57° to 60°: High-pressure sailing is best

Again, I had a night with plenty of sleep. I feel well rested, my sleep tank is topped up, which is good in view of the expected ice starting from tonight.

This morning I saw the first icebergs on the horizon, then nothing for the rest of the day. A large pod of pilot whales was company for about 4 hours. When I want to launch the drone, I noticed that none of the batteries were charged - darn. Astonishingly the whales were still around by time the battery was charged and I managed to catch some nice shots.

Good news also from France: we have a set of replacement trampolines! Yann will bring them to Greenland. Got to hand it to Garcia: whenever I got stranded, they promptly delivered, often in creative, always in helpful ways. Only drawback is that we won’t have green fishing nets between the bows crossing the NWP - would’ve blended in style!

Going forward I am just a tad ice-anxious. In a way I wish I had some ice now, so that I could calibrate and verify the radar settings in daylight. As Jeri of Coro Coro says: there is not much ice, but only a single growler at the wrong location is too much already. Jeri advises to stay as far off Greenland’s shore as possible until higher than Paamiut. That’s another 200 NM - manageable.

Assuming I’m doing 6 knots and the bergy bits are stationary and I have a useful radar range of 3 NM that gives me 30 minutes of verified clear waters ahead. Add some safety and we are on 20 or 25-minutes sleeping intervals. If I slow down to 4 knots, the verified water stretches to 45 minutes and the sleeping interval to 30 or 40 minutes.

What struck me in the last night was that dawn persisted throughout the night. There are about 6 hours of sun under the horizon and the moon ist at 50%. Bergs glow, they are white and easy to see - once they’re close. The clear sky and residual sun light definitely help.

I crossed the half way mark some time last night with, thus far, no motoring at all. So that’s good. The Code 0 is now out for more than 24 hours. That’s a first. Sailing in high-pressure systems has its perks: sunshine and flat seas. Only wind isn’t guaranteed.Read more