Chukchi Sea

15th Sept

Alaska has been on our port side for nearly 4 days now and we have'nt seen any of it yet.................low cloud, rain and fog !!!!!!!! We reckon it's not there at all, a figment of someone's imagination !!! LOL :-)
Winds come and go, but we are making very good time and should be in Nome by late Wednesday / early Thursday morning. Watching a few films idles away some of the spare time, or reading a book. I'm on "The Map that changed the World" at the moment. It's about William Smith, the first man to map the geological strata of the British isles, in fact, any where in the world..................it was the first ........completed on 1st August 1815.
Another tug had appeared as if by magic on the AIS in the evening, some 16 miles to our north. As he's travelling at nearly the same speed as us, he's no problem.

16th Sept

Pass Point Hope and start to cross the big open section of the Chukchi Sea that announces the entrance to the Bering Strait.......................oooeerrrrrrrrrrrrr missus.............once you're going through.......you're going through !!!!
It could be a bit like running the tide back home on the Kent estuary............i've done it in a canoe...................let me tell you, when that tide is taking you towards the railway bridge, you're going through whether you like it or not !!!!! ha ha ha
Hopefully there is'nt a 3 foot drop off the other side of the Bering Strait !!!!!! One thing at least........there's ice waiting for us , like the Bellot Strait.
We did actually catch a fleeting glimpse of the Alaskan mainland this morning, the ..................mountains...............distant, but there. Then it went haywire, the cloud came back down and the rain started again..............
We're on track to cross the Arctic circle today, we reckon 66' 33' N should be about 23:00 this evening. That is officially the NW Passage transitted from East to West.............yyyyeeeehhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!! ;-)
We lost the tug this morning in a heavy swell, we wonder if he has run a shore for some shelter. However, we have a new vessel to watch, a dredger has appeared on the AIS....looks as though he is heading for Nome too.
No, he's not ......he turned away from us later in the night.......no idea where he's heading
Really rough and windy over night, especially as we came nearer the Bering Strait........just as i said. I missed some of it, but, Steve said sections were really rough and others flat calm...........weird. I've seen someting like that at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.........the water is running so fast, it becomes calm.
So, yes, an unpleasant night, rocking and rolling, plus i think we are all getting a bit tired, it's been none stop since Camping Island (we left on 8th Sept)

17th Sept

We are through the Bering Strait............now in the Bering Sea..........errrmmmmm......not much calmer i might add. We still have storm sails up..............around 25 to 30 knots of wind and reasonably big seas...we estimate 3.0m, possibly 3.5m.....plenty of water over the decks.
It slowly eases a bit as night approaches, we eventually had to put the engine on and motor sail the 30 or 40 miles to Nome.
We arrived late in the night, spoke to the harbour master early on, he said can we anchor outside the harbour as they work going on with the lights etc etc.........so safer outside till morning, as we don't know the port.
We anchored in about 4m of water and had a blissful night, hardly any rocking at all, a good anchorage protected by the stone moles to the north west of us.

Not easy taking a photo of the chart plotter when you're rolling about, it's night and everyone else is in bed !!!

First two shots of Alaska

Russia is just the other side of the island

Sailing down the Chukchi

Cape Prince of Wales

Steve rebolting the radar dome after we noticed it had moved in the rough weather

Dolphin & Union Strait to Barrow Point - The Beaufort Sea

8th Sept

All wake by 06:30 and we decide to go. As it it turns out would have been better waiting for a few hours. Piling into wind and waves, is again, the order of the day. Nothing exciting today, a good Spaghetti bolognaise for supper though............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ooooohhhhhhh and we've found the Parmesan !!!
23:00, really weird sensation when you've seen the North star all your life, you look for it up here (in th'Arctic), wonder where the darn thing is, then realise it's directly above your head. We are so close to the pole, the compass has been bonkers at times.
It actually says on the paper charts.......... "Magnetic Compass erratic or anomalies".....................blooming handy that.......good job we have the GPS !!!! How on earth did Franklin, Ross and  Admundsen.......... etc etc............. find their way ???..........really amazing people, staggering.
23:00, my watch....saw a fishing boat on the AIS about 16 miles away.....................first boat we've seen at night apart from other yachts or cruise liners (expedition of course !!!).

9th Sept

Steve put the sails up on his watch at about 02:30, i heard the winches grinding away..........it appears we have a bit of wind from the south west...........only 6 or 7 knots, but it's there ..............yyehhhhaaaa...........so motor sailing for the next few hours, at least it reduces the fuel consumption.
Mid morning the weather picked up a bit ........25 knot winds and a head on sea...AGAIN !!!!!
Trysails hausted....welcome to the Beaufort Sea !!!!!!!!!
Eventually, in late afternoon, the sea eased and the winds slowly started to drop a little. Thre forecast for tomorrow, from Les, lighter winds to start from thr east, building later. That's not too bad, a following sea is far more comfortable............we'll see what happens !!!!
At last we've past Cape Lyon and escaped the Dolphin & Union Strait........what a sod !!!!
Into Admundsen Gulf then we pass Cape Bathurst and we're on our way to Barrow Point, the last pinch point for ice. Wind shifted into the north over night, very slight 4 to 5 knots, but there is again a reasonable rolling sea. Cape Parry passes with no major incident. Hopefullt the forecast easterlies will be with us tomorrow.

10th Sept.

Lie in today..........09:30.....wow ...........still no sign of the easterlies, so still on engine.
At last, the wind picks up enough for us to put all sail up........a run to boot. It's only about 8 or 9 knots , but we are dong a staedy 6.5 knots boat speed...........lovely jubbly !!!
We arrive off Bathurst point in snow showers and sunshine mixed. We have plotted a great arc course to Barrow Point of about 550 nm. If the winds maintain or increase we should be there for weekend. A quick call to Fred our weather and ice guru back in the UK to check our route is ok. He comes back with some good ...............some bad (well surprising) news.
Good news is the winds are set to easterly for the next 4 days.......................yyehaaaaaaaaaaaa
Bad news, the old Arctic ice sheet has a finger extending south at 136' to 137' W down to somewhere about 70' 30' N.............darn it ............not so good, when you think you are free of the ice.................think again chum !!!!!!!!!!!!!.
 We will have to divert south from our great arc route. Plotting it all out on the chart plotter we reckon it will take us an extra 25 to 30 nm ...........no problem.................that' s no problem at all at this stage. Good job we chaecked with Fred, we would have gone storming into the ice (7/10) on the original route and then had a big diversion south to go around it.
The only other good news is that the ice at Barrow point is still a fair distance to the north..................about 100 nm apparently.
Strange thing, we've all noticed the lack of wildlife since we left Cambridge Bay.............between us, all we have seen is 4 seagulls !!!

11th Sept

Wind dropped about 06:00, so motoring again.
Snow flurries all day today, then after 18:00 we started to get wind and better weather, quite sunny in fact.
Sails up, not massive wind , around 7 knots from the north on a starboard beam reach.............engine still on, but reduced revs, so less fuel and more speed, now doing 7 knots over the ground............noice !!!
We have realised if we don't get a good couple of days of reasonable wind we will have to stop at Barrow to refuel. It looks as though we will be at least 50 gallons light to get to Nome....darn it....and there's no fuel tanker......that means filling plastic drums and carrying it......................gggggreatttttttttttttttttttttt !!!!
Chicken & spaghetti in a white sauce for supper..................mmmmmmmmmmm bloomin lovely.........nice one Steve !!!
Sailed all night, but winds still light & very variable............all over the place in fact.

12th Sept.

I'm on watch at 08:00, sails and wind all over the place, we get it sorted and we're on a run with about 7 to 8 knots of wind, doing 5.5 to 6 knots..........not bad..........at least in the right direction.
Demarcation point is on the horizon. This is the border between the USA & Canada, it's at 141' W.
Change the courtesy flag, we are officially out of Canadian waters at 09:50....and back into US waters, although we will not be able to check in until Nome. Apparently, there is no border control at Barrow, so we cant' check in there. Nah worries.......we'll just be illegal immigrants for a while !!!!!!!!! LOL ;-)
Fred has texted us to say there are some 30 + knot winds on the way, so we may well get the trysails up before we leave the Beaufort Sea.

13th Sept

Well how right i was, the wind started to increase, only slowly mind you, seas picked up and by the afternoon we had a full blown storm on our hands. I have to say, i was'nt too sure about these trysails to start with, but blimey, they are brilliant. We aredoing virtually the same speed with the trysails as we were with the main reefed down.........amazing and alot for settled in our motion. Though we did get a few bashs.
However, on the whole the rig is holding up very well. During setting the trysail we noticed the shackle connecting the main sheet to the foremast had nearly worn through.....gawd !!! good job we spotted it. We soon had it changed for a new one.......only concern now is the aft mast ................we'll have to let the weather ease before we can take a closer look at that one.............hopefully before Nome.
We should ease past Barrow point around 08:00 tomorrow morning...................if we maintain our current speed !!! I think we'll all feel a bit of relief when we pass Barrow......it's the last point to get caught by ice !!!!!!!!
Then it's south all the way to Homer............well some east and west too !!!!!!!!! LOL

14th Sept

Yeeehhhaaa, that's Point Barrow passed at 09:00 this morning, we are flying along with a good 30 to 35 knot breeze. We get in close to shore to try to get out of the high seas from the Beaufort Sea. It soon subsides as we are on a beam reach down towards Barrow, the most northerly town in the USA. Weather is a bit grim, rain and very low cloud.....welcome to the Chukchi Sea !!!!! ha ha ha ha !!!!!
Great, we ahve a 1.0 knot of tide running down the Alaskan coast with us. This is partly due to the Arctic current running into the Nothern Pacific. Only 300 nm to go to 66' 33' N and we have done the transit from the Arctic Circle in the Atlantic to the Arctic circle in the Pacific................yyyyyyyyeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa......via the North west passage, of course.
Winds drop off over night, so we slow down to around 5.5 to 6 knots.
A survey vessel, "Westward Wind" appears on the AIS, we have a chat with him just to let him we are here, as he is tracking back and forth on our track line. No problem, he appreaciates the call, asks if we have AIS & we explain it is receiving but not transmitting. No major problem as he can see us on radar.
A while later we came across a tug towing a barge, we try to call him to no avail & assume there is no one home !!! A bit naughty that not responding, however, he maybe having problems with his VHF............or fast asleep !!!!....the lile tiners.
 A tug in tow, has, to put it in laymans terms, priority at sea as he he has "restricted manoueverability".....same as large tankers etc etc. So basically it is up to us to avoid him. We made the call merely as a coutesy to let him know our intentions, namely we would turn 30' to his stern to let him pass. Anyway, all went well, no problems, we were soon back on course. Then my favourite..........FOG !!!!!
Sphericals........I HATE FOG !!!
Radar on...........all clear........carry on regardless !!!!

They do say that the camera never lies, however, it does flatten seas for some reason. The 3 shots below are of Arctic Tern as we passed her in the Dolphin & Union Strait................the last one highlights my point nicely i think

Sunsets in the Beaufort

Tried to get the moon, but the flag popped into view

So tried again later that night

Canadian northern coast

with snow

and moon

Trysail up as we get some 30 to 35 knot winds...........

approaching Barrow Point........... Chukchi next !!!!

Coronation Gulf

 6th Sept

Up at 05:30 to extract Novara from the dock....crikey we needed a shoehorn.

Drina and Gjoa to the stern and Martin Bergmann across our bows. I was on the bow fending off MB's shore lines and then pushing us off the dock. We reversed out and used a bit of bow thruster.............all good soon out. Off we go, lets try the refurbed steering.......excellent it's working fine. We proceed down the inlet to begin our crossing of the Dearse Strait at the southern end of Victoria Island.

After about 2 miles or so Steve noticed the wheel was a bit loose. Darn it the top gearbox bolts have stripped the thread into the binnacle. Off with the wheel.......AGAIN !!!! Steve and i soon egt the drills out etc etc .......i find some suitable nuts and bolts, we are going to bolt it straight through the binnacle face. First one is a bit of a guess it's hard to judge / measure ....................DOH..........Steve has snapped the drill bit and we can't get it out. Drill a larger one next to it i suggest.......after a few minutes we have it sorted................bolted up and onto the next one below it. It was the 2 nuts on the right hand side that had stripped, the new bolts soon sorted it out.

Out into Dearse Strait, motoring to start with, then a brisk 12 to 14 knot wind from the north........7.5 knots and we're away.
Storming down the strait.......gawd this boat is fast.
Still no sign of Les in Arctic tern, maybe we'll see them tomorrow. We heard from Drina that he stopped in an anchorage on Coronation Gulf due to strong headwinds.

7th Sept

 Past Murray point overnight, by 10:00 we are near Lady Franklin point, about to enter Dolphin and Union Strait.........all of a sudden an AIS target appears in an anchorage near Lady Franklin point...........hey hey hey......it's Les on Arctic Tern............we'll sneak up on him and give a shout on the VHF when we get a bit nearer.

And he's off, they must have seen us coming.........ha ha

We carry on against rising wind and waves. The Dolphin & Union Strait is a barsteward, it is the narrowest point for all the water being blown down from the Beaufort Sea, the prevailing winds are north west and with wind against tide, it makes it very lumpy to say the least. The southward flow of the Arctic current makes things even worse. We hail Les on the VHF and discuss tactics. After a few hours we all agree enough is enough. Les anchors off an island called Teddy Bear Island ( i joke not !!!!) and we anchor off a small island called Camping island.........again i joke not. We all get a good nights sleep, ready for the onslaught tomorrow.

The weather was a bit chronic through this section, low cloud and bad viz....................so few photos of any worth taken...................shots of sea get a bit boring......................so here's one or two i did'nt take !!!!

Do you know ..........who needs mates ??? A lovely shot on me trying (in vain i might add) to get water to run down the pipe into the tanks on the boat, from a stream in Sam Ford Fjord......................cheers guys !!!!!

Wild Bill Hiccup........the rifle is no joke................totally necessary....................we saw 6 polar bears over the next 2 days !!!

A shot taken by Ali off Arctic Tern of Novara passing in front of Tandberg Polar (the tug and barge going to Cambridge Bay to collect the "Maud") in Fort Ross

My anti foul deck shoes after my plunge into the dock at Cambridge Bay

Cambridge Bay

4th Sept

Wooow i must have hurt my back more than i realised......its bloody sore this morning. Get the arnica out !!!!!!
Well you can tell we're about to finish off the steering and yes...........it's pouring down.
Steve and i spend most of the day putting it all back into position and i must say, even with the main quadrant missing (Lewmar forgot to post it on) the steering feels 100% better. We will test it when we move out to anchor tomorrow. The next pressing job is to cook for 13............2 off Gjoa (Ann & Glenn) 5 off Drina (Mike, Matt, Rosko, Emily & Paul) and Jan & Darg, the 2 Norwegians in Cambridge waiting for the Tandberg Polar to arrive and us 4.
Steve makes the chicken curry and i do the rice (i know i get the easy option .........Steve can't do rice though........he always over cooks it).
And a good night was had by all..........another culinary delight / success by the Novara crew. Gawd, we are the socialites of the NW passage...........LOL :-)

5th Sept.

We wake to a snow storm, strong winds .........miserable !!!
Next minute.................it's 06:30, we hear engines and a bow thruster. Next a shout......ahoy Novara..........blooming heck what now. It's what we thought was a fishing boat called the "Martin Bergmann".............. hi guys sorry to wake you, we are worried we might hit your anchor".....no problem we replied, we'll ease back a bit on the shore lies. It's soon done, but we are wet through with the snow. One of the rew is on the dock next to us as a pickup arrives............we thought to take the fish off.
Have you had a good catch ? we enquired
Oooo, we're not a fishing vessel, we are an exploration boat, looking for the Franklin boats from the 1850's, a Canadian government sponsored search vessel. Ooooo right, have you found them? No, there is no sign of them. Better luck next time then..............
I make Steve a brew and a couple of rounds of toast..........served.........IN BED........gawd, we look after our skipper !!!!! (Whoops scotties......photo was on last blog by mistake !!!)

We make some breakfast, then i got back into bed for an hour or so.
The jobs for the day are .......laundry, shopping, put all the gear back into the port locker (after the steering refurb), tidy the boat up and go the the Norwegians for a coffee, Jan & Darg have a flat in the town, while hey wait for the Tandberg Polar. Tel & I sort the port locker................nightmare trying to dry everything before we put it back, in a snow storm..............brill !!!!!!!!
Steve goes shopping and Ding goes to the Norwegians to do the laundry, they offered, we accepted........cool.
Eventually the weather improves and we have a nice sunny afternoon, only problem , the wind increases and we are being walloped against the steel dock wall.....not much we acn do as we have Drina and Gjoa on our stern and Martin Bergmann across our bows........grrrreat..........just sit it out and hope it subsides.

Blimey, some concentration going on here.....putting the steering gear back together............on the workshop.......ooops dining table

These two shots should have been on last posting............this is how they get the containers onto the barge.......the whole lot is lifted back on the cargo boat.

And yes.........it snowed last night

The Martin Bergmann on our bow's .......a Canadian survey vessel looking for Franklin's lost ships.

Cambridge Bay

3rd Sept
   Up and at em this morning........Steve, Ding and i went to the hotel to get some wifi..........not brilliant again. Steve managed to log on, but, Ding and i were unable to get the computer to even get to the password. However, my i phone did seem to log on reasonably well. I sent a few messages to the gang and posted a few bits on facebook.........not large pickies though. Still can't get on my blog site.
We did as much as we could, moved the boat to the small steel dock, the fuel came and went, as did the water bowser. Gas seems unobtainable. Can't do laundry at the hotel until after 17:00. I bought some soap stone figures for the twins, an owl and a seal.
Steve, got the bits from the RCMP station, Lewmar had not sent the main quadrant on the gearbox...............darn it !!! Anyway, we put back together the new bits we had and started to re-assemble the steering. Arctic Tern asked us over for supper...............great......that was brilliant after a hard day at it.
We had a few beers and a lovely spaghetti bolognase and a few glasses of wine.
We left about 21:30 and headed back to Novara on the dock.
The wind had veered and Steve was concerned about the stern mooring line, so i went out and untied it , walked back to the boat to change the fixing on deck, threw the line down, prepared to  step down onto the boat (bear in mind it had been raining for a few hours), missed my footing / slipped and went straight down into the water between the boat and the steel dock wall........b##l#x.............i tried to get up, but i had my big Norwegian jumper on and it was full of water.
The worst of it was i lost my all time fav. balaclava i got from Bridgedale...........Merino wool an all...........gawd darn it......you could spit !!!!
I shouted a couple of times, tried again to climb up the "springer lines", no good................i shouted again and now Tel and Steve are above me...straight away i got :

• a  9.2 from Steve  
• a  9.0 from Tel, 

purely for artistic impression (of course), nice i thought, get me out you barstewards....
............i can't swim and i can't drink all this dirty water !!!!!!!

Bearing in mind it was my sisters birthday, i reckoned it was'nt a good day to drown.............she would have given me so much grief !!!!!

At last, they grabbed my arm and pulled me out, i managed to get a foot hold on one of the timber boards........phew.........i was soaked !!!!!............water temperature 32F / 0C !!!!!!!!!! ...........SPHERICALS !!!!
So, the recommended swimwear for Arctic waters are as follows:

• Southern Hundreds Isle of Man T shirt
• Norwegian Dale wool jumper (approximate weight when wet, 1,000 kg)
• Ralph Lauren under crackers
• Walmart Black cargo jeans (they have to be black !!!)
• Bridgedale socks (and my feet were still warm when i squelched down the boat to the shower).
• ZM deck shoes.........complete with antifoul from the undersides of Novara.

Don't wear a brilliant merino wool bridgedale balaclava....cos, you'll lose it !!!

Straight into the shower i go, Steve shouts are you ok...............yeah fine i reply !!!!
That's enough excitement for today, bed !!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Coming out of the rain and drizzle to start the entry into Cambridge Bay

Philos

Cambridge Bay

The dock at Cambridge Bay......dodgy !!!!

 Thanks Lewmar for not sending any shims for the new steering gear.........yes we managed............recognise it........a Margarine tub top.....cut by my expert hands.......perling !!!!

 Cargo ship comes back after a few days at another port to pick up empty containers, that the locals offload on the beach. Just amazing to watch, sooo slick an operation

Philos, Arctic Tern and Drina

The tug from the cargo boat..........just lifted down and off they go

Look at this Trish.............breakfast in bed for the skipper !!!!!

My plunge point at the black line....whoops scotties !!!

Gjoa (Ann & Glenn) & Drina with Paul on deck

Crew troughing down !!

1st Sept
04:00 Steve and Tel slip us out of Gjoa into thick fog still. Lucky me i was still asleep and stayed there until 08:00, Ding and i were not on watch until then. Next stop Cambridge Bay. The latest ice charts showed some ice streaming south into Queen Maud......
It's is just incredible the difference in the topography now....................everywhere is so flat and lots of shallows and shaols. Admundsen very nearly lost "Fram" here in a storm in 1903. Simpson Strait is a narrow / shallow route that we have to take.
The tides and currents in Simpson were really weird.................one minute we had 0.5 knot with us then 100m later 3.0 knots against us........very strange. All we could put it down to, was the large number of islands in the strait causing back eddies and return flows.
Next thing we see a huge early warning mast with the large white domes on it. This is in the middle of no where, on King William Island !!!! Must  be there for a reason though, who knows ??
Eventually we are clear of the Simpson Strait. It transpires Doug Pohl (ice guru) has contacted Fred (our ice and weather cordinator back in the UK) and told him to contact us. It is best to saty at least 17 to 20 miles of Jenny Lind island to avoid the 2 to 3/10 ice that has been blown past the island over the last week or so by the north east winds. That's all cool, we had that in mind, but is great to get confirmation from Doug that we are on the right lines.
We are into Queen Maud Gulf going south & west to avoid the ice from Jenny Lind island. My watch if 01:00, at 12:45 ding shouts down for me come up quick....................it's the Northern Lights !!!!!!!
Crikey i'm up like a shot..............on the port side there is a green curtain, it looks almost like a bank of cloud. It moves around a bit and comes and goes. Then disappears..............DOH !!!! i was hoping it was going to be better than that, but , hey ho i've seen it.........FANTASTIC !!!
Ding goes down off watch.........next minute, it comes back on the starboard side down on the horizon, better than before, a deeper shade of green, with flecks of red and purple in it .............wooooooowwwwwwwwww  AAAAMAZING !!!. Ding comes back up and has another look.......then it just bursts across the sky like a huge flare gun...............just astonishing...it's right over us green flashes everywhere it was immense. The size of it was unbelievable........it took up at least 1/3 of the sky.......i tried in vain to take some photos............it was just hanging there and then swirling about above the sails, that were in full flight, on a beam reach doing 7.5 knots in 12 knots of wind......it would have made a superb photo........darn it............wish i had a better camera.
It all got a bit to much for me and i started crying (Ding never noticed i might add).........thinking of dad and how he saw it 70 years ago in Iceland and it being a lifelong dream to see it..........i must be getting soft in my old age ...........LOL :-)
It carried on for about 1.5 hours..............unforgettable !!!
It brought to mind a line from Fridtjof Nansen's book ........."Farthest North"................
"Clear evening, sparkling stars and flaming northern lights"...................how close my experience has just been to his..................it makes you feel quite small and insignificant.
What an astonishing place to see it though, in Queen Maud Gulf on a boat under full sail....i'll never forget it as long as i live..............phew !!!!!! wowzers
We plyed on and i sent a "SPOT" out to Fred, my family & friends to show we are in the designated spot. All is cool
2nd Sept
A lovely sunny morning turned into a very foggy afternoon....we hope to be in Cambridge Bay around 19:00 hours. The wind has dropped and we are motor sailing...........nothing spectacular to note for the rest of the crossing to Cambridge Bay. We arrived around 18:00, anchored about 500 m off the steel piled harbour wall.....the weather was better now. The yacht "Philos" was already in the bay, she had come over from Homer in Alaska. We met the Australian crew and skipper as they were returning to their boat from shore. Early bed ready to sort things out tomorrow.
Pick up the steering gear and the muffler from the RCMP, do the washing, get gas, fuel and water.