My trip should not be possible

Sailor Ella aims to be first to go solo around the Arctic

- NADA FARHOUD

AN adventurer is preparing to become the first person to sail alone around the Arctic Circle.

But while Ella Hibbert, 28, is aiming to set a world record, she passionately wishes that record was not there to be set in the first place.

Because completing the challenge would be proof that Arctic ice — which would have previously barred the way - is disappearing.

And it would be irrefutable evidence of the devastating impact that the climate crisis is having on the planet.

Ella says: "If successful, it will be a bittersweet moment for me. On the one hand, I will have achieved a record, but on the other hand it is a journey that should not be possible.

"And it will prove that the Arctic, which is currently warming two to three times faster than the rest of the world, no longer has the ice covering that it once did."

DEVASTATING

Ella's 10,000-mile circumnavigation route will take her north from Portsmouth, around Iceland and Greenland, through the Northwest Passage and across to Russia, Canada and Alaska, navigating past polar bears and icebergs before returning home.

She is due to set sail on May 24 and hopes to be back in October.