Guo Chuan and his international crew of four sailors and one media crew, have reached the halfway point of their Arctic Ocean World Record Challenge, six days after departing from Murmansk, Russia and headed for the Bering Strait via the Northeast Passage.The team has already set one record.

According to the team’s weather expert Frenchmen Christian Dumard, it is the first time ever that a racing boat has sailed so far north. The 97-foot trimaran "Qingdao China" reached 78°33’25 North on Tuesday afternoon, just 1271 km (790 miles) from the North Pole, and the most northerly point of their journey.

As Afloat reported earlier, The crew plans to sail the entire Northeast Passage non-stop from Murmansk to the Bering Strait between Alaska (U.S.A) and Russia, the quickest route from Europe to the Pacific, expecting to set the first non-stop sailing world record for the Northeast Passage in the process. The voyage is about 3300 nautical miles and expected to be completed within two weeks around September 14. To celebrate reaching the halfway point, the crew enjoyed some Chinese moon cakes and a little Russian Vodka.Along with skipper Guo Chuan, Qingdao China’s crew includes Frenchmen Jochen Krauth (Baie de Quiberon) and Quentin Monegier (La Trinité-sur-Mer), Germans Boris Herrmann (Kiel) and media crew Tim Bastian Frank (Hamburg), and Sergei Nizovtsev from Russia.

Monegier has also been celebrating the birth of a baby son Lucien, on the day of the departure. He has received baby photos to his phone via Inmarsat satellite.