Route Map   Weather Map   Daily Journal         Q & A   Special Reports   Education Section           The Game Click here to send the Viking adventurers your questions Greenland Tourism's Project Leif 2000		Lat/Lon: 54 32N 57 112W Sightings: Puffins, Joshua - a sailboat Author: Dean Plager  High seas, making a seam rubber and honoring Snorri mark Dean's report Log Date: September 12, 1998 One of our activities on board has been a variety of projects. For me it has been fun to get back into woodworking. Having Rob and John Gardner as consultants has made it very instructive. I took on making a seam rubber. Its purpose is to create a crease in a piece of canvas before sewing it. I started with a rough piece of ash from a My project. A seam rubber for canvas work board Rob was going to make a paddle from. From that I cut a smaller piece and squared it up. After that it was a matter of cutting, sawing, filing and whatever to get it the right shape. It wasn't done until John Gardner said it was just right. I finally got his OK the other day. My next project is a present for my wife, Barclay, but it's a surprise so I can't tell you what it is. We had a good day sailing today, Friday. It was some of the roughest water we've been in so far. The waves were 10 to 15 feet high and occasionally there was one that could have been 20. But we were making good progress. We have to go quite a ways east to make the dogleg in the Labrador coast at Hamilton Inlet. From there it is pretty much due south. Also as we move south we seem to be getting closer to the weather systems passing through the area which should help. We were treated to puffins flying near the boat. We haven't seen them very often so they're a real treat. They don't come as close to the boat as the fulmars but we did manage to get a good look several times as they seemed to be curious about us. We also saw our first sailboat. As we gained on it, we got ready to call them on the radio. Just as we were ready to call we heard "Leif Erikkson, this is the Canadian Coast Guard." They were just joking with us!  It was a boat named Joshua from Newfoundland which was coming back from Greenland. Watching her get thrown around in the waves reminded me what a great boat Snorri is. She's fantastic downwind which is what she was designed to do. She also rides the big waves very well. Top of page