I spoke with the Arctic Regional Operations Center in Sarnia, Ontario again this afternoon. They’ve replaced the 2008 “Ice Guy”…the new guy is Howard Kearley. I sent him all the information that I had sent to Jean Ouellet in May. Here are some of the things we talked about…

• They don’t know of anyone else who is transiting the Passage this summer (but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any others. It just means that they don’t know about the others).
• They said that one sailboat wintered over in the Passage, probably in Tuktoyaktuk.
• They have two icebreakers stationed at the southern end of Baffin Island right now. It’s not clear yet whether they will try to open up Fury & Hecla Strait early.
• One icebreaker is on its way in from the West Coast. They are focusing on the southern Arctic right now then they’ll deal with the high Arctic later.
• By the time we get into the Passage, they will have six icebreakers in various locations along our route.
• They said that the ice is “moving out fairly fast” this year (very good news!)

They had asked us to contact NORDREG (the Marine Communications Traffic Services Centre in Iqaluit) as soon as we get above 60 degrees. I have NORDREG’s phone number and I’m going to speak with them live tomorrow morning. Those are the people that we will actually be talking to on the SSB radio while we’re running. I want them to know us before we radio in for the first time.

I’m pumped. My juices are flowing. Killer picture of GERALDINE at anchor on the website.

It was 63 degrees in Cambridge Bay this afternoon! I’m packing my shorts. 63 degrees and Pizza Hut pizza — it doesn’t get any better than that!

We spent a second day in Lunenburg as Walt worked on the engine fuel problem. Donnie offered to take us to the food store and we took him up on it! On the way he took us on a tour of the city and then we met Marilyn his wife. Later in the day they came for tea and he gave Walt some good advice on the engine problem which he will implement in Halifax. The rest of us gave Walt free reign of the boat and walked all over Lunenburg checking out the cute shops, galleries and old homes. At 4:00 we all got caught in a huge rain downpour! Jenny had made a plastic bag poncho for Quinny and she just laughed and giggled as they ran to get out of the rain!

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We spent today on a mooring, and were able to fix our “get home” drive (backup engine) and reorganized our living area. We met the nicest couple (Donnie & Marilyn) who saw us, queried “Geraldine”on the internet, hit the website and then contacted us! Donnie helped with the fuses that fixed the get home motor. We presented Donnie with a pound of Peets coffee; our reward for a special encounter. This is the second such presentation of the trip.

We also got the high-frequency email to work, though I wouldn’t claim to be an expert yet. Next is to get the weather fax working. I also want to connect my Macbook to the Raymarine network on the boat; so far it hasn’t worked.

Just a quick post to move the tack to Lunenburg. We made it ahead of schedule at 2:00am without trouble. Quinlan slept through the whole thing, while Kip and Jenny were able to get in cat naps.

Side note: I stepped into our time machine and added a post back in Southwest Harbor, Maine.