(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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(71 deg 16.3′ N 154 deg 43′ W) It is about 4:00 am and we have been on our watch since 1:00. We are now 30 miles from Barrow. We observe the sun in an interesting way on these nights. The sun is going down right at the bow as we travel west. At 1:00 if we look to starboard at, 2:00 on the horizon, and there is an orange glow which travels along the horizon until it is almost behind us, and then the sun rises. This has been happening each night and is something very beautiful to look at as we go. I got a picture to show you. It is dark before us so we can’t see any obstacles and pray through the night that God would clear a path before us and He has been so faithful. When we went up Baffin Island the skies were mostly clear and we had so much light through the night. This has not been the case through the Beaufort Sea; clouds cover the sky and it is more than a month later. We hope to have a night that is clear and get the opportunity to see northern lights. We did see them while in Tuk while aground and it was so cool. Do you remember my telling you about seeing them out the plane window when going to Paris 2001? Both times the lights were white and moving about as if coming near and then drifting back.

The throttle on the engine has started sticking and keeping us going at full speed ahead! Only a bad thing when you want to stop. We have been running constantly at 1300 rpm and when the driver lowers it to idle, it takes 11 minutes for the engine to slow down. We first discovered this as we came into Cross Island, and Shane could not slow down so we went in a circle until the motor did slow down enough to anchor.

We have seen several boats with AIS in the fog and contacted them to make our presence known and that has been fun.

We had pizza for dinner last night and continue to have salad from Salinas. The lettuce was packaged in a bag that prevents deterioration and it works! I want to contact the company when I get home!

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(71º0.2′ N, 151º40′ W) I just got off the phone with the crew after a very short call. They are about 84 miles from Barrow and expect to be there by morning. The seas have calmed down but it’s still foggy. The colored pictures show how beautiful the shades of grey are as the sun streams through. While the engine has been running smoothly, it recently has been resistant to coming back to idle. Sounds like a VW van I once owned. Anyhow, they’ll be working on it in the next few days. And really that was about the extent of it. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.

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I got a call from Mom tonight to say that they have arrived in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska!  Since leaving Tuktoyaktuk, they have been unable to connect to their email, but have several updates to give us once they are reconnected.  They stopped off in Pullen Bay, and then did another all day, all night, all day run to arrive late tonight.  They are tired, and were ready to collapse!

Mom said that the Northern Lights were beautiful, but that they have only seen them the one night as the other nights have been overcast.

The phone connection was a little flakey and so our conversation ended up being cut off, but I was able to get an updated schedule.  They are on track, they believe, to get Mom to Nome so she can fly back to California on September 3rd, and then Pat to Dutch Harbor on September 11th.  Rebecca, Raime and I are hoping to fly up to meet Dad and Shane on September 13th.

At 10:30 PM and 141 degrees West, Shane and Pat were on watch and celebrated the border crossing with a Chocolate Chip Cookie! We have been going on shifts through the day and night and are in following seas between 5-10′ high. They lift us up and we surf down them as if being carried along by God’s hand. We are five miles off shore and heading toward Barrow and expect to be there tomorrow night. We hope to get fuel there and press on to Nome where Ed will come aboard and Kip will get off. We hope to be in Nome 9/3.

The Geraldine just keeps on steady and strong. We made 40 gallons of water yesterday successfully also. (When the seas calm down we are all longing for a shower and clean hair!)

The land is so low we cannot pick it up as a radar target. The fog and clouds block a view of the distant mountains. We passed a ship pulling a barge coming toward us and had a conversation over the radio. It is always fun to make contact with the other boats at sea with us.

PS at 6:30 PM Stopped for the night at Cross Island right off of Prudhoe Bay. Prudhoe Bay is locked down tight; no visitors allowed without Homeland Security clearance. We are relaxing behind a sand spit so low it didn’t show up on the radar until about 1 mile away; yet it provides the protection we need against the sea. (70 deg 29.359′ N; 147 deg 59.555′ W)

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