Crossing the Baffin Bay 1

The weather outlook for the crossing is generally very favorable: at least 5 days of acceptable weather of which the first 3 are especially benign: southerly winds between 10 and 25 knots, comfortable sea state. About 12 hours of the 50-hour passage shall be motoring, roughly evenly distributed on the start and the end of the passage. Leaving earlier gives us more leeway, so we leave, without rush, and motor out at 5 knots.

It is getting real! We are moving to the beginning of the challenging part. Finally! As expected sailing today was a piece of cake. As soon as the winds stabilized, which took half the day, we set the Gennaker with the full main sail. Since then we are sailing with speeds between 6 and 10 knots.

With a crew of four we opt for 3-hour, single-person, shifts. Icebergs are pitched at about 2-NM spacing. Hardly any growlers or bergy bits other than within ~0.5 NM of a berg. And even in the middle of the night there is plenty of sun light.

Things look merry, it should become a fast and comfortable passage.Read more