A few words from Cath & Phil.

 

Women’s gossip:

 

Catherine here again. We’ve been enjoying very easy conditions so far for our Baffin Bay crossing. Mirror calm seas with large banks of fog. The radar was invaluable at spotting the various enormous ice bergs floating around. The growlers are more difficult to spot though and you have to keep alert on watch to make quick course changes. Although they are small enough to make it difficult to see them, they are big enough to do some damage if we hit them at speed. Now we have good vis. and a F4 on the port quarter which makes for good speed (7 knots) and a gentle motion.

 

Our last anchorage was one of the most beautiful I have ever been in (and I’ve been in a few!). A very sheltered bay surrounded by steep high mountains – some with lines of snow in the gullies. I reckon they would make for good winter climbing routes or steep (very!) ski gullies when filled in more – for those of you interested in such things. Not being here for that – Phil and I settled for a climb to the top of the nearest hill which, although seemed unnecessarily hard work, rewarded us with magnificent views of the fiord filled with low cloud whilst above we had clear blue skies and bright sunshine. There was a small stream at the head of the bay from which we were able to fill up with water whilst being badly bitten by mosquitos. Next time ashore we brought a head net.

 

I’ve tried my hand at making flapjack and bread – a good introduction to the boat oven. Both were edible but a lack of golden syrup (I forgot to buy it) – meant that the flapjack was not my best. The men don’t know yet but they’ll be getting quiche and apple pie for supper tomorrow. I’m on cooking duty then.

 

Phil on Baffin Bay

We are half way across Baffin Bay i can hardly believe it! Apart from the icebergs it of course looks like most over seas its only when I pan back on the plotter that the realisation of where we really are strikes home.

 

This was a great whaling area back in the 18th & 19th Century and some of the whaling skippers signed on as ice master’s for the exploratory expeditions that headed into the North west Passage. What this means for us of course is no whale sightings yet on this leg of the trip.

 

We passed the largest iceberg yet on my morning watch using the radar as a measuring instrument i reckon it was about a mile long and flat topped. It’s possible this may be part of the main ice fields further north broken of and drifting south. All the over icebergs we have seen have calved off glaciers in the Disko Bay area they look like your traditional various shaped icebergs. It is reckoned that an iceberg from this same source sank the Titanic. What we are heading towards of course is sea ice this will all be low in the water and is what we are hoping will break up, melt, get blown or drift away or any combination of these in order for us to have a free passage.

 

2 Days to Pond Inlet (north end of Baffin Island) if all goes well.