SOLO sailor Adrian Flanagan has come eyeball to eyeball with a polar bear.
The chance encounter came as the 46-year-old father-of-two steered his stainless steel yacht Barrabas through packed ice on his quest to become the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe via the Russian Arctic.
He began his epic voyage in Hamble and in his latest despatch he described how he came face-to-face with the Arctic stranger.
Adrian, right, said: "Two black eyes stared back at me. Now 20 metres in front of my bow the polar bear lifted his snout to sniff at the strange thing in its midst.
"He swam off to one side checking over his shoulder. I circled round. I was not expecting this. The bear reached ice and lumbered out of the water. A young male with an immaculate coat. He shook himself and studied Barrabas from a better vantage.
"Everything was still. Just me and the bear."
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