Or in other words, Geraldine is once again the talk of the town! We thought it’d be a good idea to take the small boat entrance to get to the public dock (yes they have a real dock – a very big deal in this part of the world.) Skip Boselli will have the last laugh because I always was jumping him for cutting the corner. Well, this time I got caught & we are hard aground at the entrance to the harbor. The western Arctic is incredibly shallow. We have run all day & night in under 30 feet of water. We expect the same all the way to Barrow, AK. The Canadian Coast Guard tried to free us tonight but gave up because of a falling tide. They will resume in the morning. We are currently “listing” about 7 degrees to starboard so Pat will have trouble staying in his bunk tonight. We are all fine and in good humor. More soon. We have made arrangements for fuel in the AM and have been in contact with the RCMP; they are very helpful, but we are still very stuck!

8/25 PS: Last night was scary. As the tide went down, Geraldine listed to starboard about 20 degrees. The freezer drawer opened by itself, fell out on the floor with a loud bang, awakening Shane (Kip was already awake.) She woke me up. We started shifting weight to port to prevent further listing. In the midst of it all we looked up at the sky and saw brilliant greenish-white northern lights. We all prayed that God would watch over us and keep us safe. At 8 AM the inflatable from the CCG vessel Nahidik came to help pull us off the mound of gravel that captured us. We used the 150 HP of the inflatable , the bow thruster and finally Geraldine’s main engine to get us off. Within a few feet we were clear. We are now sitting at the dock in Tuktoyaktuk waiting on fuel, to reprovision and to make arrangements for the next crew change. You’ll see we had a taste of Salinas as we found beautiful lettuce in Tuk, even if if Romaine was $4.95 a head! We also cleared out of Canada through customs with the aid of the Tuktoyaktuk RCMP.

8/25 6:30 PM Anchored behind Pullen Island (69 deg 46′ N,134 deg 26′ W) We got fuel & successfully departed Tuktoyaktuk. We went over 10 miles from the harbor in 12 feet or less of water! Wow, is this ever different from the east coast.  Pat made another loaf of bread; onion and garlic and it was delicious!

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(69.4° N 133.0° W — Tuktoyaktuk, NWT) Editor’s Note: I got a satellite phonecall from the crew this afternoon. They were in the midst of an embarrassing “situation.” There are two entrances to the harbor at Tuk (Tuktoyaktuk), one for big boats, and one for small boats. The crew decided they were small, and paid for it by running aground just outside the harbor. During the call, a local was attempting to pull them off with his boat. It didn’t work. A Coast Guard boat in the area will swing by to pull them off in an hour or so. They will get into the harbor eventually, they will get to upload pictures, and they will get gas… er, diesel. They’ve been running in smooth, but shallow water for the last 36 hours—about 15 feet deep all day. Kip also reported the land is now covered with green grass. Very exciting to see color again! The water and air are both about 50ºF. Looking forward to seeing those photos!

(70º31.4′ N, 127º23.2 ‘ W — Amundsen Gulf) Greetings from The Geraldine! We have enjoyed a quiet and calm day today with one knot of wind and flat seas! Yea! After a good night’s sleep at a firm anchor, we started out at first light and have put lots of water under the boat so far today. The sky looked overcast and stormy but it’s been so pleasant. We saw some whales and a pair of birds we haven’t seen before that escorted us for a long time. The male had long plumes but the female did not as you’ll see in the pictures. We wish we had a book on the names of the birds we are seeing.

Our plan is to run through the night again as bad weather is coming behind us and we want to get to Tuktoyaktuk tomorrow afternoon. So all of us have been napping through the day to be ready for our night shifts. Kip is making plans to leave the journey for home in either Prudhoe Bay or Barrow to get back to start up in BSF. Ed Wright, Walt’s friend from the BSF School Program, will be joining the crew then for a few weeks.

Pat is downstairs making bread at the moment,in the fine Renaudin French tradition of four generations of bakers on his mother’s side of the family. Shane is driving, Walt is reading “90 degrees North, the quest for the North Pole”, and I am writing you! We successfully made 30 gallons of water for the second time and are hopeful that running at the lower pressure will do the trick so there will be no more failures.

Tonight we ate Arctic Char pasta; do you detect a theme? Reminds me of Forrest Gump and the many ways to fix shrimp! Char baked, Char pasta, Char chowder, Char sandwiches, Char scrambled eggs, Chicken-fried Char, Char a-la-mode, Char tartar…..we love it! Pat is hoping Arctic Char also restores hair loss! 🙂

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(69º 48.78′ N, 121º 52.77′ W — Keat’s Point) Tonight we are almost due north of our home in Los Gatos. We got email today! We tried a SSB connection through Friday Harbor, Washington, [ed. the radio communicates over vast distances to antenna stations scattered around the globe] and made our best connection in days. The harbor we are stopped in is beautiful; low lying cliffs of rock on two sides with a beach in the middle. It will be nice having a chance to sleep quietly for the night. We have been running since Wednesday and today were in very rough seas again for most of the day.

About 3:00 am Walt and saw a cargo ship coming toward us and hailed them on the radio. They are on their way to St. John, Newfoundland. Later in the day we thought we saw two sail boats and hailed them twice on our radio with no response. Turns out they were unmelted ice on the shore! Rather cold and unresponsive! We had Arctic Char sandwiches for lunch which was like tuna only better. Then we had char again for dinner. It is simply delicious. We had a problem with water accumulating on the V berth floor. Turns out the anchor locker weep holes were plugged with mud and a little sleuth and plumber work on Shane’s behalf and we are all cleaned out.

Editor’s Note: We are trying to organize a crew change. Kip needs to get home to lead her BSF class, so she’s planning to fly out in a week or so. In searching for a replacement crew member, we drew a name out of a hat containing all the people who have commented on the site. The winner is… Ed Wright. Ed will be joining the Geraldine at either Prudhoe Bay or Point Barrow. In conversation with the crew, they’ve mentioned the weather has not been as placid as they’d like. With wave reaching 15 feet, the largest of the trip, a fresh set of eyes and hands will be welcome. Thank you Ed!

Double Editor’s Note: Due to a severe drop-off in website comments, I thought I’d make it clear: we didn’t draw Ed out of a hat, his joining the crew was pre-arranged. Comment away without fear!

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******Here are pictures from 8/22 you might enjoy seeing!*****

You can see Keats Point at sunset and then again in the morning the next day.  The chain picture is of the chain locker weep hole plugged with mud and thus the water leak all over the V-berth floor.

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