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A cold but Important Day

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Editor’s Note: Photos have been added for posts back to 8/9/08, bringing us up to date. Check them out!

Another wonderfully cold day in Resolute. The weather today will consist of 0* (for those not used to the metric system THAT IS FREEZING) with snow flurries and 25 knot winds out of the West / Northwest. Ah just what you want for a balmy August day!! The local Mayor and hotel owner (Azzi) was so kind as to pick us up near the shore in one of his vans and drive us to his hotel. We enjoyed a great breakfast sans rocking and wind noise along with internet access. He has been very helpful and hopefully we’ll be able to get our parts and laundry done. Now for the important part!!

Being a cold blustery day here, and even though the crew is getting along great I would rather spend it with someone else. Four short years ago the most wonderful and beautiful woman said I DO… to me!!! It was a wonderfully WARM day, though that was not what I was concentrating on. She was stunning and it was an absolutely beautiful day. I tried to warn her of what she might be getting herself into, but neither of us could have imagined we would spend our fourth anniversary so far apart with me so close to the North Pole. She is truly an amazing woman to put up with my shenanigans and I am a better man because of her.

Happy Anniversary Mrs. Rebecca Robertson, Love, your husband 800 miles or so south of the North Pole.

Pillar of fire

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

(6:15 PM 71 deg 20′ N, 065 deg 55′ W) Another day cruising up the coast of Baffin Island. It feels like it has taken us a long time to get here and that we are not making much progress West, however when we reach Pond Inlet (early Friday) we’ll be at 80* west longitude, over Pittsburgh. At 1:00 am or so we saw a vertical pillar that resembled the Exodus pillar of fire. We don’t believe it was a coincidence that Walt had prayed that morning we would be guided by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, wait until we can upload these pictures!! The Sun sets around 11:30 pm and rises around 2:30 am, but it doesn’t drop much beyond the horizon so we do have close to 24 hours of daylight with a few hours of bright dusk. The weather was beautiful and the seas were calm all day, no big surprises. We continue to have gulls and other birds that swoop around us all day keeping us company. We did have a whale sighting 100 yards off the bow. We watched as the whale spouted a few times and gave a us a nice tale shot before it disappeared. We believe it was some whale other than a humpback with an all grey tale, perhaps a grey Whale. P.S. it is nice to report that my dad, Pat, is the lowest ranking crew member. Someone snapped a shot of the Chief Engineer brushing his teeth, however they missed the “other” crew member scrubbing the deck with his toothbrush, electric I may add, no wonder we don’t have any more storage space!! P.S.S. We did have a new experience this evening Sea Ice. It doesn’t show on the radar yet it was all around us, compounded with 1/8th of a mile or less visibility in fog. I spent 2 hours in the flybridge on the intercom as we picked our way through. A few times we ran into a corner and had to spin around and head back, if ever there was steaming by braile this was it. Our experiences before have prepared us for times such as these. You have to move through it believing you’ll find a way out as we could not see very far. It was a great team effort and we pushed through and were treated with chicken and dumplings once we were clear.


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