Shane Cousteau
August 29th, 2008 by Kip "Galley Master" Jones(70 deg 38′ N, 161 deg 30′ W) After fueling successfully, we left Barrow with the bright sun glittering on the ice field. It wasn’t bad to work our way through it and we saw several grey whales nearby as we moved along. It is so different now than when we first started the trip because we all found our reaction to the ice was not to fear it but to see the wide path available through it. We have been through much worse now. As we motored along, Shane was thinking and presented the idea of donning his full wet suit which he hadn’t used, to do a swim before leaving the Arctic! After all, didn’t we want to see the propeller damage from being aground? So over he went and took his camera to show us pictures of the prop edges all chewed up. He said he was warm all over except his hands and they began to ache right away in the 36.7 degree water! He is the man for all the dangerous assignments!
We went for several hours ice free then Shane & Pat hit yet another band of ice in the dark so it was difficult to see. It is unbelievably tense to drive in these conditions. We are now more than 100 miles SW of Point Barrow (& NE of Siberia!) so we hope the ice is behind us now.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Check the fog coming off Shane’s breath in the first photo and the rope tied around his wrist in the last one! Don’t you also need diving bells when entering the Holy of Holies so they can hear you moving? Yikes!