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Icebergs and rough waters in Davis Strait - but all is well with Viking crew
Date: August 6, 1998
Author: Dean Plager
Lat/Lon: 65 deg 49.7 min N, 57 deg 09.9 min W
Location: Davis Strait
Course: 260 mag
Speed: 5 knots
Weather: Cloudy & chilly
Sightings: Whales, big waves
Click on the pictures below to view enlargements.
We are out in the Davis Strait, after weathering our first rough day and night. Early
yesterday morning, the wind picked up enough for us to put in a double reef. [Editor's
note: "double reefing" is a technique for reducing the sail's surface
during high winds.] This was after half a day of rolling around with no wind. Last
night, my watch - starboard watch - was from midnight to 6 AM this morning. The wind
was up around 20 knots and we were sailing fairly close to the wind, and getting
knocked around a bit.
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Foredeck tent - where we sleep while underway |
Every so often, waves broke over the side into the boat. Rob was sort of "out of action" with his seasickness. After rotating the assignments of steering, bow watch and navigating between Hodding, John Abbott and myself, I got bow watch. I ended up being on from 4 AM to 6 AM. By then, we were taking some pretty good hits. I got completely soaked. We needed to keep a close watch because, while I was steering on the 3 AM shift with John on bow watch, we saw our first and - so far - only iceberg. It floated out of the fog and dark. Because it was difficult to hold a steady course, it was hard to tell if we could clear the berg to windward. That is the preferred side, because there are likely to be trailing bits of ice in its lee. We made it by about 100 yards.
This morning, I woke up in damp clothes and in a damp sleeping bag - although our foredeck tent is a vast improvement over last year's underway accommodations. Terry told us that there was a pod of pilot whales following the boat. That was around 8 AM. Now, it's nearly noon and they're still with us. Must be 20 to 30 of them - adults and young ones, too.
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Pilot whales off our stern |
Pilot whales abeam |
So far, the weather has followed the forecast. We started with very light winds from the NW. These died completely for a while. Last night, with the passage of a warm front, we had southerly winds and rain. Now the wind has shifted back to the north, so we are headed towards the Hall Peninsula on Baffin Island. So much has happened in the past 48 hours that it seems I should do a longer entry. But those are the high points from my perspective. Anyway, my fingers are getting too cold to type.
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Zzz's in the foredeck tent after a watch |
