- Mark and I had schemed for decades.
A big ocean sailing expedition,
the fabled Northwest passage,
an 8,000 mile journey
up over the Arctic from Maine to Alaska.
This is awesome.
I've been dreaming about this for 15 years.
It's a long time coming.
The goal was to solve a mystery for a Nat Geo film
and article, but it was also a firsthand look
at the state of the far North.
Mark and I have done Nat Geo stories together
before we did Everest, the last honey hunter, Tepui,
but this one was different.
He wanted to do something completely
under his own decision making power,
and this was his own boat.
It was like a member of his family.
- Whenever really heavy shit
was going down on the boat, Renan would want to film it,
and I would want to make sure that the boat was okay,
and I was like, hey dude, like you gotta like,
you gotta come and work with me here.
We gotta keep the boat afloat.
He, it was kind of like he looked out
and was it was like, yeah, yeah, I think I'd rather not die.
- 12 o'clock to 2:00 AM night watch.
Just looking for icebergs.
I'll be honest, the split rolls of storyteller and sailor
were a bit more than I bargained for.
On the front end, I really only had one trick up my sleeve.
Drawing from my experience filming in the mountains,
one way I've learned to give scale
is the distinct human element,
showing how we move through and engage with a place.
I kind of find if you're able to figure out
just how to show that scale in contrast,
the story just begins to write itself visually,
especially when your canvas is as powerful
as a place like the Arctic.
Heading into it, unchartered territory for us.
It was around day 80 of the expedition
when the ice finally caught us.
Even our local Inuit crew member, Jacob, was worried.
We lost sight of where the sky met the sea,
and the fog provided enough cover
that made the chunks of ice seem like floating landmines.
- [Mark] And we just bailed back into Pasley Bay.
- [Renan] And then we got the news of a storm
that was barreling towards us.
- The fog came in super thick,
barely see past the bow of the boat and then ice.
This was a solid wall, and we just started motoring
along it and there was no opening, so it wasn't,
it was like a glacier.
We're getting a lot of strain on the anchor.
- [Renan] We're now officially trapped.
It's the adventure within the adventure,
the storytelling and the survival.
Look how it is.
- The ice chart is comical in that it's wide open
except for the one spot where we are.
See the dark red?
- [Renan] Yup, that's where we are.
Every day is a fire drill to save the boat.
- Easy, slow, slow!
- [Renan] I film when I can,
but new perspectives are few and far between.
- [Mark] Ease off, ease off!
He's driving over a big chunk!
- [Renan] Rudy, what's the plan now?
- Maybe anchored to that piece of ice
for 30 minutes before it starts moving.
It's probably the fourth time we've moved today.
- Take cover!
Whoa!
- These guys are doing an incredible job
keeping the boat safe.
It's just really hard to document in the moment.
- [Mark] Renan is, you know, I don't know
if he's okay with me using this word,
but he's obsessed with the art of creating, you know,
imagery and capturing these stories.
- [Renan] I just want to do Mark's character
and everyone on our team justice.
- Yeah, we've been in Pasley Bay for eight days.
We're gonna process some more wood.
This is all driftwood that we scrounged out on the shore.
Who knows where it's from?
Pretty cool to be here.
And I'm not just saying that.
I think we all, we all realize
it's a pretty unique thing that we're doing,
and it's really cool the way the crew works together
to take care of the ship.
So you either have to like get, just let yourself get frozen
into the ice and then there's a chance that the pressure
will be too great and it'll, you know, crunch your boat,
and you'll sink.
Or you try to dodge the ice.
Yeah, things would potentially reach a breaking point
if we had to go through
a whole 'nother round of this, you know?
If anybody shows up and they need driftwood,
just give us a call.
We're a little business here.
- [Renan] I've made the mistake too many times,
having this tunnel vision for the main assignment
and not focusing on the little things,
the friendships, the new perspectives,
the things you truly want to last for a lifetime.
Jacob didn't say much, but getting to see him interact
with the land was one of the gifts of being stuck.
You just have to remain curious
and keep shooting on the fringes.
- I mean, the ship would be sinking
and he would be like, oh my god, this shot is incredible.
Like, Rudy, get me the dry suit.
I'm going in the water.
I gotta get the boat sinking from underwater.
- It's a hard role to fill.
- If there's no boat, there's no film.
- [Renan] Oh, there is a film.
'Cause there's dinghying to shore,
getting rescued out with a helicopter.
- [Rudy] If there's no boat,
that's the most dramatic film of all.
- [Renan] Can you pick up the tube maybe
and just poke the depth?
Cool.
That's amazing.
I started seeing these new ways that I could tell the story
and also new ways that I could add value as a crew member.
I can put in underwater screws
with the dry suit if you want.
1, 2, 3.
And within a day or two, when we all started to work
with the ice instead of against it,
that's when things started to change.
Today's the first day that things are actually looking good.
The ice is slowly starting to break apart.
The pieces are crumbling,
and there's a chance we might break free.
- There were leads in the ice.
It was like, start the engine.
We're gonna do this.
- [Mark] Repeat and then you're gonna turn to starboard.
- Got it!
- [Mark] Good on that course.
Keep that heading.
- [Renan] I had scrambled to the top of the mast
and incidentally could also see the route
for us to take out of the ice.
- [Mark] Oh that was a hard one.
- [Renan] I'd say we're about 10 minutes
from total promised land, home stretch, open water.
- I see clear water, man.
It's like no ice in the water.
Just a quarter mile ahead.
We just have to get through this last little crux.
- [Mark] Okay, you're good.
Okay, yeah, looking good.
- Holy shit.
- Finally out of the ice.
- Oh my God.
Full sail,
sun, open water.
- [Renan] In the end, it wasn't just me
who learned a lesson in vision.
I think we were all confronted with how being stuck
can really limit one's perspective,
and how important it is
in those moments to simply keep at it.
Keep experimenting, keep moving,
- Woo-hoo! - [Renan] keep looking,
continue seeing the world anew,
as it is anew in every moment, everywhere on earth.