{"id":2305,"date":"2008-07-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:51:51","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:51:51","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew524","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew524\/","title":{"rendered":"Half Way To Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"
Half-way to Greenland, with notes on the decision-making process for where and when to make landfall.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

As passages go, this one was a long time coming. For all our concerns about visibility and ice on the Labrador coast, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing just one big iceberg, eight miles off our track on radar. This in beautiful, clear, calm weather.<\/p>\n

As a result, rather than dog leg our way towards the shores of Greenland, we have been on a straight shot. And it has not been necessary to slow down or heave to since we cleared the area of known ice during twilight.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, last night we did not lose visibility to darkness until 2330 local (Greenland) time with enough visibility to pick out ice by 0400. During the dark period we tested our 2000 watt halogen spot light (fixed) and while not perfect, it does help see the waves and white caps close in, so would be a help with ice.<\/p>\n

Once clear of the Canadian known ice we reduced speed to 1650 RPM, which is netting us 9.5 to 10 knots.<\/p>\n

The calm has been transitioning to westerly winds in the 12 to 18 knot range (on our quarter). Seas have varied from confused and steep, with three different wave sets, to (now) a dominant pattern just aft of the port beam. Nothing to complain about on that score.<\/p>\n

For our approach to the Greenland coast we have been corresponding via e-mail with Greenland Ice Command. They have been most helpful, first sending us reduced size ice charts (easier to download on the slow speed WiFi in Cartwright), and now e-mailing their local Navtext bulletins via SailMail (we are too far away to receive Navtext AM radio broadcasts). They have also been answering our questions via e-mail.<\/p>\n

The first part of the landfall decision-making process is deciding where we want to go. There are so many options. Originally we thought Nuuk, centrally located, from which we’d explore north to Disco Bay and then work our way south to Cape Farwell and Prince Christian Sound. But we have now decided to concentrate on the south, spending time exploring the area in depth, rather than just passing through. The longer route including Disco Bay has us seeing more terrain and icebergs, but it is also a lot more watchstanding. The shorter (current) option is more easy going, and will keep us in the vicinity of Prince Christian Sound, if it suddenly clears for navigation (this is the major goal for Greenland). And we are excited about exploring the Norse ruins which are so abundant along the southwest coast.<\/p>\n

Our preference is to make our port of entry Quaqotorq (Julianhab). However, the direct entrance is near the edge of the Cape Farwell pack ice. Ice Command advises that we can enter Skovfjord to north, and then work our to Quaqotorq via the Mato channel.<\/p>\n

We have been studying the Danish charts, which we have in 400,000 and 80,000-1 scale, the British Admiralty Arctic Pilot, and Willy Ker’s RCC guide. We’ve also been getting advice from John Harries and Jim Foley, both with recent Greenland experience. There is a lot to absorb, but we are gradually developing a situational awareness of our options.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, there are a number of villages and anchorages to use if weather or ice demand a change in plans. The problem is that in all cases the pilotage is convoluted. We have plotted the course into half a dozen locations, so they are ready to be used, on the computer and on the paper charts. The relevant data is also tabbed and highlighted in the Arctic Pilot and Willy Ker’s guide.<\/p>\n

Which leaves us with landfall timing. At our present reduced rate of speed we shall be 60 miles offshore as we begin to pick up visibility tomorrow morning. This is a little too close for comfort as we don’t have a handle on the iceberg\/growler\/bergy bit concentration. On the other hand, we have 80 miles to go from this point to Quaqotorq, with reduced speed probably a necessity for portions due to pilotage requirements. Say, ten hours, which leaves us possibly late into Quaqotorq. <\/p>\n

However, there are some intermediate anchorages if we run out of time (or bandwidth for mental concentration). We are going to reduce speed so as to not get closer than 100 miles until we have visibility in the early morning hours.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the barometer has been dropping slowly but steadily, now down to 1008mb. Winds are steady out of the west to southwest. Both GFS and NOGAPS weather models indicate 15 to 20 knots of wind on our approach to the coast in the morning, less as the day wears on. We will get Rick Shema’s take on this later today. We may delay further if we feel white caps may interfere with ice watch.<\/p>\n

Finally, we’ve been getting our caffeine fix from a delicious vegan chocolate cake, complete with chocolate frosting. The stash of chocolate chip cookies in the freezer have not been competitive. This has the double advantage of keeping us alert on watch, and preparing our bodies for some arduous hiking to take place in Greenland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Half-way to Greenland, with notes on the decision-making process for where and when to make landfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}