First, let me say that St. Anthony’s, Newfoundland was as truly a welcoming harbor of refuge as we could have hoped for.  Thank you to all who helped us enjoy our stay and get squared away.  Having said that, waiting eight days for weather systems, all the while anchored-out, was an ongoing test of coping skills as well as tolerance levels that none of us wanted or particularly enjoyed. It’s nice to know we can do it though. Needless to say, when the window opened, we took it.  After 5 days at sea we arrived here in Nuk, Greenland safe and sound late yesterday afternoon with a southerly at our heels.  The weather window we were watching held as promised for the first three days and the crossing from Newfoundland to Greenland was as straightforward as hoped for; winds light & variable and seas benign.  As expected, during the final evening the wind started to fill in from the SSE. Very quickly the seas built and winds punched in 25-30 kts.  For the whole crossing we were pleasantly surprised as to the general lack of icebergs but as we closed in on Greenland we started to pick them up on radar more and more. During the day it’s usually no problem as even the smaller pieces, the growlers can be spotted. Nighttime was were our concerns lay as even radar has its limits.  Filed under Everything Always Works Out For The Best, our deep concerns about these small growlers hidden in the darkness were alleviated by the fact that we’re now far enough north that we’ve all but 24 hours of light.

The main harbor of Nuk is primarily a commercial harbor and you basically tie up wherever you can find an opening.  We currently lay alongside a work barge, which lays alongside a 100’ Greenlandian (?) wooden fishing trawler, which itself lays alongside an 80’ Norwegian steel trawler which is tied to a steel bulkhead.  Just now a 65’ French steel ketch tied up outside of us. Our hope to hop to the fuel dock this afternoon is going to take the unbridled cooperation of four different nations.

A Couple of Very Unexpected Low Points: Our brand new, budget-busting, $14,000, Sea Recovery, Aqua Whisper, watermaker crapped out after less than 30 hours of use. Basically it started to divert all newly made fresh water overboard and not into the tank.  What water we were making was going right back into the ocean. Clinton found a work-around and although we are making water I’m not real happy… to put it mildly. The guys who installed it, Ocean Options, have been great about helping us diagnose the problem (control panel?) but the product’s reliability is deeply concerning.  The cost of the unit was a brutal hit to the trip’s budget and the fact that we’re heading for an area not known for it’s ample marinas is very unsettling.

Also; last year I bought the upgrade package of for our Nobeltec electronic chart system. As expected we now need to buy a “key” to unlock their World Folio of charts on the system. These charts include Greenland, The Arctic, as well as Alaska. That’s fine. We called Nobeltec to purchase the key and it’s my understanding that in order to access the World Folio we now have to buy their newest upgrade as the one we bought last year in no longer valid.  We have all the paper charts aboard that we need but in order to access them on the computer I now have to buy yet another upgrade… again.

Posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Filed under: Greenland, Newfoundland, The Arctic by Sprague
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Watch this space. (Rumor has it, after a week in St. Anthony’s Newfoundland,  we just might have a weather window opening up)!

Posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Filed under: Iceberg Sitings, Newfoundland by Sprague
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There’s an expression which I always try to remember but in actuality seldom do; “It is what it is.” Coincidentally that expression is on the front of Clinton’s MacBook.  We’re still in St. Anthony’s, pinned down by an extremely persistent and sluggish low pressure system just off-shore. Each time we download weather charts it suggests that it’s about to move on, but six hours later the next download of charts shows that it once again threw us a very successful head-fake. By six hour increments the charts give us prognostications for five days out and even looking down the road that far, there it sits, looking back at us; I wouldn’t say taunting but certainly not enticing  As I write this, stuffed down into my sleeping bag, holed up in my cabin, I can hear the screeching of the cold, pre-arctic winds outside. I caution a peek at the wind gauge on the bulkhead next to me and see a sustained breezes in excess of 40kts.  We’ve been here longer than first planned and will most certainly not be leaving for at least another five days. Despite this the crew is doing wonderfully. The occasionally flare up (I’ll be the first to raise his hand on that issue) has been completely overshadowed by continued laughter. There’s no getting around it, the tedium of being stuck aboard (5 people, 57 foot boat – you do the math) coupled with the continued disappointment of aforementioned low pressure system has the potential to make for an explosively stressful situation.  I hired pros and pros they are.  (A large ship’s library, DVD selection and Wii system aboard help the situation to no end as well.)

Posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009
Filed under: Iceberg Sitings, Newfoundland by Sprague
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Waiting in St. Anthony's

Last night we pored over the weather charts and GRIB files again, looking for favorable weather trends for the next few days, all we saw was continued disorganized volatility.  If it was benign enough for us to leave for Greenland, we’d be hammered down the road.  If we went for an open window down the road we’d be facing 25kts, icebergs and fog at the start, not a healthy combination.

  Someone asked me to report on what we’ve been doing since we left.  The answer to that would be, everything and nothing.  Clinton’s constantly been making a dent in the ongoing ship’s maintenance.  Dominique has been cooking for the rough weather and when she can, restocking all the food and stores.  Ulli and Sefton have been shooting for the documentary seemingly around the clock, covering all aspects of ship’s life as it occurs.  I’ve been basically trying to stay out of everyone’s way (albeit not always successfully), listening to any and all “situations” and trying to help facilitate answers, arranging and rearranging flights, working with Matt Dutra on the continuous quest of finding funding, writing these blogs and trying not to think too much about what these weather delays may mean for our potential transit through the Passage. We’ve all been standing our watches. Suffice it to say that July 4^th couldn’t have come at a better time. Dominique cooked us an amazingly “American”, July 4^th dinner (sloppy Joes, French Fries, big salad,) and the boat was festooned with all things Red, White & Blue. We’re all walking away from Bagan today, renting a car and are going exploring. She needs a break from us. I also need more Prilosec.

Posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Filed under: Greenland, Newfoundland by Sprague
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July 3

Currently we sit in St. Anthony’s waiting for a weather window that will allow us to cross the 900 miles to Greenland.  The three components we’re watching are fog, ice and wind, all to be found on weather charts that we can download from the internet.  It’s a bit of a witches brew in that when we get wind from the NW, that tends to dissipate the fog but also drives more ice down from the north.  On the other hand, when the wind blows from the SW it helps drive the ice to shore but also brings in the fog.  So one of the questions we look at is; do we want to be in large ice fields that we can at least see, or less ice that doesn’t become evident until we’re right up on it.?  That’s one of the questions. The other is the wind. Do we sneak out of here on the back of a large high pressure system to try and take advantage of some diminishing breezes and if we do will the developing low right behind it give us more than we bargained for?  In either case there seems to be a component developing on the west side of Greenland which promises to deliver 25 to 30 kts winds out of the north, against a knot and a half north-setting current, which equals our old friend “chop”, big, steep, closely spaced chop. In most cruising situations a boat can simply sit and wait for just the right opening, that’s all part of the profile of casual cruising.  Yet this trip isn’t really about cruising and sight-seeing.  We have a very specific time window for getting into and out of the Passage. If we have to wait too long on this side, the ice in the Passage could very well shut it down before we get there, or worse, while we’re in it.  To say that none of us are feeling this pressure would be a non-truth, to one level or another we’re all aware of the consequences of the timing at hand.  The plan is to leave bright and early tomorrow, the 4th, hopefully we won’t be celebrating with any unplanned bangs or booms.

Posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Filed under: Iceberg Sitings, Newfoundland, The Arctic by Sprague
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