Author Archive

Your questions for the crew

Monday, August 11th, 2008

Hi Geraldine fans. In a recent satellite phone conversation with my mom I broached the idea of recording a conversation with the crew and posting it on the website. It seemed like a good idea to allow your questions to guide the conversation. So… if you have burning questions you’d like to ask the crew, please leave them as a comment to this post, and we’ll see how many we can get to before the connection drops. No guarantees here, but hearing their voices would be nice! — Oh, and one question per customer please!

Pond Inlet

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Editor’s Note: I’ve only receive the pictures which I uploaded, but no update yet from the crew. But they had enough internet access to send photos. This tells me they’ve made it to Pond Inlet. An update should arrive soon. In the mean time here are photos from today. — Received a message from Charlotte that she spoke with the crew on the phone and they have indeed arrived safely in Pond Inlet. 

New watermaker en route!

Monday, August 4th, 2008
2:00pm: We are slowly moving north in gray dense fog but very little ice; today we will reach the Arctic Circle (we will confirm when it happens.) All are fine settling into a routine of 4 hour shifts (Robertsons & Joneses.) We are O.K. with water rationing. The company behind our watermaker agreed to send repair parts and a brand new (different) system to Pond Inlet. I don’t know about installing it; we see as things develop. More later… 

PS Had ice cream sandwiches for dessert last night; CCC & Breyer’s French Vanilla. Yum. Repeat tonight. Mom is doing her part in making this a five star eating experience. For lunch we had cream of broccoli & asparagus soup with homemade whole wheat crackers. Was it ever good.

PSS 6 PM update: 65 deg 39.1′ N, 060 deg 25.8′ W

Another Update at 7:45pm

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
The Candian Ice Service is sending us west of the pack [ed. There is a huge “island” of pack ice floating in the middle of Baffin Bay], east of the coastal ice. Current coordinates are at 7:45 PM are 63 deg 11.07′ N, 062 deg 12.6′ W. We are fine. Had a depth “experience” here in 900 feet of water. All of a sudden the shallow alarm warning goes off; depth was 16′, went down to 112′ back to 900′. Was it a whale or a submarine? Who knows but it sure got our attention.
Pat talked Kip into CCC’s — so much for his diet. Shane took a salt water shower in the cockpit. His voice rose an octave and he says that you do NOT want to fall into this water.
Condensation in the boat is a nuisance and sometimes a problem as everything is damp. There is no longer a refrigerator problem:) We are saving the melted cooler water in jugs and heating it for dishes and a “spit bath.” The sunshine has been so great and the main salon is dried out again.

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go — Genesis 28:15