60° to 62°: Iceberg zone

Yesterday evening and the last night weren’t as uneventful as I’ve gotten used to. As expected the winds died around 18:00 during the transition of 2 systems. 3 hours of slow motoring to fill the gap. As we glide through glassy waters with 5 knots I use the opportunity to do a bit more in-depth check of everything. I lay down on the foredeck and inspect the masthead using binoculars. The shackle of the Gennaker halyard attachment has come loose! A photo with the 300mm lens confirms it. The pin is half-way out! My options are to lower Code 0 and hope the halyard stays attached until we reach Nuuk. Or to climb up and fasten that shackle. Given the begnin sea state and that I feel fresh and rested, I decided to tackle the problem on the spot. This also a first in the sense that I never went up the mast by myself.

I use 2 alpine ascendeurs, one fixed to the harness and secured to the spinnaker halyard, the other also on the spinnaker halyard with a sling hanging off it for my foot to step in. Helmet with GoPro, proper shoes, fanny bag with tools and phone. One engine is in gear, the autopilot set on a course that aims at taking the swell on the aft. Left to herself, the boat naturally falls into a wave-parallel heading.

I clip on and inch up the halyard. On a not-moving platform this would be trivial, on the swinging mast it is an act of force. The operation concludes successful, the pin is back where it belongs. I am happy with my ascend technique but for the descend I need to find something that works better than descending with the ascendeurs. There are, as always, several alternative techniques that can be used. I have an abseilachter that I could use with a prusik for safety. But that involves a bit of a setup at the top of the swinging mast. Might have been the better choice. I’ll research a bit and see how others do it.

Back down on the deck, I catch my breath and sort things away. I did spend 40 minutes on the mast - didn’t expect that. As soon as I am sorted, the new wind sets in. Back up with the full main and out with the Code. We are slicing through flat waters at 7 knots in 9 knots of breeze. As a finale to the day, I sail through a pod of sleeping pilot whales, maybe 25 of them, lumped in groups of 2 to 5. Curious how they stick together within what seems touching distance. Wow.

The wind continuous to build and soon the SOG graph breaks the 10-knot line. She cuts through the water like a train, the sea is still flat, perfect sailing. But I am in the ice zone! Moving at 10 knots doesn’t give me any sensible time for sleeping. Slow down? I only have about 24 hours of this wind… rather not. The night turns out to be great in terms of progress but poor in terms of sleeping. Thanks to uninterrupted illumination, my eyes outperform the radar throughout the entire night. I can see the bergs at 12 NM distance, the radar picks them up at around 6-7NM. I am now logging the bergs for Vanuily who will be following my wake in 2-3 days.

The day is gray, no sun, no solar charge. Tomorrow around noon I shall drop the hook in Nuuk. During the day I should leave the “old-iceberg” zone and the ice frequency should drop until I head in for Nuuk. Where I am now, the icebergs spill around the southern tip of Greenland. They were born on the east coast of Greenland. Closer to shore , where I am going, the bergs will be west-Greenland bergs.

I expect the wind will shut off tonight and that I will motor through the night. I don’t mind, relaxes the night a lot. 140 NM to go, tomorrow noonish we should be in Nuuk!Read more