Getting Close

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Wed 30 Jul 2008 22:36
Position: 69 00.7 N 053 18.6 W
At anchor Imerigssoq, Kronprinsens Ejland
Wind: Light & variable
Weather: Overcast

Shortly after signing off yesterday I saw an iceberg off to our port side, a
large one. So much for their not coming south of Disko Bay. The wind
carried us all the way to the entrance of the Bay, though it is a big bay
and there is still another 50 miles to go to get to Ililisiut, where we are
aiming for. We had periods of fog but fortunately they didn't last too
long, not that they were not without their moments. One such moment, just
after midnight we had a thick fog bank ahead of us and on the edge of it was
a large iceberg which was shortly engulfed by it. At the time a large
passenger liner was passing me slow on my starboard side. I watched closely
as she approached the fog. Then she was gone. 'Mmm', I thought, 'this is
rather thick'. I altered coarse to starboard so as to keep well clear of
the berg I had seen before it was swallowed up. I dropped the drifter and
set the jib so as to have more manoeuvrability and warmed up the engine to
make sure it would start in hurry if we needed it and then in we went. It
wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, visibility was down to about 200
yards, I had a good chance of seeing something in time to avoid it. After
about two hours of peering into the murk wondering what my next step was
going to be, it suddenly cleared; off to starboard about a mile away I could
see a huge iceberg. I was very grateful I could see again.
By five this morning the wind was dieing, we had quite a few large icebergs
all around but nothing closer than a mile, so I dropped sail and drifted for
a while for a rest. At seven I again set sail and we continued in the light
easterly blowing out of Disko Bay - a headwind. After a couple of hours of
this the wind started falling very fickle again, we were now in the entrance
to Disko Bay and surrounded by icebergs, presumably they were going to get
thicker as we got closer to their source at the head of the Bay. We were
also only about half a mile from the Kronprinsens Ejland group where my
guided indicated there was a nice little anchorage. My body was telling me
it was time for another snooze - so down sail, on engine and an hour later
we anchored in a snug cove below the remains of an old deserted village.
The cove's entrance faces the northeast and from here you can see some
massive bergs drifting past.

Bob Cat:

Same old, same old.

All is well.