The inspiration for Big 1 came after our "Sail Greenland 2001" expedition. That was as the name suggests a sail based Greenland expedition. Nothing extraordinary there if like Janice and I you live for exploration and climbing. It was however more than the name suggests, this was the precursor to a much larger experiment.

I bought a Vancouver 32, Samen in 1999, and together with Janice my long suffering partner, we learnt to sail. I have been asked many times; "Why did you buy a boat when you did not even know if you enjoyed sailing?"

Well we did take a week’s skippered charter the summer before to gain an insight to the mysterious world of ‘yachties’. The skipper who "taught us the ropes" was the archetypal ex-Royal Navy Commander. There were many rules on that small yacht of which eating outside of the set meal times was disapproved of. Well that was the first to go overboard, quickly followed by many more. Janice’s metabolism requires a food input at almost hourly intervals and the poor Naval man found this hard to understand. He was however patient and a good teacher; his lessons learnt are still clearly remembered and his methods were correct not sloppy habits.

So I bought Samen; she proved to be just what a novice crew required, easy to sail, a good sea manner and very forgiving. In the first summer we sailed her around the coast from Chicester, around Lands End, over to Ireland and on up to the West coast of Scotland finally ending up on the delightful island of Kerrera off Oban.

The next few years were a delight of "Cruising", exploring the magical Isles of the West coast. It was rare to see another yacht, the locals were always incredibly friendly and helpful but, on the whole our impression was one of isolation and independence. This was what I had been looking for. A means to be alone, away from the activity of the "South" even the busy alpine climbs we had frequented in France and Italy over the years. Now we had a means to travel that was totally absorbing, you never just "popped over to Scavaig."

Sailing a yacht meant starting the day by listening to the weather; looking at the tides and then making a Passage Plan, a study as to the hazards and best approach to the destination. We then had the feeling of great team work as the two of us went through the regular routine of preparing for sea. Putting everything away liable to fall down, shutting hatches, closing valves and weighing the anchor. Then our whole home became alive, shook off its bond to the land and became a lively friend. Along the way we discovered islands with Golden Eagle nests; delighted in visiting Puffin colonies; glimpsed young otters at play and climbing unspoilt rock. We visited beautiful deserted anchorages where we would sit out a gale in tranquil surrounds reading, baking or that other cruising fact of life so appealing to boys - tinkering about with a spanner.

It was this being "at one with our surrounding" and the closeness we felt with nature that I felt I really wanted to try and encourage others to experience, so Sailinghols was born under my company banner of Made For You. The principle was not massive profit, indeed with a 32 foot boat and just two guests at a time that was never an option. It was just to meet people and to introduce a way of living. I have introduced many people to rock climbing and mountaineering, which gives me great satisfaction but sailing enabled a wider range of fitness, age and outlooks. The Sailinghols again was an experiment, it worked, but with limitations; the number of guests was too small, the yacht was too cramped and although we could give our guests a personally customised itinerary I felt that a larger group would interact better. The format was good, instead of operating from a base as all other charter companies did we roamed. We picked up at a rail or coach stop and then disembarked usually at a different location. It enabled us to move around the coast and our guests had an adventure (Definition: Outcome uncertain), travelling a remote part of the British Isles.

The next part of the great plan took off in July 2001. Ever since I had attended a lecture by a prominent mountaineer Gerry Gore in the early nineties I had a desire to visit Greenland and, in particular, the Big Wall climbing area of Baffin Bay. Another influence was Julian Freeman-Attwood who gave a lecture at about the same time on mountaineering and exploring in the Chilean Channels of Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula. These germinated a seed, taking some ten years to break cover that was to be the inspiration for our expedition.

Planning an expedition is not easy. This was my second and I knew that it would take well over a year to execute. The mode of travel was set, therefore by a little investigation into the ice conditions around the Greenland coast it soon became apparent that the East coast was out to the novice ice breaker. The North West coast had pretty much been climbed along the immediate shore. Much to my surprise, I discovered that the Southern tip is largely overlooked. An archipelago of small islands. A lot more research later and we had a firm objective and, more importantly, funding from the Mount Everest Foundation; the British Mountaineering Council and the Gino Watkins Trust. The plan was the first mountaineering exploration of an Island named Sangmissoq well known to the Vikings as a safe anchorage, but subsequently forgotten by the modern world. Our aim was to attempt to climb as many peaks as we could and fill in some of the skimpy details on the limited chart. Simple!

Finding expedition members is also hard work, climbers that sail and have two months off work with a thousand pounds are rare indeed. After much casting the net we finally, a week before departure, landed the last member. We were five in all and the tale is told elsewhere but we proved a resilient lot. Tony a climber had never sailed; Tim a sailor had never climbed; Davy had done a little of both; Janice and I whose longest passage was 60 miles. We had an adventure. We sailed across the North Atlantic into the ice. We reached Greenland safely and explored an island and, we climbed a lot of loose rock. We learnt how to anchor to avoid icebergs, we learnt what 70 knots of wind is like in a small bay full of ice and 600 miles from land, we discovered new passages and peaks. We discovered a lot about ourselves. Janice and I confirmed that we wanted a bigger boat and to explore more. The experiment had just been concluded.

Andrew White

2^nd November 2003