GET. THE. SHOT!
Many practicing and aspiring cruisers are familiar with the crew of the Delos; they have gained internet stardom via their Youtube video chronicles of the cruising lifestyle. This past summer, the Delos team—Brian, Karin, Brady, Alex and Kiril—joined my wife, Mia, photographer James Austrums and me aboard our Swan 48, Isbjörn, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago for three weeks of adventure, filming and merriment in the High Arctic. Mia and I had long had a dream to sail to this lonely, rugged Norwegian archipelago only 600 miles from the North Pole, where the polar bears outnumber the humans, the water is sometimes choked with ice, and the mountains fall from 3,000ft straight into the sea. It would be the biggest challenge of our careers to date, and we wanted to properly document it.
To get this out of the way right at the top, because everyone is wondering: yes, the Delos crew are as enthusiastic as they appear in their videos. No, they’re not actually filming 24/7. Yes, we went swimming (at almost 80 degrees north latitude) and no, there was no nudity. No, they’re not drunk all the time. And boy, do they work harder than anybody realizes.
BACKGROUND
I take it for granted nowadays that most sailors know about Delos. In a nutshell, the Delos crew is Brian and Brady Trautman, two brothers who left Seattle nine years ago in Brian’s 54ft Amel Super Maramu Delos (hence the name) on an open-ended voyage, after Brian quit his job as an engineer. Pretty standard sailing story, except that they were much younger (in their 20s and 30s) than your typical cruiser.
Brian met Karin Syren early on in their travels in New Zealand, and they’ve been inseparable ever since, getting engaged team.
