The expedition ship Gypsy Life off an Arctic coast

Expeditions & Discovery Tours

With Gypsy Life to where the charts end

For more than two decades Harald and Silvia Paul have lived aboard the expedition ship they designed themselves – among pack ice, northern lights and solitude. Here you will find their journeys, logbooks, photos and reports.

Expedition figures

over 100,000 nm

covered with Gypsy Life

since 1998

continuously under way without harbour supplies

  • 4×

    North Atlantic crossed

  • 1×

    At the 80th parallel north

  • 2×

    in Svalbard

  • 7×

    in Greenland

  • 2×

    in Canada Labrador

  • 7×

    Wintered in polar ice

News

News from on board

The most recent pictures and films from along the way.

  1. The red and black pilot boat standing on the yard’s slipway cradle Pilot boat: length 15 m, width 4.8 m, draught 2.2 m, weight 60 t
  2. The removed rudder blade on its stand, with three zinc anodes fitted Rudder
  3. Looking straight through the round bow thruster tunnel in the pilot boat’s hull Bow thruster tunnel
  4. The stern from below: shaft bracket with propeller shaft, alongside rudder and anodes Stern
  5. The rounded hull of the pilot boat with the draught marks on the bow Rounded hull
  6. The Gypsy Life standing on blocks on the quay with the travel lift alongside Gypsy Life: length 12 m, width 4 m, draught 1.8 m, weight 21 t
  7. Under the stern of the Gypsy Life: ice propeller and rudder between the guard plates Stern with rudder and ice propeller
  8. Show all posts

News items

High Coast

High Coast

A new report, No. 32 “High Coast”, is finished and can again be ordered by email from harald-paul@haraldpaul.com. This report has plenty of photos…

A Quiet Spell

A Quiet Spell

A new report, “A Quiet Spell”, is finished. Anyone who has known us for a while knows that the title sounds paradoxical, because a winter with ships in the ice can only mean wor…

Northbound Again

Northbound Again

“Northbound Again” is my thirtieth report for you. As usual, plenty of photos to illustrate it and plenty of text. Many of you know that this is actua…

All posts and news items

What We Offer

Books, films and “Paul’s Reports”

First-hand experiences – as a book, as a DVD and as an ongoing series of reports by email.

Digital – straight to your inbox

Paul’s Reports

Richly illustrated reports on life on board, technology, animals and landscape. You order by email and receive the file once the contribution towards costs has arrived.

Order a report See all reports

The three most recent reports

Books and films

To what we offer

Who we are

A life in harmony with nature

Harald Paul, the 63-year-old trained farmer who gave up his 25 years of self-employment in forestry and landscape management, has now devoted himself to a bigger task.

Together with his wife Silvia, after several years of practical experience at sea, they had a small expedition ship built for themselves.
Hands-on reporting from nature is part of the new field of work. The aim is that beautiful landscape and wildlife photographs let everyone decide for themselves what they can still change in order to increase their own contribution to nature conservation.

More about the Pauls

Drawing of the expedition ship Gypsy Life
The expedition ship “Gypsy Life” – Smelne Vlet 1100 OK Ocean Range

Under Way

Expeditions

From the Göta Canal to Labrador: every voyage has its own logbook and its own photo gallery.

Gypsy Life – Hot Instead of Ice

2018 – 2021

Hot Instead of Ice

From Friesland through the canals of France to the Mediterranean – three years heading south instead of into the ice.

Alaska

2013 – 2016

Expedition Danube – Alaska

From the Danube via Iceland and Greenland to Labrador – winters in the Arctic ice and four North Atlantic crossings.

Karelia

2012

Saimaa Wilderness / Karelia

Trial voyage through the Baltic and the Saimaa Canal into the Finnish lakeland – with new equipment for a self-sufficient power supply.

All expeditions

452 entries

The Logbooks

Four voyages, documented without a gap – with position, wind, weather and water temperature.

616 photos

The Photo Galleries

Icebergs, whales, northern lights and everyday life on board – photos from twenty years.