Biography
Henryk Wolski
Henryk Wolski, was born in 1951, and studied at the Technical University of Poznan / Poland. After gaining his degree as an engineer he worked for some years in a company making engines for ships.
Having been an enthusiastic sailor since boyhood, Henryk gained his master’s license for ocean-going yachts during his studies at the university. After leaving the marine engineering company he worked as a sailing instructor and skipper for “High Sea Yacht School North Sea” in Bremen.
In 1989, Henryk founded his own company called “Henryk’s Sailing”. The company particularly promotes concept sailing: He undertakes sailing trips mostly under historical mottos like “Following the tracks of Odysseus” to give just one example. He also organizes moderate adventurous sailing trips in different parts of the world.
In 1994, Henryk organized his own expedition called “Following the Tracks of the Vikings”. He successfully navigated the rivers across the European continent from Riga to Odessa. After this historic voyage he had a replica Viking ship built for future expeditions.
Another facet of Henryk’s life are his expeditions. He was a member of Arved Fuchs’s ICESAIL expedition team. This expedition's aim had been to sail around the north pole via the northwest as well as the northeast passage. The expedition lasted four years. In 1993, the northwest passage was completed. The northeast passage was successfully completed in 2002.
In 2000, he was one of the four members of Arved Fuchs’s expedition following the tracks of the most famous expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton using a replica of Shackleton’s lifeboat “James Caird”. They sailed from the Antarctic continent via Elephant Island 900 nautical miles to South Georgia. Following the landing, the four men crossed the island, and by doing so, retraced Shackleton’s historic voyage. About the expedition Henryk published the book “Fortitudine Vincimus – durch Ausdauer zum Sieg”.
In summer 2003, Henryk’s personal circling of the north pole came to an end by sailing from Norway to Greenland on the yacht “Zjawa IV”. By that, the sixth person in history has navigated the seas around the north pole completely. Later that same year, he also made a trip around notorious Cape Horn – again on the yacht “Zjawa IV”.
In 2006, he finished his project „Following the Tracks of the Vikings” by sailing from Gdansk at the coast of the Baltic Sea to Odessa at the Black Sea. With his ship “Welet” he sailed more than 2.000 km on the rivers Vistula, San, and Dnjestr. So, he retraced the last of the four known trading routes of the Vikings.
Henryk has been sailing on a lot of different ships in different areas of the world. In total, he has around 120.000 nautical miles to his credit, which is equal to circling the equator five times.
Since 2000, Henryk has been working regularly as expedition leader and lecturer on cruise ships in both the Antarctic and the Arctic, the Amazon, and other areas of the world.
10 / 2007 |