My name is Ben Yeager; I am a recent college graduate and relatively inexperienced sailor from New York embarking on a two-month sailing adventure in the Arctic Ocean.

The owner of "Teddy," a 39-foot steel ketch, is Nicholas Kats, a naturopathic doctor from Galway, Ireland, where our trip will begin.

After several months of planning and anxiety, and hundreds of e-mails, our trip has shortened from a transit of the Northwest Passage to a more 'local' exploration of Iceland, East Greenland, and Jay Mayen Island (if permits from the Norwegian government arrive in time). Other landfalls might be Rockall, Heimaey Island/Vestmannaeyjar, Westfjords of Iceland and the Ittoqqortoormiit/Scoresbysund Fjord of Greenland.

We plan to depart shorty after my arrival in Ireland on June 10th, and after a figure-eight through the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans arrive back in Ireland in mid-August. Our plan is admittedly vague and liable to change; however, we will be at sea for two months.

Joining us is Sam Berner, the son of famed solo-circumnavigator Tania Abei. He has just graduated from high school and is looking for a little adventure before starting college in the fall.

More to come.