Sailing south down the coast of Baffin Island is proving to be a hazardous business! We have the unpredictable weather of the Davis Strait, numerous icebergs with their attendant bergy bits together with five hours of darkness each night, increasing as we head further south. Stopping to anchor during the hours of darkness isn’t really an option as we still have about 1400 miles to go, and we’re running out of time. It’s important to keep going. Our tactic is to reduce our speed from about 6 knots to 3 knots during darkness so that any impact with ice will hopefully be reduced.  We also double up our lookout during these periods. In bad weather it isn’t sensible to sail at night as the bergy bits become quite invisible amongst the white caps of the waves. We had to stop at anchor last night in 40 knots of wind from the north west. Another option is simply to ‘heave to’ at night. This will depend on the wind and sea state and the amount of sea room we have.

 

We’re on our way again now and hope to re-cross the Arctic Circle heading south in a few days time. Our destination is Lewisporte in Newfoundland where CATRYN will be laid up ashore for the winter. She will be well placed to continue our Northwest Passage attempt next summer.