70’13.8N 143’57.4W course 090′ speed 6,5kn

The past few days have been very busy. Early starts and anchoring at night, hiding behind small islands to get out of the ice and then starting again early in the morning.
There is a line of low lying islands just off the coast of Alaska, they have names, but are more like sand dunes then big islands. The first stop was on Thetis island. After a day of making our way through some bits of ice and staring at the mirage of the wall of ice behind it, we were happy to turn the engine off and go at anchor for a few hours. But we first had to find the island. Coming from the Aleutian islands, high rising, impressive cliffs and green all around, we were now looking for a low flat sand island, and could hardly distinguish it! But once we found it, and dropped the anchor, everybody went on shore to explore the island. We saw drift wood, possibly some bones and many birds on the islands, so enough to explore.

Next day we set of for an anchorage at the start of an inshore passage between some of the islands and the coast of Alaska. But again, first we had to get to this passage, along the outside, so into the ice again! This time navigating between the ice was more intense. With a look out on the front and two on the aft, leads in the ice were searched for and found. It was amazing to see our expedition crew come together and without stress, work through the ice that was building up more and more. It was a real team effort.
Ice reports had shown a narrow band of 2/10ths of ice close to land, then a narrow band of 4/10ths of ice and then straight into the 7/10th of ice, with floes that were kilometers long and ice that was over 120cm thick! So, best not get into that bit! Hugging the coast as much as we could or as much as we were comfortable with, we made our way, doing 3 to 4 knots, to Reindeer island to the entrance of an inshore passage that was deep enough for us. We had already noticed that shallow parts, under 5 meters deep, were somewhat unreliable. Our depth sounder had shown that most of the charted parts were correct, except for the shallow bits. Here it seems, the ice of the winter and especially broken up ice, scraping the bottom, had build up or even dug itself in, creating a bar or shallower part after a deeper part. So, we stayed out of the 5 meter water for as long as we could, anchoring in 8 meters of water at Reindeer Island.
Reindeer island was sheltering us from waves and wind, but there was some ice still drifting past the island. So good for one night, but we set off again early the next day.

Our weather report showed that in the coming days, (starting later this morning) winds will pick up from the east, to 20 or even 25 knots. Our goal was to have a nice safe anchorage to sit it out. So, we had our eye on an anchorage at Challenge island, at the end of the ‘inshore’ passage. But as we happily made our way passed Narwhal island and many more islands, looking at the ice outside of the ridge, we realized, these low islands were not much of a shelter. Ice was drifting around it and we were still at the part, where the ice report showed ice close to shore, a few miles further on, the water would be free! No more ice! And so at lunch time, we decided we had to press on, get out of the ice, before the East and North East winds would blow the ice in closer to shore and even around the islands, trapping us there, possibly for days.

At around 14:00 board time we got to Challenge island and were about to make our way out through a passage that showed 4,5m water.. but we soon realized, this was no longer the case. The island had grown and the water was a lot shallower then the chart showed.
So we lowered the dinghy, prepared a make shift sounding rope and send out Sam and Tim to find us a way through the passage. Our depth sounder said we had 0,5 under the keel where we should have had around 1 meter, so we proceeded with caution as Sam radioed in that he had a depth of 3 meters in front, we needed 2,8m. So on we went. 3,1 meters, it came back, so on we went, doing 1 knot. 3m, still ok, and then 2,8m!! We halted on the spot as the dinghy searched to portside, finding no more then 2,9m and the to startboard of our course… and then it came, 3m! Yes! So on we went! 3,1m….. 3m…. 2,9m…. 3m…. 3,1m….. 3m…… 3,1m……. 3,2m……. so slowly, creeping on, following the dinghy we went on. And then the fog came in… the ice was closer and closer, 3,3m….. 3,4m……. 4m…… We were through!!!! The depth sounder on board showed 10cm under the keel at the shallowest bit, and as the fog came in, we had a slightly more comfortable 1,4 meters under the keel and so the dinghy was hailed and called back. One round around the ship for pictures and off we went. Look out on the front and finding the ice once again. Around dinner time, the fog had lifted, the ice had cleared and we were in open water!!! Out of the ice and beyond the reach of this first bit of pack ice!

What an adventure. We are on our way to Herschel Island now, on our way to Canada. Another 100 miles to go. On Herschel we will sit out the wind. We have been there in 2019 and it was an amazing stay, with magical Northern Lights, a night in the sauna and fishing for Arctic Char. We will have to do without the Northern lights this time, but the other elements might make it a very interesting stay!
All is well on board, Jet