Keeping up with the Joneses just got a little easier. As we radio our stories, coordinates and photos, you can join us steaming through the icy Arctic Sea to Alaska. To receive automatic updates, click the Subscribe button to the right and paste the url into your favorite RSS reader.
We are really heading west today and clicking off minutes of longitude! We are in the central time zone now and had to change our watches. Going west is easy when you are this far north. We got into Dundas Harbour on Devon Island (74 deg 31.8′ N, 082 deg 25.9′ W) at 1:30 in the morning and slept until 7:30 and departed.
Hi Geraldine fans. In a recent satellite phone conversation with my mom I broached the idea of recording a conversation with the crew and posting it on the website. It seemed like a good idea to allow your questions to guide the conversation. So… if you have burning questions you’d like to ask the crew, please leave them as a comment to this post, and we’ll see how many we can get to before the connection drops. No guarantees here, but hearing their voices would be nice! — Oh, and one question per customer please!
Sunday, we had a quiet worship service on the boat, then went into town and borrowed Allen’s truck from the Co-op (another Peets award) to ferry water to Geraldine by Jerry can. If you have ever carried 150 gallons of water in 2 – 7 gallon containers, filling, loading the truck, transferring to the dinghy, lifting and filling the boat tank, you know what Sunday afternoon was like. I know some of you are concerned we are not getting our exercise. We are not losing weight by the lack of good food; that is for sure, but we are losing weight – all of us.
At 1:30 AM (Monday) the wind changed and the anchorage in front of Pond Inlet became uncomfortable so we arose & left. We went up Navy Board Inlet and saw some spectacular scenery including glaciers, bergs and mountains that looked desert-like. Oh, and through in the Tetons too. We are now in the midst of Lancaster Sound heading for Devon island enroute to Resolute.
We are told that the watermaker parts should arrive on THE Wednesday fight. There is only one. Thanks to Charlotte for chasing these parts all the way to us.
Our electronics are going crazy as we approach magnetic north – very close to Resolute. We are back to the old fashion navigation. These magnetic anomalies are a new experience for me.
This trip gives us all something that we rarely have in life time, Time to think and time to reflect, time to listen and time to discuss. So much of life is spent running that we never take time because there is too much to do, we have to be some where we have to get something done, I can’t stop now. More on this in a different blog.
We also are having the opportunity to face our own fears. A voyage like this in a very small boat in a very large ocean with lots of electrical and mechanical issues gives cause for much thought. When you spend days out at sea with no sight of land, fears arise in our hearts some spoken many silent. We are facing icebergs that are gianormous some as large as city blocks! We have been next to some icebergs hundreds of feet high and where only 10% is above water the actual size is beyond our imagination. We have ventured into thick ice where if in the wrong place it could crush this tiny boat, we have been in places where there was ice thick and seemingly impassable for as far as binoculars could see to the horizon! Even the most experienced among us have doubts. As there was one system failure after the other everyone at some moment doubted the wisdom of continuing on. We were forced to face our fears.
Four people living in a very small space also brings out lots of dynamics. We are all different and think differently. Really facing our fears where we have few alternatives is very rare, in most of our lives we have lots of options and we are insulated from the worst of our fears. If you are reading this internet blog, you like me are already unique to most people in the world. In my world I rarely am forced to face my fears like I have been on this voyage. I belong to a men’s community where weekly we gather to share, give insight and occasionally poke each other in the places where our fears reside, where others can see our “stuff” in a way in which we are either we can’t see or are unwilling to see and we are in denial. Even there in an atmosphere of trust and transparency we rarely encounter the kind of moments we face here. Here aboard the Geraldine we don’t have the luxury of sticking our heads in the sand, decisions have to be made that have potential life or death implications. What is the right choice? Do we pursue the dream or do we seek safety and security? At what risk do we proceed? What else can go wrong? These and many more questions face us constantly. The safety of the crew is of utmost importance so it is always of paramount priority in all decisions. We pray always for the wisdom to take the wise action, but also to fulfill the mission. Balancing those two requires all of us to face our fears. God has been faithful to his promise which is the banner of the www.mvgeraldine.com blog. “He will be with us and watch over us everywhere we go.” Can we really believe that? He has shown us many signs to encourage us. We have seen His faithfulness. He has shown us rainbows in the air, pillars of fire on the horizon, friends along the way who have been divine appointments. We are trusting Him and His faithfulness and we are trusting Him to continue to shelter us in His hand as we turn North, or as Walt said “South to Alaska.”
