It was wonderful to be tied firmly to a dock and sleep in peace and quiet, however we all found ourselves waking up for our shift or running up to check if all was well.  Walt ran into Shane in the dark and then later Pat was up checking with Walt!  Shane said he dreamed the Geraldine was parked in Gilroy and he was to be making engine repairs….. where am I?  After a quiet morning we came back to Airport Pizza for pizza and more internet access. I have posted eleven days of pictures in case you would like to go back to see them. We are spending the day working on the engine problem, doing laundry and provisioning for the next leg of the trip. They will be adding fuel additives thinking the diesel we purchased along the way wasn’t as lubricating as the engine needs.

Ed comes in tomorrow and Kip leaves on a red eye within 30 minutes of each other. We find ourselves continuing to celebrate the achievement of crossing the Northwest Passage together in the Geraldine when it looked like such a challenge to do so.  How grateful we are for our family’s support, all your support, prayers and comments.

Rebecca Robertson, Shane’s lovely wife, Scott and Raime Jones are flying into Kodiak, AK (on 9/14 for a week of vacation and sight seeing to take Geraldine on to Sitka where she will spend the winter months.

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Editor’s Note: I climbed in the time machine, went back and posted two messages we received around Point Barrow. This has two advantages. One, now the map doesn’t look like the crew took a massive overland shortcut. And two, you get to hear about Shane’s second swim! Move over Michael Phelps. Also, Nome is the end of the road for Kip, so Shane is about to take this final exam in bread-making. Ha!

Again we ran through the night past the Diomedes in the early morning. The seas were three meters and we were again surfing on the big waves in pitch black none-the-less. Imagine driving down a bumpy rutted road with no lights at top speed relying on a compass alone!  Wow.

We rounded Cape Prince of Wales and headed toward Nome to a beautiful sunrise and another pillar of fire on the horizon.  The mountains were absolutely gorgeous and we saw several fishing camps on the shore all the way to Nome.  We motored into Nome harbor and saw a large barge completely loaded with trucks, construction equipment and building supplies.  We are tied up to a new dock which is really nice.  We walked into Nome and are now sitting at Airport Pizza where we all had a good old hamburger and fries. How great it is to be in the the USA again!!! We have heard several definitions of where the Northwest Passage ends; and the furthest was Nome.  Today we satisfied all definitions and have made our goal!  We have a huge sense of accomplishment and deep joy together as a team: Pat, Shane, Kip and Walt!

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Hi!

We are in the Chukchi Sea enjoying a beautiful sunny day and calm seas with Point Lisburne in sight where we will again turn left.  Pat and Shane ran the boat all morning while Walt and I slept.  We had lunch together and now they are asleep until dinner (Chicken Pot Pie!). We are seeing all kinds of birds and some seals so far and above us we have that same cloud cover that looks like a wing which we have seen throughout the trip. It is 60 degrees out so we have been enjoying time on the fly bridge being outside. Pictures can’t express the vastness of the oceans as we look in every direction and see water to the horizon day after day. We haven’t seen any more ice since last night’s patch Pat and Shane navigated us through. We also haven’t seen any other ships since Barrow, so all is very peaceful and calm.  We all feel very grateful and thank you for praying for us as we are carried along by God’s grace.

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(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.

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