On July 8th, 2010 Captain Tommy D Cook boarded the Sailing Vessel CAPTAIN LEMUEL R BRIGMAN III and departed Happy Valley – Goose Bay Labrador to continue the great adventure started from Two Harbors Minnesota last spring. After traveling 3388 nautical miles through the Great Lakes and out the Saint Lawrence Sea Way, the CAP’N LEM wintered over in Labrador while Tommy returned to Port Angeles Washington to prepare for the next leg of this journey.

Capt. Tommy spent the winter in physical training to maintain the best edge possible for a 64-year-old sailor endeavoring such a voyage. In addition, many hours were spent studying Google Earth photos searching for routes and anchorages to be used along the way.

Update: On August 2nd, after spending two long weeks threading his way through ice fields off the coast of Baffin Island in heavy fog and a faulty radar, Captain Tommy decided that even though he made it to the doorway of the Northwest Passage, that the voyage just wasn't meant to be.

"After hours of staring into the unknown I see the fate of Franklin" Capt Tommy stated, "The misery of Amundsen, the disappointment of those who tried and failed and those that tried and died. I’ve seen enough ice to last a lifetime. It was a beautiful dream to sail the Northwest Passage and now it is a beautiful reality to turn my back on it and head toward other adventures. If we’ve learned anything at all, it is this: The journey and not the destination is the adventure. The destination was just a wonderful excuse. Let’s go to Labrador and look for white bear!"

Captain Tommy first conceived the dream of a solo navigation of the Northwest Passage when he sailed as the Boatswain on the Coast Guard Ice Breaker Polar Sea to the Arctic Ocean in 1981. He returned 4 more times to the ice north of Alaska, as well as 4 times to the Antarctic. And now, things are changing. The Northwest Passage has gone ice free for two years in a row. The polar bear, the walrus, the arctic fox are in danger of losing their habitat.

Captain Tommy is not a stuntman seeking fame and fortune, but simply a sailor in search of yet another adventure. Those of you born with that sense of quiet unrest that compels you to know what lies around the bend, over the hill or beyond the horizon will need no explanation as to why. But there are always those who wonder about sailors, mountain climbers and adventures and what makes them so obsessed to simply go. Now is the time. Hesitation is not an option. The plans are laid, the boat is ready, and the money is in the bank. We are not asking anything of you but “be interested”.