Our Story

In his early 20s, Juho needed a summer hobby to complement his winter ski-bumming in the Alps. He took an adult beginner sailing course in Helsinki and soon found himself in the deep end, sailing and racing small keelboats 3-4 days a week every summer. He also spent a few summers coaching at the HSS Sailing Center in Helsinki and a winter sailing a Laser dinghy in Sydney, Australia.

Sohvi's first real sailing experience was on one of our first dates. It was a winter sail that ended with her slipping into the freezing water while we were docking Juho's boat Sylvia against some icy cliffs in the Finnish archipelago.

Juho had long dreamed of accessing some of of the Norway’s skiable mountains using a boat and in 2018 we sailed Sylvia from Finland to northern Norway. There we spent two years sailing, skiing and hiking the Norwegian coast. Sylvia was a Beneteau Idylle 11.50, a stock fibreglass boat that held up surprisingly well even through the winters at 70 degrees north.

We also sailed Sylvia to Svalbard, where we took part in our first real citizen science project, sampling for persistent organic pollutants. See more projects here.

During COVID we sailed Sylvia to Sweden and sold her, and then started hunting for our next boat while simultaneously looking after our friends' twin-engine trawler/sailboat Arktika. We took Arktika from Norway via the Faroes to Iceland and got to know the local boatyards quite intimately as we spent a lot of time sorting out technical issues.

"With used aluminium sailboat prices going through the roof in Europe, in 2022 we found Lumi abandoned at a boatyard in California at a much more reasonable price. Trees were growing on deck as she'd been sitting in the same spot for 15 years. But her interior was dry and the hull was sound. We signed a purchase agreement and spent six gruelling months on the initial refit before pointing her north. With winter closing in fast, our "test sail" was to head straight under the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the Pacific.

We spent two years adventuring in Alaska, including many probable first ski descents on the mountains around Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula.

In 2024 we sailed the Northwest Passage from Alaska to Greenland, by far our biggest sailing challenge yet.

We overwintered in Greenland in 2024–2025, letting Lumi freeze into the ice in a remote bay and spending 180 days locked in.

Here is the plan for 2026.

Bragging, (accidental) accomplishments & work

• In 2021 we were awarded the Ocean Cruising Club's Adventure Challenge Grant "for sailors in pursuit of world-class sailing and sail exploration objectives.

• In 2023, Sohvi earned her PhD at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation focused on the role of gender and emotions within the Arctic fossil fuel industry. After that she began working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.

• In 2024 Juho and Alluring Arctic received the Finnish Boating Association's Media Act of the Year award with the jury noting that “the high-quality videos inspire both new and experienced sailors, highlighting the uniqueness of Arctic waters and the challenges of sailing, while promoting responsible boating and respect for the environment.” Juho has been working full-time on the video production since 2020 and the long-form videos gather around 20 million unique views per year across multiple platforms.

• In 2025, Sohvi’s completed her post-doctoral research project Rethinking International Relations in an Era of the Planetocene. Her current project, Post-anthropocentric Water Relations in the Bothnian Bay, concentrates on human-ice interactions in the Bothnian Bay.

• In 2026 Sohvi’s non-fiction book Sitten purjehdimme pohjoiseen (“Then we sailed North”) was published in Finnish. The English, German and Dutch translation & publishing rights have now also been sold.

• In 2026 he Finnish Minister of Climate and Environment Sari Multala chose Alluring Arctic as the recipient of the Boating Act of the Year, commissioned by the Finnish Boat Journalists' Association. Multala noted that “the Alluring Arctic channel not only shares own experiences, but also valuable knowledge about the Arctic and the research being conducted there. This is especially important as the Arctic gains greater importance in light of climate change and geopolitical issues.”

• In 2026 the Finnish Merikarhut association awarded us their Sailor's Plaque for outstanding seamanship, nautical skill and resourcefulness at sea, stating “Juho Karhu and Sohvi Kangasluoma have demonstrated sustained skill, courage and determination in demanding conditions. It is an exceptional maritime achievement, requiring both technical and mental readiness to operate in extreme environments.”