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Ella Hibbert: An Update On Her Solo Arctic Circumnavigation

Ella Hibbert is an inspirational young woman who has set herself the challenge of solo circumnavigating the Arctic. At just 27 years old, Ella will be embarking on her adventure later this spring.

The Maritime Skills Academy has been closely following Ella’s journey as she refitted her beloved boat Yeva, and has also supported her through her rigorous training by providing Polar Code training from our Portsmouth facility back in 2023:

“The Maritime Skills Academy has a reputation for being one of the leading training schools in
a large variety of courses, along with boasting state-of-the-art facilities and experienced
instructors.

As of yet, I have not been into Arctic waters and the bridge simulator that we use during the
Polar code training at MSA will be an incredible way of gaining knowledge about Arctic waters
and conditions whilst still being on English soil.”

To see how far Ella has come since her last write-up (which you can read here) she has kindly detailed her progression in her training and preparation.

March 2025

“Since the last piece I wrote, there has been an incredible momentum carrying my campaign to attempt the first ever single-handed Arctic circumnavigation forward.

After finishing an extensive refit to my 38ft steel sailing yacht, Yeva, in June 2024, I set sail from Portsmouth to Stavanger on a sea trial, accompanied by sponsor and engineer-electrician Rick 2the Pirate” (Blackbeard Marine). After a couple of hiccups that we ironed out in Stavanger, Rick disembarked, and I continued my summer of training alone.

During this single-handed adventure, I made it all the way to the world’s most Northern settlement, deep within the Arctic Circle. Longyearbyen, Svalbard. At 78° North, Longyearbyen is much further into the Arctic than I will need to be for this year’s circumnavigation attempt and provided a wonderful training ground.

Crossing the Barents Sea (fondly referred to by sailors as the “Devil’s Dancefloor” for its renowned rough seas, as well as both endless fog and violent squalls), Yeva suffered total steerage failure and flooding. I managed to continue pumping the boat dry under hydro-vane steering, and once safely alongside (two days later), I was able to repair the boat.

I spent two fantastic weeks exploring Svalbard both by land and by sea and witnessed the wonders of the Arctic first-hand – a dream I’ve carried for many years finally coming true. I saw Arctic terns, walruses, puffins, and my favourite of all, an entire pod of beluga whales swimming up the fjord as they chased their lunch.

On the return voyage, I was star-struck by the Northern lights on multiple occasions. It was a testing outage that highlighted some issues with Yeva, which have since been resolved. Yeva has been undergoing another short refit period at the shipyard since October 2024.

I have now conducted further sea trials and am pleased with Yeva’s performance. I intend to slip lines from Haslar Marine on May 24th (weather allowing, of course, so the exact date could still change) to return to the Arctic once more, this time attempting the circumnavigation.

Over the last year, the campaign has been gaining a lot of attention – the British Scientific Exploration Society has endorsed it, and I am working closely with the International SeaKeepers Society to record the depth surroundings of the Arctic seabed as I go – information not yet readily available on published charts. I have also been invited to make a pre-recorded video explaining what I am doing and why, which will be played at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice on June 8^th. It’s a huge honour.

As I gear up to go over the next two months, the jobs list on board is gradually slowing down, and I am able to set aside some time to rest and see family and friends. But I am, on the other hand, counting down the days until departure – and I feel ready!

“When I return from my circumnavigation, S/Y Yeva will be put up for auction, with all proceeds from her sale being donated to both Polar Bears International and Ocean Conservancy, enabling these two incredible charities to continue their hard work in preserving and conserving the Arctic.

If you’d like to follow along on my voyage, please visit my website, YouTube channel, and social media pages, all under the name ‘Ella in the Arctic‘. There will also be a live tracker on board, so you’ll be able to follow my progress in real time. Thank you!”

We will certainly be following the rest of Ella’s journey as she sets off on her incredible feat, and you can be involved too!

Ella is accepting letters, notes of encouragement, poems, and photographs so that she can have something to read when feeling low and tired. If you’d like to be a small part of this amazing adventure and help Ella achieve her goal, you can send your contributions before the deadline of May 18^th to:

Ella Hibbert
Haslar Marina
Haslar Road
Gosport
PO12 1NU

We wish you the best of luck, Ella, and can’t wait to see how the rest of your progress goes!

Woolwich Ferry Visits the Maritime Skills Academy’s Training Centres

At the end of 2024, the Maritime Skills Academy (part of Viking Maritime Group) hosted London River Services’ Woolwich Ferry Team to our Dover and Portsmouth facilities. It was a pleasure to host General Manager, Darren Ellis and his team as they participated in some training.

Read Darren’s full testimonial below to see what he had to say.

“The Woolwich Ferry Marine Operations Team are responsible for the Woolwich Ferry service delivery, maintenance of assets and infrastructure and asset renewal. The Woolwich Ferry service sits within Transport for London’s (TfL) Rail & Sponsored Services Directorate (R&SS).

The Woolwich Ferry (WF) Marine Operations Team has restructured the ferry service over the past two to three years, which included voluntary compliance with international marine standards, such as The ISM Code, for what is an Inland Waterways Category C ferry service on the Upper Thames River at Woolwich. Part of this voluntary compliance with international marine standards included all of our operational people completing STCW training at the Maritime Skills Academy training centre at Dover.

The WF team found the training facilities at Dover to be state-of-the-art. The training, led by experienced and engaging instructors, provided a positive training experience for all our people. Thereafter, this training has successfully been incorporated into their operational roles at the Woolwich Ferry Service.

The two Woolwich Ferries are modern diesel-electric hybrid double-ended vessels which carry lorries, vans, cars, cyclists and foot passengers. The vessels are equipped with four hydromaster azimuth thrusters for maximum manoeuvrability in a confined and intensive route of operation.

The WF Marine team worked closely with the MSA Portsmouth vessel simulator team to profile the WF vessel operating and manoeuvring characteristics, and for the first time to digitally map the Upper Thames operating area within the Woolwich Reach.

A regular monthly programme of emergency contingency training was completed throughout 2024 with all bridge teams training and exercising using the world-class simulator facilities provided at MSA Portsmouth. The simulator exercises also incorporated some of the more testing vessel manoeuvres specific to the WF service operational envelope.

The simulator training has been a great success and has been enthusiastically received by our bridge teams. It has prepared them for a full range of potential adverse future operational events, ensuring they can react as required if and/or when such events materialise, keeping our people, assets, infrastructure and the environment safe.

Working with the Maritime Skills Academy has been a truly collaborative partnership which has significantly enhanced our operational standards and the service we continually deliver to our customers.”

Darren Ellis Woolwich Ferry General Manager

4-Part STCW Basic Safety Training At MSA Dover – Careers At Sea

The Maritime Skills Academy (MSA) recently welcomed Finley Reeves to complete his 4-Part STCW Basic Safety Training. Finley, who turned 18 during his training week, is currently studying on a Football Scholarship and travelled from Tamworth to our centre in Dover to complete his training as he was exploring options for a potential career at sea.

We followed his week at our state-of-the-art centre and interviewed him after five days of training to see how he’d gotten on.

What inspired you to book training courses at the MSA?

I’ve always been in love with football, but sometimes you do have to move on. This course will open up opportunities for me to travel and explore. I think it’s important to look at what else is out there, and when there are opportunities to do things like this, you have to do them.

Which element of the week did you enjoy the most?

My favourite element was the second day of Fire Prevention and Firefighting. I’d never done anything like that before, and although you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ve got people around you who will make sure that you do know what you’re doing.

We were fully fitted in PPE with a breathing apparatus set and oxygen cylinder that we carried on our backs while we worked together as a team to identify a casualty and safely carry them out of the container. That was my favourite day.

The staff and instructors’ help made the experience enjoyable because it didn’t seem like a training course. I looked forward to each day as they were each a proper experience.

Finn is using a fire extinguisher as part of his Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting course which makes up the 4-Part STCW Basic Safety Training Week

Has your experience at the MSA been different from what you expected?

I wasn’t expecting the fire procedures and classes to be as detailed as they were; I thought they [the courses] would be more theoretical than practical—experiencing real situations. All the practices in themselves were very detailed and realistic. Although you’re not at sea and in real firefighting situations, you are putting out actual fires in real-life scenarios.

Which skills have you gained from the 4-Part STCW Basic Safety Training?

I’ve learnt skills for life, such as CPR, what to do if you go overboard, and how to treat a casualty choking or with an injury that needs bandaging.

If I hadn’t completed this course, I wouldn’t have had a clue how to help someone effectively. It’s nice to know that I can try to help [someone] if something were to happen.

CPR performed on a first aid manikin - 4-Part STCW Basic Safety Training

Have the instructors helped make the training engaging and useful?

The mix of [the instructors’] personalities and how some of them used humour or their wisdom from experience to teach the course is engaging, as it’s not just reading course material off the board.

They’re demonstrating and explaining at the same time, going into exact detail about why you need to do this and why that happens. It’s good to say, “You need to do this to keep someone alive”, but the trainers explained why you need to do that to keep someone alive. As a result, you’re more engaged with it [the lessons] because you’re curious and want to learn more.

Can you share a specific moment where you felt you learned something valuable?

On day five (Elementary First Aid), learning CPR and how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator), you can use that in any scenario; it doesn’t just have to be on board.

I now feel more confident about performing CPR instead of just winging it. I would try and help, whereas I probably wouldn’t have before.

What’s been the most challenging part of your training? How did you overcome it?

It’s not to say everything this week was easy, but the workload in the practicals was a challenge. When you’re firefighting, it’s hot, and you’ve got a heavy cylinder on your back, but if I had gone in there without training, it would have been even more challenging.

During the Personal Survival Techniques training course (PST), the physical side was more challenging, but we were taught how to do the exercises in the most effective way.

What role or career path are you hoping to pursue, having completed your training?

I love football, but I’ve got a big interest in this side of the world now and working at sea. I like the idea of working as a deckhand on a superyacht, and I’ve always wanted to travel — with a job like that, it’s a requirement. Although you are working, you’re also travelling the world, so you can’t really complain!

Would you recommend the MSA to others, and if so, why?

I’d definitely recommend the Maritime Skills Academy to others. A career at sea isn’t as well-known an option as it should be. I would never have known about the training needed to work at sea before six months ago, and my friends and family hadn’t considered a career at sea either, as I was explaining to them that I would be completing this course. However, I’d recommend it, and everything has been perfect. There hasn’t been anything that I thought could’ve been better. Everything went really well.

Finn stood proudly with his certificate after completing the STCW Basic Safety Course at MSA Dover

Maritime Safety Instructor Stuart Warters said of Finn’s experience at the MSA, “[He] took everything in and was always engaged with the courses. Finn demonstrated everything we needed him to do and by the end of the week, he had really improved in confidence.”

If you’ve completed one of our training courses, at either our Dover or Portsmouth facility and would like to leave some feedback or write about your experience, contact our team today at Marketing@vikingmaritime.co.uk