Slow start 59:46N 47:10W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Wed 20 Aug 2008 14:48
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We only covered 70 miles the first day, slow
sailing and no motoring except to charge batteries.
The towed (toad) does not charge at less than 4
knots, so the engine is put on occasionally to keep things working.
I was not out of the ice zone last night and the
wind fell very light, so I rolled away the jib and stopped. Although
we were still pointing the right way, we were carried back about 3 miles by the
edge of the gulf stream, apparently doing a full knot.
I am exchanging emails with the Greenland
Coastguards again.
Their system is baffled by a ship without a fixed
course and speed.
Yesterday afternoon we were again visited by first
dolphins, not very close, but one jumped right out of the water. A little
later a pair of pilot whales came up behind us and blew about 4 times before
sounding. One of them returned twice and did the same thing, slowly
following the boat and blowing about 4 times before going down again.
The last time I was annoyed not to have the camera
out. He was close enough to be seen under the water between blows so
I could see him came up. Usually they surface and breathe
so quickly that they are hard to photograph.
Oh yes, there was a parasitic jaeger, as I will
have to call arctic skuas on this side of the pond, chasing a small gull round
the boat just now.
Everything happens out in the
Atlantic.
One last Greenland berg:
 This was aground in 120m of water, 25 miles
offshore.
There were swirls from the tide downstream from
it.
 This may be too small to see, but there were
over 100 seabirds roosting on it.
Their private, although temporary,
island.
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