This Europe: Global warming and freak winds combine to allow explorers through North-east Passage

Finding a northern sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific has been the goal of mariners and governments in Europe since the 16th century, to shorten the voyage to the newly discovered Spice Islands of the East Indies.

German explorers claimed yesterday that global warming and freak winds had enabled them to become the first navigators to sail unaided in a yacht through the usually icebound North-east Passage, along Russia's Arctic coast. The 12-man team, led by the explorer Arved Fuchs, 49, forged a west-to-east route during this year's Arctic summer in a 60-foot sail driven, wooden trawler converted into a yacht. It was their fourth attempt.

The passage was discovered in 1879 by the Swedish explorer Adolf Nordenskjöld, who negotiated the route along the north Siberian coast in a 370-ton ship driven by sail and steam. His success came after centuries of abortive and mostly fatal attempts by British and Dutch mariners.

Mr Fuchs claimed yesterday that his team was the first to sail through the passage in a yacht equipped only with an auxiliary engine. "I have never seen the passage so free of ice as it was this summer," he said in Hamburg. "We think this was due to a combination of global warming and freak wind conditions, which kept the pack ice clear of the coast and allowed us to get through."

The voyage of 8,000 nautical miles in the expedition's boat, the Dagmar Aaen, started from Hamburg in May and ended last month in the Russian harbour of Provideniya on the Bering Sea. The crew survived on astronaut rations and used satellite pictures of Arctic ice pack movements and a microlight seaplane to help them get through. Mr Fuchs said the expedition was able to reach Wrangel island off the north-east coast of Siberia, which is usually icebound all year.

The team had failed in three previous attempts. In 1991, the Russian authorities refused the Dagmar Aaen permission to continue its voyage after the attempted putsch against Boris Yeltsin. Attempts in 1992 and 1994 had to be called off because of harrowing conditions. Henryk Wolski, a member of the 1994 crew who also took part in this year's expedition, said: "This time the only hardship came from living in a small space with 11 other people for four months."