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 inspire action for a sustainable ocean. 

2025 - 2026

One Ocean Expedition



Statsraad Lehmkuhl arrived in Norfolk January 31, and will stay until February 8. Statsraad Lehmkuhl planned to visit Baltimore before continuing to Norfolk, but the harbor in Baltimore is freezing up and the ship had to skip this port.

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

Docked in the port of Norfolk

Follow our journey

The day before Statsraad Lehmkuhl docked in Norfolk, the crew experienced something unusual.

The sea is on fire!

Statsraad Lehmkuhl visits Norfolk, January 31 - February 8, 2025

Norfolk, USA

The more than 100-year-old Statsraad Lehmkuhl is packed with modern technology. Here’s how the ship finds its way across the ocean.

Navigating using satellites

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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

Bermuda

Los Angeles, USA

Bermuda - Panama Canal 

Vancouver, Canada

Seattle, USA

San Francisco, USA

San Diego, USA

Ensenada, Mexico

La Paz, Mexico

Herradura, Costa Rica

Cartagena, Columbia

Herradura, Costa Rica - Panama Canal

Cádiz, Spain

Brest, France 

Dublin, Ireland

Bergen, Norway

As Statsraad Lehmkuhl sailed north along the east coast of the United States toward Norfolk, smoke began to rise around the ship. The sea looked as if it were on fire, and on the horizon a strange vertical white line appeared.

Strong winds can make the sea foam, but this time only a breeze was blowing. Captain Jens Joachim Hiorth had an explanation for the smoke.

– The phenomenon is caused by cold air flowing over warm water from the Gulf Stream, creating sea smoke. When icy cold air passes over much warmer water, the ocean releases heat and moisture. The air cannot hold all the water vapor, which then condenses just above the sea surface. The result looks like smoke rising from the ocean, 

Hiorth wrote on the expedition’s Facebook page

Statsraad Lehmkuhl was sailing in the Gulf Stream when the sea began to steam. The image to the left, below, show how this warm ocean current winds its way from the Gulf of Mexico, where it originates, and north-eastward along the US coast. The image to the right show the air temperature and wind direction.

The sea temperature was 23°C, which is 5°C warmer than normal, while a strong outbreak of cold air from the north - shown in blue - lowered the air temperature to just 10°C.

But what about the white line? It was a waterspout - the gentler cousin of tornadoes. Like the smoking sea, the waterspout formed because of the temperature difference between the seawater and the air above.

The sea warms the air close to the surface, and since warm air is lighter than cold air, a pocket of air begins to rise through the colder air above. Winds higher up cause it to rotate and form a vortex. The white color is not because the waterspout is sucking up seawater. It appears white because the air pressure inside the vortex is so low that the air cannot retain the water vapor, which condenses into tiny droplets.

The white column is therefore a cloud of tiny freshwater droplets; only right at the sea surface is seawater whipped up.

Although waterspouts are not as dangerous as tornadoes, Captain Hiorth was wise to keep the ship well clear. They can easily damage the rigging. Wind speeds inside a waterspout can reach 30 meters per second; storm force.

Waterspouts are common along the southeastern coast of the United States in summer, but in winter they are rare, and a clear sign of just how cold the air was that flowed southward and out over the unusual warm ocean.

Norfolk lies at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Virginia. 

It is a major port city and home to the world’s largest naval base, Naval Station Norfolk, as well as one of NATO’s Strategic Command headquarters. Maersk Line, the shipping company with the largest number of vessels sailing under the US flag, also has its headquarters in Norfolk.

The naval base, the defense industry, and activities linked to the port and shipping are the city’s main sources of employment.

Before Europeans settled in Virginia, the bay was home to Indigenous peoples who called the area K'che-sepi-ack. In 1607, British settlers established the colony of Jamestown further inside the bay.

As the colony grew through the 1600s, Norfolk was founded in 1705. By then, it had become an important export port for tobacco and other goods from Virginia.

During the American Revolution, when 13 British colonies broke away from Great Britain, large parts of Norfolk were destroyed. British warships shelled the city, and to prevent the British from gaining a foothold, residents burned many of the buildings that remained standing.

After the British were driven out, Norfolk was rebuilt - only to be devastated again by a major fire in 1804. 

In June 1855, a ship brought yellow fever to the city. The virus, transmitted by mosquitoes, causes severe liver disease. When the outbreak subsided as weather cooled in the autumn, 1,500 people had died, and one third of the population had fled in panic.

During the American Civil War, Union ships blockaded the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and on March 8 - 9, 1862, a major naval battle took place just outside Norfolk - known as the Battle of Hampton Roads. 

This was the first time ironclad warships were used in combat. Although the blockade held, the battle demonstrated the superiority of steel-built ships over traditional wooden sailing vessels.

In the early 1900s, Norfolk began to grow. The city was connected to the railway network in 1907, and in 1917, as the First World War approached, the naval base was established. 

In the 1950s, the road system was expanded with tunnels and bridges, and several smaller towns were incorporated into Norfolk.

In 1958, Norfolk became the center of a painful conflict. Four years earlier, the US Supreme Court had ruled that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional. Virginia resisted the decision, and when a district court ordered schools to open to black students, Governor Almond instead closed the schools.

After ten days, he was forced to back down, and in February 1959 the first black children entered previously all-white schools.

Today, around 40 percent of Norfolk’s 240,000 residents are of European descent, about 40 percent of African descent, and roughly 10 percent are of Latin American origin.

Parts of Norfolk are built on former sandbanks and mudflats. This makes the city vulnerable to flooding, caused by land subsidence, flooding of the Elizabeth River, which divides the city in two, storm surges, and rising sea levels.

The climate is humid subtropical, with an average annual rainfall of 1,249 mm. Most of the rain falls in summer, often as heavy thunderstorms. This stretch of coastline is also exposed to hurricanes.

Temperatures are typically above 20°C from April to October, and around 30°C from June to August. Winter is short but cool, with temperatures around 10-12°C from December to January. Freezing temperatures and snow are not uncommon.

Normal maximum temperature in February: 11.9 °C
Normal rainfall in February: 87 mm

Thirty years ago, we had to unfold a paper map to find our way, and at sea or in the mountains the compass had to come out as well. Tricky, and not very efficient.

Today, it’s enough to pull out your mobile phone. It knows exactly where you are and shows you how to get to your destination. That’s because there’s a receiver inside it, a tiny device that picks up signals from a network of satellites 20,000 kilometres above us. We are used to calling it GPS, but the correct term is GNSS – Global Navigation Satellite System. 

We'll stick to GPS, no longer one, but several systems.

It all began with the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, developed by the United States. The first of the 30 satellites in the system was launched in 1978, and the last in 1994. Since then, the satellites have been replaced several times.

The system was originally developed for military use. Only in 1983 did civilians gain access. During the first years, the Americans deliberately added an error to reduce the accuracy of civilian receivers from about 10 metres to 100 metres. This limitation was removed in the year 2000.

Russia has its own military system, GLONASS, which is also open for civilian use. China has BeiDou, and Europe has Galileo.

In 2016 Galileo entered operation, and Europe finally became completely independent of military satellite systems. Galileo is entirely civilian, owned by the EU and ESA.

Galileo offers an accuracy of down to one metre - more precise than both GPS and GLONASS, especially at northern latitudes. Galileo can also work together with the other systems, providing even greater accuracy.

The first of the 30 Galileo satellites was launched in 2011, and the last in 2020. 

Satellite navigation is both very simple - and very complex.

Do you remember sine and cosine from school? That you can find the length of the sides of a triangle if you know one side and two angles?

All surveying is based on that principle: creating a network of triangles and using them to locate new points.

All countries has been covered by such a triangulation network for many years. You’ve probably seen the markers on hilltops and ridges. To find your position using them, you’d need an instrument that can measure distances and angles. You must have clear sight from one marker to the next, and you must be able to calculate.

GPS moved this network of triangles into space. The satellites replace the markers on the mountaintops.

The satellites continuously transmit information about their position, together with an exact timestamp. The receiver in your phone, car, or boat picks up the signals and measures how long they take to arrive. That time delay is used to calculate the distance to each satellite.

This requires an extremely accurate clock and advanced signal processing, but the rest is just basic school geometry.

Three satellites are enough to calculate your position; four if you also want to know your altitude above sea level. The more satellites the receiver can connect to, the higher the accuracy. In practice, receivers use signals from at least four satellites at a time.

Knowing only your latitude and longitude doesn’t help much. Coordinates show your precise position, but they don’t really tell you where you are - so to speak. We still need a map.

That’s why most GNSS receivers are integrated with a digital map system. It shows where you are, where you’ve been, and how to navigate to where you want to go.

Smart, but don’t throw away your paper maps. If your phone runs out of power or you lose contact with the satellites, having a paper map and a compass could save your life in the mountains or at sea.

This is the reason the chart room aboard Statsraad Lehmkuhl - packed with electronic chart displays - also have paper charts and a logbook where the ship’s position is recorded.