Sailing biography

Another facet of Henryk’s life are his expeditions. He was a member of Arved Fuchs’s ICESAIL expedition team. This expedition’s aim had been to sail around the north pole via the Northwest as well as the Northeast passage. The expedition lasted four years. In 1993, the Northwest passage was completed. The northeast passage was successfully completed during the next expedition in 2002.

In 1994, Henryk organized his own expedition called “Following the Tracks of the Vikings”. He successfully navigated the rivers across the European continent from Riga to Odessa. After this historic voyage he had a replica viking ship built for future expeditions, the “Welet”.

In 2000, he was one of the four members of Arved Fuchs’s expedition following the tracks of the most famous expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton using a replica of Shackleton’s lifeboat “James Caird”. They sailed from the Antarctic continent via Elephant Island 900 nautical miles to South Georgia. Following the landing, the team crossed the island, and by doing so, retraced Shackleton’s historic voyage. About the expedition Henryk published the book “Fortitudine Vincimus – by endurance we conquer”.

In the summer of 2003, Henryk completed his circumnavigation of the North Pole, sailing from Norway to Greenland on the yacht Zjawa IV. This made him the seventh person in history to circumnavigate the North Pole.

Later that year, he also sailed around Cape Hoorn – again on the yacht Zjawa IV.

In 2006, he completed another project “Following the Tracks of the Vikings” by sailing from Gdansk on the coast of the Baltic Sea to Odessa on the coast of the Black Sea. With his boat “Welet” he sailed more than 2.000 km on the rivers Vistula, San, and Dnjestr. So, he retraced the last of the four known trading routes of the vikings. This voyage was documented by one of Germany’s leading TV stations (ARTE) in their famous series “GEO 360°”.

In 2008, Henryk organized on the yacht “Nashachata” an ambitious sailing trip from Gdańsk (Poland) to Australia, the motto being: “From Amber Beaches to the Coral Sea”. During this trip, he led the leg beginning in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in october. He took the yacht through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean, around Cape Hoorn and on into Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego). In Ushuaia, Henryk left the “Nashachata” to take over the wooden boat “Fuegia”, a historically correct replica of a whaling boat. This was the start of his expedition “Darwin & Tierra del Fuego” sailing Beagle Channel waters. The idea of the expedition was to retrace an important part of the historical trip around the world (1831 – 1836) of HMS “Beagle” under Kapitän Robert FitzRoy. During this expedition the then young Charles Darwin did a lot of research which finally lead to writing down his theory of evolution.

At the end of December 2008, after finishing the “Fuegia”-Expedition”, Henryk in Ushuaia again took over the yacht “Nashachata”. Ahead lay a very ambitious leg: “Antarctica – Circumpolar Navigation Part I”. The ship and crew visited the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Cap Town, and – in the Indian Ocean – Crozet Island, Amsterdam Island, and Melbourne (Australia). The trip ended in may 2009 in New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.

During his trips on the “Nashachata”, Henryk has rounded the three southern capes: Cape Hoorn (South America), Cape Agulhas (Africa) und Cape Leeuwin (Australia).

He sailed around Cape Horn three times, on the following yachts: “Zjawa IV”, “Polonus” and “Nashachata”.

On 21st June 2015, just at the time of the solstice, he reached the North Pole on the Russian nuclear icebreaker „50 Let Pobedy”.

2016 lead the 3 weeks kayak expedition in Antarctica – „Belgica, the cradle of scientist and explorers “

2017 – sailing on the mv “Ortelius” – Semi circumnavigation from Ushuaia to New Zealand by Ross Sea with sightseeing of the historical sites on the Ross Island and continent.

In 2017, on the yacht “Agens” owned by his friend Karl Hundhammer, they sailed in 2 pairs from Colon through the Panama Canal, the Galapagos Islands, Easter Island, Pitcairn, Mangareva, Tahiti, Cook Islands, Tonga Fiji etc. to Cairns in Australia.

The following year, 2018, he sailed on the yacht “Lady Dana” from Puerto Montt in southern Chile, through Juan Fernandez Islands, Easter Island, Marquesas to Kiritimati Island.
He made numerous cruises on the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic.

Henryk has been sailing on a lot of different ships in different areas of the world. In total, he has around 160.000 nautical miles to his credit, which is more then to circling the equator 8 times.

Since 2000, Henryk has been working regularly on expeditions cruise ships as an expedition leader and from 2006 as a lecturer in the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Amazon, Alaska and other areas of the world.
He published reports from his cruises in various magazines.

Februar 2025

Major sailing voyages and achievements:

• Two Atlantic crossings
• 1985-87 – sailing cruises to Iceland
• 1987 – sailing cruise to Lofoten
• 1988 – sailing cruise to Spitsbergen
• 1991 – sailing cruise off the east coast of Africa
• 1992 – sailing cruise Turkey – England cruise
• 1991-93 – series of cruises in the Mediterranean Sea under the common title: “In the Footsteps of Odysseus” – (Ulisses)
• 1992-94 – participation in the ICESAIL expedition with the intention of sailing around the North Pole
• 1993 Northwest Passage as part of the above expedition.
• 1994 – expedition In the Footsteps of the Vikings along inland waterways from Riga to Odessa – co-author of the publication in “BOOTE” 9/94 and the book “Unternehmung Viking”
• 1995 – cruise In the Footsteps of Odysseus, version around Great Britain
• 1998 participation in the expedition on the Slavic boat “Bialy Kon” “Rejs” 4/1999. The expedition was organized by the Slavic open-air museum in Groß Raden in cooperation with the Viking Museum in Roskilde.
• 1999 – expedition “In the Footsteps of Medieval Slavic Merchants” Berlin – Spandau) to Truso (near Elbląg) on ​​the Slavic boat “Welet” – ORB Film “Mit der Nußschale über die Ostsee”
• 2000 – “Shackleton 2000” expeditions on the replica of the lifeboat “James Caird”, from the Antarctic Peninsula through “Elephant Island” to “South Gorgia”. – book “Fortitudnie vincimus,”
• 2000 – sailing cruise on the “Dagmar Aaen” yacht from Ushuaia to the Azores.
• 2002 – Northeast Passage on s/y “Dagmar Aaen”. “Rejs” 1/2003. Rejs Magazine Award
• 2003 – February, on the ship Bremen, participant in the discovery of the Bremenkanal canal in Antarctica.
• 2003 – Closing the circle around the North Pole – voyage from Norway to Iceland and Greenland.
• 2003 – Rounding the Horn on “Zjawa IV”
• 2003 “Concrady 2003” Award – for overall achievement.
• 2004 “Żagle” magazine award named after Leonid Teliga for the book “Fortudine Vincimus” – about the expedition in Shackleton’s footsteps.
• 2006 – Expedition “Viking 2006”, on “Welet” in the footsteps of the Vikings from Gdańsk to Odessa, from the Baltic to the Black Sea along the rivers: Vistula, San and Dniester. – ARTE film from the GEO 360° series; distinction on “Kolosy”.
• 2008 Expedition “Darwin & Tierra del Fuego” expedition on a replica whaleboat in the Beagle Channel – Tierra del Fuego. Co-author of the book “Mythos Feuerland”.
• 2008 / 2009 – sailng cruise on the yacht “Nashachata” from Benos Aires, through the Strait of Magellan, around the Horn; Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Cape Town,= Crozet Islands, Amsterdam Island, Melbourne to New Caledonia. – 3/4 of the world. Sailing on the waters of 3 oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian) and sailing around 3 southern capes of 3 continents: Horn (South America), Aqulhas (Africa) and Leeuwin (Australia). This cruise is also the beginning of a series of journeys in the footsteps of Paweł Edmund Strzelecki – conqueror of Mount Kosciuszko in Australia
• 2009 – 2011 sailing cruises on the brig “Eye of the Wind”.
• 2011 sailing cruise on “Spirit One” from Spitsbergen to Ireland via the Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen, St. Kilda.
• 2011 another, third circumnavigation of Horn, this time on “Polonus”
• 2014 – sailing cruise on “Selma” from Tonga to Brisbane in Australia. In Australia and Tasmania, land tip in Strzelecki’s footsteps.
• 2015 cruise to the North Pole on the icebreaker “50 Liet Pobiedy”
• 2016 – Three-week kayaking expedition in Antarctica entitled “Belgica, the cradle of scientists and explorers”
• 2017 – cruise on mv “Ortelius” – semi circumnavigation from Ushuaia to New Zealand through the Ross Sea with visits to historical sites on Ross Island and the continent.
• 2017 – sailing across the entire Pacific on the yacht “Agens” from Panama, Colon to Australia, Cairns through the Panama Canal and the islands: Galapagos, Easter, Pitcairn, Mangareva, Tahiti., Cook, Tonga and Fiji. In some parts of this cruise we also followed in Strzelecki’s footsteps.
• 2018 one of many cruises on the Amazon River.
• 2018 – sailing on the yacht “Lady Dana” from Puerto Montt in southern Chile, through the Juan Fernandez Islands, Easter Island, the Marquesas, to the island of Kiritimati (Christmas Islands in the Kiribati archipelago). Flight to Hawaii and the next stage of the journey in Strzelecki’s footsteps. “Morze” 1/2021
• 2022 – Honorary Badge of Merit for Polish Sailing
• 2024 – cruise on the DZ (open rowing and sailing boat) from Szczecin and around Rügen Island – “In the footsteps of the Rani – Slavs from Rügen” – the “Golden Omega” award.

February 2025