Disko 5: An endless passage through ice

During the first night we crossed the polar circle at 66°33’N. This area is curiously ice free, which makes navigation so much easier. The winds during the night generally very good and we made good progress. For hours on end our tanker was plowing through the water at 10 knots. First on full main and gennaker then on full main and genoa. My gut feeling is that the tanker weight costs us 1 knot of speed. Definitely the wake is bigger.

We opted for 4-hour night shifts. With the crew still fresh, I come up for all maneuvers of which we had a few: two gybes and one gennaker-to-genoa sail change. The maneuvers go in a breeze, no incidents. Taking down the gennaker in 28 knots - no problem. I can feel it, we will be a good crew in the passage.

There are a few options for tackling the Disco Bay, which can be very challenging with the Ilulissat Isfjord glacier calving enormous amounts of ice into the bay. With Richard arriving the next morning, we opt to go to the ice edge, assess the situation and if ice and the crew’s energy levels permit, we directly steer for Ilulissat. Directly in this case means to take a big detour of ~20NM west and north, cross the ice zone in a 3/10 ice coverage zone and then head to Ilulissat all through 1/10 to 3/10 of ice.

Joerg hits his bunk to tank some sleep before the ice comes. Only a few hours later, around 2200, the icebergs appear rather abruptly. I wake Joerg just because the moment it is too outlandish to pass upon. We are still under full main and genoa sailing in the ice field. Will the density increase? Will we have to turn around? Will a nearby berg flip? I sheet the sails conservatively. The emergency plan is that Yann would start both engines and takes the helm, while I drop the sails.

Sailing through the area is totally surreal, we pass into the wind shadows of bergs, cross different zones of ice coverage before the coverage gets too high for the sails. We drop them and continue on engines. I take the helm, in this way I am to blame in case we run into ice. We are very much aware that we will have to navigate through ice all night. Of course it stays bright, we are benefiting from the polar day, but our bodies will reduce heat production and focus will fade as the hormones run their 24-hour routine. Going slow at 3 knots or so would reduce the consequences of a collision but going 6 or 7 knots keeps me awake and focused. Mostly I go fast, the boat steers excellently through the ice parcour. When the ice concentrates, I reduce speed and we slowly crawl through ice soup.

Altogether I am sure we took more than 1,000 photos this night - of ice, water and sky.

We manage to keep going, it got tough once, such that it was unclear whether or not we could make it but fortunately only for about half a mile. We anchor at 0800 in front of Ilulissat. Tired and cold.

Two and a half hours later, Richard is supposed to land, we drop to our bunks for a nap. Was that real, was that a dream?Read more