If not, then think again! It could be a memorable experience, bashing a passage through the Baltic’s sea ice on the toughest of ships. Sampo the world’s only tourist icebreaker, operates on the northern Gulf of Bothnia out of Kemi in Finnish Lapland.
Let me take you through the experience of Christopher Somerville as he breaks the ice, cruising through the frozen landscape on board the icebreaker Sampo in northern Finland. Feel the crackling ice and take a dip in Arctic Waters dressed in a watertight thermal suit.
As a long-term average, the Baltic Sea is ice covered for about 45% of its surface area at maximum annually. The ice reaches its maximum extent in February or March; typical ice thickness in the northernmost areas in the Bothnian Bay is about 70 cm for landfast sea ice. The thickness decreases when moving south.
The sampo after 30 years as an Arctic icebreaker, making passage for cargo ships has retired to the advantage of tourists. Tens of thousands every winter board Sampo at Kemi for the curious experience of breaking out of port and making a passage through the Baltic’s sea ice. The Sampo is three times as strong, three times as powerful and three times as heavy as a cargo ship of her size. Sampo had bored a way through a six-foot wall of ice one winter in the 1990s.
Finland possesses 60-odd ports in the ice zone, and of these about a third are kept open by the efforts of the ice-breakers. The story is repeated all round the Arctic coasts of Russia, too.
There is another way to get to her, but, a strenuous and wild one. That is if you are up to weathering the extreme cold!
Get yourself the thickest possible snowsuit and padded boots, in balaclava, hard helmet and mighty mittens, and you straddle a nice hot Ski-doo for a wild ride across the frozen sea. This could entail coffee and a reindeer sandwich in the fire lit hut of a deer farmer and some fantastic sights.
High point of the trip: A dip in the ice cold waters inside insulated giant orange wet suits.
Snowmobile safaris: Cost £90 (day safari) including guides, equipment, instruction, fuel and insurance. Phone; 00 358 16 223 320
The Sampo tour: Runs from mid-December to the end of April, depending on conditions; £147, including cruise, meal and iceswimming, or £240 twinned with a snowmobile safari. Phone; 00 358 16 256 548
Source: The Telegraph
