One Ocean Expedition 2025-2026 

A 12-month global voyage with the Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl - a floating ambassador for the UN Ocean Decade. Combining sail training, ocean science, education and diplomacy to highlight the ocean’s vital role and inspire action for a sustainable ocean. Visiting ports on three continents.

2025 - 2026

One Ocean Expedition 

Statsraad Lehmkuhl departed St. John's, Canada on August 23 and is now at sea en route to Bermuda, arriving August 28. 

Over the course of a year, the expedition will visit ports across three continents. Several legs are open to the public - no sailing experience needed! Welcome on board!

Sailing route

At sea en route to Bermuda

Follow our journey

The screen is black. Lucie Cassarino has switched off the measuring instruments and spends her days doing other things than research.

No permit for doing research

Statsraad Lehmkuhl visits Bermuda August 28–31, 2025.

Bermuda

Statsraad Lehmkuhl is weather-bound in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The tropical cyclone Eirin has turned northward and is now sweeping past off the coast.

Waiting for the hurricane to pass

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Following the success of the One Ocean Expedition 2021–2023, Statsraad Lehmkuhl is once again setting sail on a 12-month circumnavigation to promote ocean sustainability. The voyage will include 27 ports of call across three continents, combining ocean science, education and international cooperation to raise awareness about the crucial role of the ocean for a sustainable future.

On The One Ocean Expedition, Statsraad Lehmkuhl is filled with students, researchers and voyage crew who all work together to sail the big ship and gather experience and knowledge about the ocean.

Life on board

Tromsø, Norway

Bergen, Norway - Lerwick, UK

Reykjavik, Iceland

Nice, France 

Ponta Delgada, the Azores (Portugal)

Nuuk, Greenland

St. John's, Canada

Los Angeles, USA

Bermuda - Panama Canal 

Vancouver, Canada

Seattle, USA

San Fransisco, USA

San Diego, USA

La Paz, Mexico

Herradura, Costa Rica

Cartagena, Columbia

Herradura, Costa Rica - Panama Canal

Norfolk, USA

Cádiz, Spain

Brest, France 

Dublin, Ireland

Bergen, Norway

French scientist Lucie Cassarino is science coordinator on board Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Normally her days are filled with taking samples – of seawater around the ship, of plankton and other organisms. 

She makes sure the scientific equipment on board is functioning properly, and she coordinate science projects both with researchers staying on board for shorter periods, and with universities and research institutions on shore.

– You’re technically allowed to do science in the international water without asking for permits. But then, as soon as you arrive into the economic zone of each country, then you need to have permission for doing science, Lucie explains. You can’t just go there and do whatever you want.

Statsraad Lehmkuhl had the necessary research permits for the planned voyage through the Northwest Passage and around Alaska, 

but ice conditions forced the ship to turn back in the Labrador Sea off Greenland

. Now the ship is heading south toward Bermuda and the Panama Canal.

In these waters, the ship has not applied for research permits, and obtaining such permits is no quick process. Lucie explains:

– The permit is kind of like a proposal. You give a summary of the whole project and explain what you are going to do: What type of instruments, what type of samples and exactly how many, and how you plan to preserve the samples you collect, and then how you are going to use the data afterwards.

Authorities want to be sure the work does not harm the environment or interfere with sensitive matters. 

– In part of the Mediterranean, for example, we had to turn off our hydrophones and not do any underwater sound recording, because there might be submarines hiding in the area, says Lucie.

There will be no science along the coasts of Canada and the USA, and probably not in the waters around the next port, Bermuda, either. 

– Not because our project is not important or because we are doing something bad. It's just because the process of getting permission normally takes very, very long, six months to a year, and we sent our application only ten days ago, Lucie explains.

– Do I sleep more? No, no, no, because we are on a ship, and we also have other duties. I still have a lot of office work to do, and now I’m participating more doing work on deck, I stand at the helm, and do fire watch and lookout watch.

Climbing in the rig and handling sails is her favorite, but Lucie enjoys the variation. 

– The helm is pretty cool. You know, you’re having the wheel of the ship in your hands. So it’s really nice, but the lookout is really cool as well, because I get a chance to see animals, which I very often miss when I’m in my office.

The samples Lucie hauls up from the deep sometimes contain creatures bigger than the tiny microorganisms she normally studies. Like the sea angels that were caught in a net deployed 1000 meter into the deep. 

– Another world. So cute. Really, really cute. I was really happy to see one because I've seen beautiful pictures, but never a real one, says Lucie. The lanternfish was a big surprise too. We didn’t expect to catch a fish, and with it we caught a massive jellyfish as well.

Lucie is a biogeochemist, working in physical oceanography. For her, 

encountering oceanic eddies, enormous rotating systems like underwater tornadoes

– One was going clockwise and one going anti-clockwise. They create a very particular environment for the ocean, and a different environment depending in which direction the gigantic tornado is cycling. So yeah, that was really nice, to cross two of them in a row.

As a scientist, she hopes for two key outcomes from the One Ocean Expedition. 

– We do microplastic analysis filtration on board. If we can evaluate how much microplastic we have been sailing through, and help to understand where it's coming from - that would be a very nice result. But also when it comes to physical oceanography, just adding our data will help the models that are being built to predict ocean circulation in the future.

Her motivation for being on board is clear: 

– Giving good data for people to use, to better understand the world we are living in, see how it changes and why, and then explain, and make a difference. Is that going to save the world? I’m not sure, but hopefully it will make it better.

Collecting data is most important, but doing ocean science under sail also offers another kind of reward. 

– It’s great. I mean ... It just feels good, living at sea, being out rather than all day long in front of a computer in an office. You know, it’s not always easy because sometimes you don’t sleep well and you’re far from your family. But overall, it’s, like, pretty nice, she smiles.

Bermuda consists of 181 small and large islands, located about 1,000 km off the coast of North Carolina, USA. 

Together the islands cover only 54 km², just a little larger than Manhattan in New York. The main islands are connected by bridges, and Bermuda today feels like one continuous landmass.

Bermuda were discovered in the early 1500s by the Spaniard Juan de Bermúdez. Over time, it became a frequent stop for ships in need of fresh water and meat. Sailors released pigs on the islands, which roamed freely. Since there are no rivers or lakes on Bermuda, drinking water was collected from rainfall.

In 1608, a fleet of British ships carrying settlers to Virginia (now part of the USA) was scattered by a storm. One of the ships, Sea Venture, ran ashore on Bermuda. The settlers remained on the islands, and in 1684 Bermuda became a British crown colony.

Today the archipelago is a self-governing British Overseas Territory.

The islands were not well suited for agriculture, so the economy centered on shipbuilding and trade. From the 1600s, Bermuda was used as a stopover for slave ships, and slavery continued on the islands until Britain abolished it in 1834.

Today, 52 percent of Bermuda’s 65,000 inhabitants are descendants of African slaves, while 31 percent are of British and Portuguese descent.

During the 20th century, Bermuda became a popular holiday destination. Today, about half a million tourists visit the islands each year, drawn by their pink sandy beaches. The town of Saint George, established in 1612, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The economy relies heavily on tourism and financial services. Bermuda is well known as one of the world’s tax havens, and many ships are registered in its shipping registry.

Bermuda has volcanic origins, though no active volcanoes. The Gulf Stream passes close by, giving the islands a subtropical climate, humid and pleasantly warm year-round. Temperatures have never dropped below freezing, but summer rarely sees more than 30 °C. Annual rainfall is 1,453 mm.

The islands are vulnerable to tropical cyclones, though direct hits are rare, averaging one every six to seven years. The most recent severe impact came from Hurricane Humberto, a category 3 storm, in September 2019.

Normal maximum temperature in August: 30 °C
Normal rainfall in August: 165 mm

On Friday, August 22, the wind speed in Eirin reached 42 m/s. Hurricane force begins at 32 m/s, and under such conditions it is wise to remain sheltered in a safe harbor until the storm has passed.

– At the moment this will likely happen late on Saturday or early Sunday, just in time for us to be able to maintain our scheduled arrival in Bermuda, Marc Seidl writes in his captain's log on Thursday.

The ship’s satellite systems provide updated forecasts from maritime weather institutes every six hours. In addition, the crew downloads weather models that allow the navigator to predict wind strength and direction along the planned route.

On Friday, Eirin’s center was roughly level with Washington DC. In the coming days, the hurricane is expected to continue northeast along the coasts of the USA and Canada, before weakening into a low-pressure system between Greenland and Scotland late next week.

By then, Statsraad Lehmkuhl will have reached Bermuda, after what will likely be a rough passage in rain and heavy seas. For now, though, life on board remains calm.

– In the meantime, we will use the extra time in port to carry out many of the tasks we would not have had the opportunity to do while the ship is underway, be it technical maintenance, rigging work and cleaning and stowing away equipment that is no longer in use, Marc writes from port in St. John’s.

Tropical cyclones are the most violent storms on Earth. Winds can exceed 80 m/s, and nearly a meter of rain may fall in just 24 hours. The winds generate massive waves, which, together with the low pressure, can cause storm surges and flooding.

Eirin is the first major hurricane in the Atlantic this season. What began as a low-pressure system developed into a tropical cyclone on August 11 over Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa. In the days that followed, the storm crossed the Atlantic, and as it neared the Caribbean the wind intensified rapidly. On August 16, Eirin was classified as a Category 5 hurricane, with winds of 72 m/s.

So far, rainfall has caused the greatest damage. Within a few hours, 192 mm fell over São Vicente in Cape Verde August 11, where floodwaters swept away cars and destroyed several houses. Nine people lost their lives. In the Caribbean and the USA, fortunately no lives have been lost, though many have experienced power outages and evacuations due to flooding and storm surge.

Tropical cyclones form when warm, moist air over the ocean begins to rise. As the air cools with altitude, it can no longer hold its moisture, and raindrops form. This process releases heat, which makes the air rise even further.

At the same time, air masses begin to rotate around the center of the system, which is why these storms are called “cyclones.” Sometimes an “eye” forms in the center, where cold, dry air from high in the atmosphere descends and clears away the clouds. In a perfect cyclone, the eye is completely cloudless. New moist air is drawn in from the sides, rises, condenses into rain, and releases even more energy.

It is estimated that a tropical cyclone produces 200 times more energy than all of the world’s power plants combined.

Tropical cyclones can only form when the ocean temperature is above 26.5 °C down to at least 50 meters. They also depend on the Earth’s rotation to make winds spiral toward the low-pressure center.

For this reason, most tropical cyclones form between 10 and 30 degrees north or south of the equator. Exactly at the equator, rotation does not occur.

Climate change, with both land and sea becoming warmer, also has consequences for tropical cyclones. They are becoming more powerful, intensifying more quickly, and carrying more rainfall - which, combined with rising sea levels, leads to greater damage from flooding and storm surges.

When wind speeds exceed 33 m/s, hurricane strength, tropical cyclones are divided into five categories. Category 5 is reserved for “super hurricanes,” with winds above 70 m/s - 250 km/h.

In the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific they are called "hurricanes". In the northwestern Pacific they are called "typhoons", which means “great wind” in Chinese.