CAMDEN — Seven days ago, the 49-foot Rasy, a Swedish Hallberg design sailboat, left Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., expecting to cruise to Camden Harbor. A trip north in late winter can be a daunting one. Foremost, it gets colder the farther north you get. Add a winter gale to the mix and your sailing adventure can turn, well, deadly.

Linda Lindeberg, Trond Aasvoll and Lars Ingeberg, all of southern Norway, crewed Rasy on the trip north and described their encounter with the winter gale that heralded them into Camden's harbor.

"I bought the boat in Ft. Lauderdale and we are sailing it back to Norway," said Ingeberg. "Since we're from Norway, we're used to this kind of weather. We had a stop in Beaufort, N.C., which by the way was a very nice place. The wind was in our face off Cape Hatteras and being in the boat was like being in a washing machine."

Ingeberg said it was actually a very nice sail up through New York.

"We sailed up through New York harbor because we wanted to see Manhattan. The current was against us when we were in the Cape Cod Canal, so it took us a long time to get through it. All the while this big storm was moving up behind us. We knew it was coming and we were pushing it to get here. We were just at the lighthouse at the harbor head when it hit us," he said.

Ingeberg said they came to Camden because they have friends here.

"The boat will be here a few months. We are flying home and we'll return in June to resume our journey. We'll be sailing up the Canadian coast, over to Greenland and then on to Norway. Everybody has been very nice since we arrived, offering cars and rides and even dinner," said Ingeberg.

Penobscot Bay Pilot asked Ingeberg to comment on his crew.

"They're a very difficult crew," said Ingeberg. "Even as owner I have to cook all the food, but apart from that they're okay. Trond is actually a very famous sailor. Famous, but very shy. I work in shipping and was trying to open up routes around the North Pole. Trond was the first person to sail around the North Pole in one of my boats. It was a 36-foot fiberglass boat named RXII. It was very heavy and designed for open ocean sailing, so when it gets too cold for sailing, we just leave Trond outside."

Ingeberg and Aasvoll explained that RXII left Norway in 2009. It's purpose was to make the first circumnavigation of the North Pole in one season, and thereby demonstrate the effects of global warming in making the trip possible.

"We were in sight of Alaska, when the Russian authorities arrested us," said Aasvoll. "They thought we were scientist spies and were looking for oil. It took a few weeks to straighten out and in the end I was fined $100 and not allowed to come back to their country for five years."

The crew returned in 2010 to finish its sail returning to Norway. Ingeberg said Camden looked like a very beautiful town and was looking forward to returning in June. Aasvoll said he would like to spend a few weeks here before they had to leave for the return to Norway.

For more information about Trond Aasvoll's Artic expedition, click here.

Chris Wolf can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.