Pond Inlet: We had an appointment with the Co-op for fuel at noon. We were to meet the truck at the beach at high noon; sounds like a show down, doesn’t it. Well that was exactly what happened. The driver was waiting for us, while we waited for him. We went to beach Geraldine at 12:30 PM. Shane jumped off the bow expecting shallow water and landed waist deep – so cold. The truck then soon arrived. We passed the fuel hose over the water with a rope. Pat and Shane held the boat while I fueled. The whole process took about an hour. We started to back out and went hard agroud! Getting free took another hour and a half! We got local help and we keep making things worse. We are back at anchor and all seems O.K. The entire town was aware of our predicament.

Looks like the watermaker parts won’t be here until Tuesday at the earliest. We are strongly considering moving to Resolute and asking that the shipment be diverted there. Stand by for the news.

PS. The SSB is working much better. I hooked up all the aluminum plate in the engine room to the ground. I was able to communicate with Peter Semotiuk in Cambridge Bay again tonight.
PSS. Expecting another excellent Arctic Char dinner tonight. I am smelling the love now.

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. 

Nearing Pond Inlet (72 deg 46′ N, 075 deg 01′ W): After motoring straight for the last six days we see land ahead and will be in Pond Inlet in five hours. We heard from the ice service that tomorrow will bring 30 knot winds and rain in Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound so our timing is perfect; just ahead of bad weather. The sunrise was at 2:30am and was glorious, lasting about one hour as the fog drifted across and passed on. The pictures are amazing and we hope to get caught up soon. We have seen the sun looping around us through the day. It rises at about 2:00 on the horizon, comes around us and then sets at 11:00. It never gets dark, only dusk for about four hours. We have been grateful for this especially when crossing the sea ice fields in the fog last evening; probably the scariest thing we have been through on the trip so far.

The day was again smooth seas and calm winds with frequent ice bergs. In the early morning just after midnight Pat and Shane had to again make their way through sea ice which you’ll see in the pictures.

The mountains on Baffin Island are covered in glaciers and snow and are magnificent. The ice forecast shows that we can’t get through right now and must wait for the ice to open. There are two boats in Pond Inlet awaiting the ice to open as well. Please pray for an opening for us to move on through safely. We have been very careful with our water and have about 70 gallons left, using 30 over the last six days. Time for showers!

Editor’s Note: Our adventurers have officially crossed the Arctic Circle (actually it happened without fanfare before they saw the walrus). But it’s worth noting, they’ve made it to the Arctic!

(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.