Randall Reeves and Harmon Shragge Complete West-to-East Transit of Northwest Passage

Speaking about his recent completion of the Northwest Passage along with “crew” Harmon Shragge, Randall Reeves told us, “It’s the third for me, the first time going the wrong way, west to east, and the fourth time for the boat. I think that’s probably a record, but it’s one of those records that nobody cares about.”

We care, Randall!

This summer, the aforementioned record-setting 41-ft Moli and her aforementioned doublehanded crew of Randall and Harmon sailed from Kodiak, Alaska, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, weaving their way through the famed ice-filled sea lane connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Northwest Passage was leg two of the duo’s Around the Americas Voyage, which will eventually bring them back to San Francisco via Cape Horn — but not before some thorough exploration of remote islands and far-flung countries.

“It was really hard,” Randall told Latitude 38. “They’re never easy, but this one was hard. We had a lot of wind and sailed a ton — over 30% of the time we sailed, another 30% of the time we motorsailed.” Doing the Passage the so-called “wrong way,” or approaching from the west, allows a boat to ease into the transit. “Coming from the east, from Lancaster Sound on is ice,” Randall said of his 2019 Passage, when he was in the advanced stages of his Figure 8 Voyage. “You’re barely three days in, and there’s ice. You spend a week or two having to bop around, and you’re stuck in that first 10% of the route. And once you’re through that big slug of the ice, you still have 60% of the course to do.”

Harmon Shragge, who had visited parts of the Arctic years ago, thought of the Northwest Passage in more existential terms. “We think of [the Passage] as something so out there and so big and so exciting. I really wanted to do it, but you quickly realize that you can’t do it all — there was much more to it than I had expected. That was both exciting and frustrating.” A veteran of Clipper Round the World legs and Fasnet races, Harmon said that the westerly approach gave him, Randall and Moli “the opportunity to stop and explore” over the course of two months. “Then, once we got through, we still had time — we could go to Greenland.”

Harmon said there were four different “trips,” or areas of focus and exploration, that sailors could take through the Passage: “There’s the nautical sailing way through, from point A to point B, but as you’re going through, you realize there’s so much more than just sailing, especially when you have the privilege of going with someone like Randall. It opens up your eyes to what’s going on with the Arctic. There’s the whole, let’s call it ‘zoological’ aspect of following animals. And then there’s the geographic way [following islands, glaciers and mountains]. Each of these you could design a trip around, but you can’t do all of them, which I was trying to do.”

Finally, Harmon said, there was also the human aspect of a trip, visiting towns accessible only by airplane and boat. “You sail in as a local. People like to look at the boat and hear your story. They invite you into their home. You develop a relationship, whether they give you a tour or a home-cooked meal, or let you do laundry or take a shower. It felt really good to spend time with locals. And the farther north you go, you experience more traditional life and culture — and more interesting wildlife.” Many people in the Arctic live off seal meat and legally trade in ivory.

As Harmon explored towns, Randall made repairs. “Everything that could leak on the engine, did,” Reeves said. There was a “silly little leak” from the coolant cap and a leak from the valves. Over the past seven years, Randall Reeves has sailed over 80,000 miles aboard Moli.

What kind of personality did the addition of Harmon Shragge bring to the boat?

“We’re totally opposite,” Harmon said. “He’s a classic solo sailor; I’m kind of a wannabe solo sailor and an extrovert. Sometimes I’d help him, but Randall was very happy to fix the boat. I wanted nothing more than to explore and meet the people.” Randall was quick to say that when he crewed a Northwest Passage transit on another person’s boat in 2014, “I was Harmon,” he said, explaining that he would go explore whenever given the chance.

Surely a singlehander would appreciate having a watch-mate. “It was so cool — sailing alone, I never slept for more than 90 minutes alone,” Randall told us.

Harmon and Randall did four-hour-on, four-hour-off watches. “We were stopping and starting so many times,” Harmon said, adding that the average transit time from point to point in the Passage was about five days. “By the time you’d get into your rhythm on the boat, you’d get to port. And we were always getting in at 2 or 3 in the morning.”

How was the food? “On these expeditions, food is fuel. People don’t have the time or energy to prepare good food,” Harmon said, mentioning freeze-dried or canned food, which checks the nutritional boxes, but not necessarily the gastronomic ones. “I was willing to take more time to cook. You could buy vegetables and fish. Randall would spend so much of his time with the boat, I tried to complement that by spending more time prepping and cooking fresher food.” Randall said that Harmon would often spend an hour and a half cooking a meal. “You could’ve just had cold cereal. But Harmon is a very good cook,” Randall added.

“The thing about the Figure 8 Voyage was that you saw a lot of miles — it was about being out at sea — but not a lot of places. That’s the neat thing about this jaunt,” Randall said, referring to his and Harmon’s trip.

“What’s amazing about this next leg [in 2025] is that it will be complete opposite [of the Northwest Passage]. We’re off into the South Atlantic. There will be lots of really long distances, and we’re not following the coasts of Africa or South America.”

There is talk of the Azores, Cape Verde, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha. “Maybe we’ll leave the boat in Rio [de Janeiro],” Randall said. “I’ve never been to Brazil.” Both Randall and Harmon also contemplated the fourth and final leg, which will be sailed at a date still to be determined. “Our current plan is to go around Cape Horn and on to Easter Island … and maybe to Antarctica,” Harmon said, adding, “What we really share is the desire to go places a little out of the way.”

Read more sailing stories in this month’s Sightings.