Growlers and bergy bits barely show above the water. Standing a proper bow watch, in daylight or dark, is a discipline of its own.

Cold-water safety

Drysuits, layering, man-overboard procedure when the water is 4°C, and why prevention is the whole game in the Arctic.

Polar watchkeeping

24-hour daylight in summer, 20-hour nights in winter — running a watch system that keeps the crew rested when the sky gives no rhythm.

Polar wildlife protocol

Whales, walrus and polar bears on their own terms — sighting procedures, safe distances, and the rules that protect both sides.

High-latitude weather

Polar lows, katabatic winds off the glaciers, fog on the ice edge — plus reading the space-weather forecast that predicts the aurora.

Anchoring in the north

Holding ground in glacial silt, ice drifting through the anchorage at 3 a.m., and the etiquette of Arctic anchor watches.

CAP II

The boat

Cap II, 77 feet of aluminium.

The flagship of the fleet and the reason this programme exists: an aluminium-hulled CNB ocean cruiser, currently being fitted out for Arctic conditions — heating below, cold-weather systems on deck, and the long legs this kind of passage-making demands. Aluminium is what you want around ice: it bends where other hulls break.

LOA: 77 ft
Hull: Aluminium
Builder: CNB

See the full fleet

Crew list open

The ice is waiting.
Put your name down.

Tell us which season calls you — the ice or the lights — plus your sailing background and the legs you want. We'll send the full expedition brief: route detail, kit list, dates and berths.

Request the brief Not ready? Start with a course

WhatsApp+1 407 866 6667 Emaildispatch@rexsailing.com

Hondarribiato the ice edge.