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.