72°N to 66°N: A sailor’s dream

Thursday morning developed as expected, we weigh anchor at 10am. Aglaia has already left earlier, Aegir and Vanuily are both leaving at the same time as us. Vanuily and us are anchored deep in the Elson Lagoon and it takes us about an hour just to motor out. Things are generally one size up in the arctic! As a nice surprise, we can see Coro Coro pass us in the open sea. How wonderful! Only Alma is missing to complete the fleet.

The start of the sail is as slow as anticipated. The winds are yet to come. We make use of the shifting wind and dry our sail wardrobe. First we unpack the seeping wet code 0. When the wind moved further aft, we stow the dry code and set the gennaker, also wet. When the wind died, we furled the dry gennaker and put it away. Finally we hoist the wet Oxley. Needless to say, our maneuvers didn’t go uncommented by our fellow buddy boats: show offs!

With the Oxley we sailed through the entire night until in the morning both wind force and course weren’t suitable anymore. Dousing the Oxley in strong winds always is an act that requires significant but well-dosed force. Next config is main in first reef and genoa for a brisk downwind ride in now 6 bft. The swell keeps building as time progresses. Also due to the shallow water of around 20 meters, the waves are unusually steep. Steep short-period waves are also slower than their longer period siblings. The increased steepness and the reduced speed makes it possible for us to catch the larger ones and surf them at exhilarating speeds, at times for a minute. Richard is a true talent at the helm, his life-long experience riding waves on various devices shows. The max speed of the day is logged at 25.4 knots. Not bad! Only 0.1 knot below the ship’s record.

I try to capture the ride on the camera but once more it shows that the might of waves and wind just can’t be captured in moving pictures. The recordings look tame.

By night fall we have left the fleet behind except for Aglaia, which is both a fast boat and had a proper head start.

After rounding Cape Lisburne, the wind quickly dies, we unreef and continue in the slowly calming sea. At the cape we encounter a small tug towing a large barge against the weather. On deck we find new cars that are being hammered in salt-water spray. Totally unprotected. Pretty wild!

The next day on sea becomes a replenishing day. Life is easy. We need to run the engine, which in a way is welcome since we also need to charge the batteries and make water. Unfortunately the hydro-generator stopped working half way - debugging pending. It has become notably warmer: water is up from 4°C to 9°C, air from 3°C to 10°C. For the first time in quite a while we tune down the heater in the salon.

The plan is to anchor tomorrow, Sunday, morning, sleep for a while and continue Sunday afternoon. As to have the wind in the Bering Strait in our direction. I am curious about the passage between the USA and Russia, both countries in sight. Also it is right along the date line: we shall arrive in the east tomorrow and then we will come back yesterday.Read more