Sending that icebreaker isn’t cheap. They may send a helo, but he’ll be packing a bag and saying ‘adieu’ to his yacht.
That’s how this will end up.
What’s funnier about this is that the yacht will fall under the law of the sea for salvage. It means that anyone that can get the yacht out can either 1) Keep her, or 2) Split the value of the yacht down the middle with the original owner. It’ll likely be option 2) since the yacht’s owner is alive and reachable. Option 1) would be if the owner were dead or unreachable.
He may decide to turn around, and go back the way he came. I can’t see that being likely, but it depends. He’s going to have an easier time of it going back to the Chukchi Sea.
He can put in at Point Hope from there, or if he can make it down far enough, even Uelen in Siberia.
Barrow is probably out of the question now. Time’s running out for our hero, too. I’d wager that he’s getting about 8 to 10 daylight hours a day at that latitude now.
If a Breaker doesn’t send a helo soon, then they won’t, because you don’t break ice in the dark.
That means that this guy will be going through the worst fall, winter, and spring of his life, since it will not only be cold, but it will be permanently dark for the entire duration.
The only other fix, and I DOUBT seriously this will happen, is that the Russians will send a sub. He’s in Russian territorial waters now, so the Canucks, Vikings, and Yanks are out.
They can offer him a tow to port.
At 300 meters.
What option is there if the owner has been transformed into frozen bear droppings in the snow?