I got a call from Mom tonight to say that they have arrived in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska! Since leaving Tuktoyaktuk, they have been unable to connect to their email, but have several updates to give us once they are reconnected. They stopped off in Pullen Bay, and then did another all day, all night, all day run to arrive late tonight. They are tired, and were ready to collapse!
Mom said that the Northern Lights were beautiful, but that they have only seen them the one night as the other nights have been overcast.
The phone connection was a little flakey and so our conversation ended up being cut off, but I was able to get an updated schedule. They are on track, they believe, to get Mom to Nome so she can fly back to California on September 3rd, and then Pat to Dutch Harbor on September 11th. Rebecca, Raime and I are hoping to fly up to meet Dad and Shane on September 13th.
This update came in from the crew this evening:
At 10:30 PM and 141 degrees West, Shane and Pat were on watch and celebrated the border crossing with a Chocolate Chip Cookie! We have been going on shifts through the day and night and are in following seas between 5-10′ high. They lift us up and we surf down them as if being carried along by God’s hand. We are five miles off shore and heading toward Barrow and expect to be there tomorrow night. We hope to get fuel there and press on to Nome where Ed will come aboard and Kip will get off. We hope to be in Nome 9/3.
The Geraldine just keeps on steady and strong. We made 40 gallons of water yesterday successfully also. (When the seas calm down we are all longing for a shower and clean hair!)
The land is so low we cannot pick it up as a radar target. The fog and clouds block a view of the distant mountains. We passed a ship pulling a barge coming toward us and had a conversation over the radio. It is always fun to make contact with the other boats at sea with us.
PS at 6:30 PM Stopped for the night at Cross Island right off of Prudhoe Bay. Prudhoe Bay is locked down tight; no visitors allowed without Homeland Security clearance. We are relaxing behind a sand spit so low it didn’t show up on the radar until about 1 mile away; yet it provides the protection we need against the sea. (70 deg 29.359′ N; 147 deg 59.555′ W)
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