Nuuk Nuuk, Who’s there?

Sorry it’s been a few days since a post. We got caught up with some heavy sailing crossing the Labrador Sea and we now have to start being more conservative with our email usage because as we move farther North we are going to have to start downloading daily ice charts. We had a great sail coming across to Greenland other than the fact that we didn’t see the sun for 5 days, since we left Port Saunders… It was all grey sky, rain and fog. So much fog. We had good wind though, consistently 15-25kts either from the beam or a little bit from behind to make for fast sailing typically around 7-10kts. One unfortunate issue that we had to deal with while we were in Port Saunders that I failed to bring up in previous posts was a fraying forestay. It disabled our roller fuller and therefore the use of the yankee, which is the foremost sail and accounts for 2-3kts of boatspeed. While in Port Saunders we bought a replacement cable and jury rigged an entirely new forestay to back up the fraying one. We then rigged up our old stay sail to act as yankee of sorts by flying the tack of the sail, which is the part you normally attach to the boat, about 8 feet off the deck using a thick piece of spectra. This new jury rigged sail has been dubbed “The Cutré” which is a mix between a Spanish word for messy or ill kept (so I’m told) and cutter which is the style of boat which flies a rig similar to this. Surprisingly our Cutré works amazingly well and really pulls the boat and keeps that 2-3kts from the Yankee available for us. The most noticeable fact about the sail from Newfoundland to Greenland is that it has gotten REALLY COLD. The temperature during my watch last night was 4 degrees Celsius. Slowly but surely everyone has started pulling out their winter clothes and there have been a lot of jealous remarks all around when someone pulls out something especially warm like Alex and my rabbit fur hats. Alex has named his Ignacious. The other noticeable changes are the icebergs… they are freaking HUGE. Luckily for us the fog lifted for as we approached the Greenland coast yesterday and today so we had no problem seeing them. The final notable point is the utter lack of darkness. There is no more night. The sun sets around 11pm and you have a twilight from 11-2 and then you are into predawn light and the sun is up no later than 3:30am. It really throws your internal clock when you’re on the 2-5am watch and it looks like it’s 8 in the morning. I’m typing this as we sit at anchor in the harbor of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. We are working right now on getting refueled with diesel, doing a big grocery shopping and hopefully finding hot showers and somewhere to do some laundry. While we do have a miniscule washing machine and dryer on the boat, we do our best to do big loads whenever we come ashore. Also, our grocery shopping list just got a lot longer when we heard word from Hans that instead of maybe bringing 1 friend with him when he joined us in Resolute, he may be bringing 4…it’s going to get real cozy on Nordwind up in the Arctic with possibly 11 people on board. With any luck we’ll be headed out of Nuuk tomorrow all loaded up and we will work our way up the Greenland coast checking out all the fiords and glaciers we can as we wait for the right time to cross Baffin Bay to Pond Inlet! We are at latitude 63 right now I believe and the Arctic Circle starts at 67…HERE WE COME!

Driving

Iceberg

Lunch

My bunk

Across the Labrador Sea

Position 55o34'.27N 054o18'.11W Course over ground(COG) 003o Speed over ground (SOG) 7.0kts. Temp. 8.6C 98% Humidity. Raining. We are finally making headway North and East! We are well underway across the Labrador Sea on our way to Greenland and it has been nothing but cold, foggy, rainy and generally wet since we left Canada...the low temperature yesterday, and so far for the trip, was 7.4C which I think is somewhere around 45F. For all the talk that went around before I left how temperatures in the 40s aren't so bad I have decided that it's a load of crap. 40s is freaking cold, especially when its wet. That being said, yesterday completely justified every bit of clothing and gear I bought and packed for this trip. My new Helly Hansen professional grade Offshore Jacket and Ocean Trousers are fantastic and keep me very dry. I'm currently wearing 5 thermal layers on top under my jacket; a t-shirt, 2 longsleeves, a midweight quarter zip top and a heavyweight fleece quarter zip top and I'm wearing fleece pants under my spray pants. No sense in being cold right? The thick insulated lobstering gloves I bought have also been fantastic and keep my hands warm and dry. The depressing and slightly discouraging thing we all realized yesterday though is that we're only at latitude 55 and we are headed up into the 70s...if its this cold now, it's only going to get worse, but hopefully the rain stops. I hate rain. We have a little over 500 miles to go from hear to Nuuk, which is the capital of Greenland. Nuuk has a whopping population of 15,000 which hopefully means that they have some semblance of a supermarket. Everything is going well onboard as we are finally settling into a steady watch system. Our watches are 4 hours each from 8am to 8pm and then three hours each during the night from 8pm to 8am. Night however is getting shorter and shorter, it's light until after 10pm and by 4am it's completely light out. Like I said, we're headed North and we're all doing our best to stay warm as we do. I haven't had to resort to my sleeping bag yet, but I think that's the next step either today or tomorrow. I've been good so far with just a sheet, a fleece blanket and a wool blanket on top. Off to bed in a half hour, hopefully I'll still be cozy and warm. Cheers, Andrew

Sailing and Ice

Today was a great day! We left Port Saunders and as we motored out of the bay we went up with full sails, well the main with 3 reefs but with all our sails. As soon as we turned out of the little bay we hit 30 kts and pounding rain and really got put through our paces making sure everything was tied down. It was great! We were able to fly along under nothing but sail until around 4 o'clock when the wind died, but we had 20-25kts almost all day. I drove for 3 or 4 hours too which was great, it finally felt like a sailing trip. Alex and I are on watch right now from 11pm-2am and just after we came on watch our first iceberg showed up on the radar! We found in on the thermal imaging/night vision camera that was installed on the boat too and it was soooooo COOL. It was also over a mile away, don't worry. Our current plan is to work up the Labrador coast and wait for clear weather to cross to Greenland. Be sure to follow along on the "Nordwind Tracker" on the left hand side of the page!

Straight of Belle Isle

Helllooooo There. We're picking our way up the Newfoundland coast right now. We stopped in Port Saunders Yesterday morning and spent the whole day doing boat work and other prep work. We filled up all our diesel tanks including the 500L reserve bladder that we have sitting on stern. We filled up our water tanks, and did a final grocery shopping. We also got some fresh cod and halibut from a very friendly fisherman who came and chatted with us for the better part of the day! It's 8:30 Tuesday morning right now and we're just about to cast off from the docks and start our way up to Belle Isle Straight. Unfortunately, our plan of kick'n the tires and light'n the fires and making straight for Greenland has been a bit postponed because of what looks to be some very bad weather coming down and turning into a 40-50kt gale off of the coast of Greenland. We are going to sail 60-70 miles today, find a place to anchor up for the night right near the straight and then come sunrise (which is around 3:30 am!!!) we're going to go through the straight so that we can avoid the 7 supposed icebergs that are cruising around in there. Once we're through we are going to go to Battle Harbor which is just north of the straight on the Labrador coast and anchor up for tomorrow night. That leaves us with a Canadian departure date of 7/26 and should put us behind this nasty weather system while hopefully holding onto some southerlyish breeze to make for a relatively easy passage to Greenland. On another note I made enchiladas for the boat a few nights ago and they were a monstrous success. So much so that Alex and Laura cleaned the tiny little grocery store in Port Saunders out of tortillas and taco sauce so that I could make them a few more times. That being said, they also cleaned the store out of pretty much everything else including apples, eggs, potatoes, cookies, granola bars and quite a few other things. Anyway, here's to hoping for no ice in the straight and a safe passage to Greenland! Cheers, Andrew

Does Anyone Love Olives?

Today Franco and I were highly criticized for turning down the olives on our salads with lunch. We are anchored in Louisburg, NS on the east side of Cape Breton Island right now and will be spending the night here. Tomorrow we begin some real sailing. We are leaving in the morning to make the sail to Newfoundland. With forecasted winds strong from the southwest we should arrive in Port Saunders, on the west coast of the island, sometime on the 23rd. We had 20-25kts from the west/southwest today for our sail up here from St. Peter's which was really nice. I'm still trying to get used to the whole cruising mentality thing, for instance, we haven't had the full main up once so far, and I don't think it's likely that we ever will. The first day we had it up with 3 reefs in, and today we just flew the yankee, the stay sail and the mizzen with the mizzen stay sail for a short while. The main is just a lot of work apparently. We also do our best to not have to sail upwind...if we can avoid it with when we time our sailing we do, and if we can't then we motor. It's a very strange concept to get used to. As it has worked out I've been left with heaps of free time and have become fully engrossed in the Game of Thrones novels. I practically walk around with my kindle in hand all day. I've spent the better part of today lounging in the cockpit on top of the mizzen staysail, when it wasn't up, reading. It's been bright and sunny aside from a few rain squalls this morning so we're all trying to soak in the warmth on deck while we can. Oh and during our sail today we saw a massive leatherback turtle surface alongside the boat. They are amazing turtles and SO HUGE. When we make it to Port Saunders on the 23rd the plan is to do a fire drill of a refuel and grocery shopping and be on our way to Greenland on the morning of the 24th so as to make the best of the southwest breeze as long as we can. Cheers for now, Andrew and Captain Alex in Boston on July 14th

Fruit and fiberglass

Sorry to cut short last time, I was coming off watch and I had to get out of the way. We are in St. Petersburg, NS right now on the south side of Cape Breton Island. Our plan was to cut through the Bras d'Or Lake but unfortunately there is some discrepancy about the height of a power cable over the canal and we're not sure if we will fit so we're not risking it. So we are spending the night anchored here, and moving up around the coast tomorrow. We are expecting favourable winds from the SW beginning on the 22nd so we are planning to wait until then to cross to New Foundland. Up until now we've kind of just been poking our way along waiting for the right weather. We've also been eating a lot of fruit and vegetables while we still can. I think we've had multiple servings of vegetables with every meal so far and fruit for snacks and desert. Yesterday was a bit of a work day and I was tasked with the job of wrapping one of our heater stovepipes with fiberglass cloth to insulate it, which left one of my pairs of sailing gloves covered in fiber...no fun. Today was our first real day sailing and it was so nice to have 20 kts off the stern and cruising along. ANDDDDDD during my morning watch we saw 3 humpback whales breach off our port side! We saw one the first time around 6:00 and then two more at 8:00 all less than 50 yds away, IT WAS SO COOL. I'll do my best to get some pictures up at the next town we stop in!

The First Stretch

We are finally really on our way! We left Halifax this evening around 5pm local time (6pm ET) and we are headed north! Well, east at the moment, but eventually north. We are going up the coast of Nova Scotia and tomorrow we are cutting through Brass Lake?? (I think that´s what it is called) It´s the really big lake at the very tip top of Nova Scotia and you go in and out of it through locks, which will be a first for me. Anyway, I´m sure it will be gorgeous. Everywhere so far has been really pretty, although I think 1 day was enough for all of us in Halifax since no one came on this trip with the intention of being in a big city. We are on our way up to the west coast of Newfoundland, a trip which in total should take us about 5 days I think. I´m still trying to get a handle on distances and times up here so don´t quote me on that. Now that we´re finally on our way I can take a few minutes to catch up and fill everyone in on some details that not everyone is familiar with. We´ll start with the basics and go from there. I´m sailing through the Northwest Passage on Nordwind. She´s an 86´ yawl built in 1939. For more info on the boat the best thing to do is to visit transatlanticrace2011.com and visit the boat´s page on their site. There are 6 crew on board for this trip, as opposed to the 12 we sailed with in the Transatlantic race. They are: Alex the boat captain, Xurxo (pronounced Surso) who is the captain of a maxi yacht in Antigua and used to skipper Han´s, the owner, other boat Veronique, Franco who also sailed the Transatlantic last year who is a naval architect from Argentina, Laura who is a career classic yacht crew primarily in the Mediteranean but who has sailed all around the world, Robert who is a 20 year old scottish kid who is taking a year off from University to travel and sail, and myself.

Halifax

We made it to Halifax this afternoon, after a 7 1/2 hour motor from Lunenburg this morning. We were up at 4:30am and out of the harbor around 5:45am. there was no wind and pea soup fog that kept coming and going with bumpy seas so we motored along at around 6 kts all the way up. We were able to berth at the public dock in downtown Halifax and spent the day walking around the city. Robert (the scottish kid) and I cruised around by ourselves and made the most of the coupons on the side of our city map which got us 1 1/2 lbs of mussels for 2.99 and 2 for 1 nachos which we used during happy hour. I´m now back on the boat and we´re about to go out into the harbor and anchor for the night. I believe the plan is to head to the west coast of New Foundland tomorrow. Until then, Cheers, Andrew

Lunenburg

Hey everyone! I arrived safely at the boat late last night in Lunenburg, which is just south of Halifax. The drive up here was quite an adventure in and of itself. My mom and brother Nolan dropped me off just south of Boston around 8:30 Saturday night where I met up with the boat captain Alex. The two of us then headed to Logan airport where we picked up Xurxo (Surso). By the time we got Xurxo in the car it was 10:20 thanks to plane delays and customs. We then headed north with the plan of making it as far into Maine as we could before finding a place to stay. Around 1am we pulled into a hotel to get a room, everything was full. We got the exact same story at the next 5 hotels we stopped at until we made it to Augusta around 2:30 in the morning and found 1 room available. We then woke up at 7, had a hearty complimentary breakfast of microwavable Jimmy Dean egg sandwiches and the standard hotel waffles and hit the road. We made it to the Canadian border around 11:15 and that's where the fun started. We stopped at the US side first so that I could declare my rifle before I left the country. While in US customs they decided to give Canada a call to make sure I wouldn't have any problems bringing it in to the country...Canada said "nope he can't bring it in." So US customs said leave the gun here, you guys go over and talk to Canada and then come back and either bring it back into Canada with your or figure something out here. Apparently if we had just driven straight in with it and they had decided that we couldn't bring it, they could have confiscated the gun, arrested me and denied all three of us entry to Canada...So anyways we go and talk to Canadian customs, and after 3 hours...yes 3 hours of explaining what we were doing, where we were going, why we needed a rifle, that it is not uncommon for boats to have guns on board, that we weren't going into any national parks, and that we weren't going to try to kill any polar bears without good reason, they finally agreed to let us in. One thing we learned was how subjective customs is, there a clause that basically says everything is up to the discretion of the officer, so if they don't like you they can say no and that's that. After 3 hours of going back and forth we then went back to the United States, got the rifle, came back to Canada, filled out all the paperwork and went on our merry way. We then had another 8 hours of driving to make it to Lunenburg. We finally made it at 10:30 last night, making it a full 24 hours of travel from Boston, and a full 48 straight hours of travel for Xurxo who flew from Spain on Saturday. Anyways, we're in Lunenburg right now, which is just south of Halifax. We're here until tomorrow morning and then are headed up to Halifax for a day and then up to Newfoundland. The boat is in great shape and it's great to be here!

The Route

Here is a rough idea of what our route will be for the trip through the Northwest Passage!
View Northwest Passage in a larger map