71’07.5N 154’33.6W course 105′ speed 6,3
In the morning of the 4th of August we spotted the first ice ridge of this attempt to sail the North West Passage. Just a few miles to the north west of us, we saw a nearly unbroken line of ice just on the horizon. The white shine (ice blink) on the horizon had been spotted earlier, and by climbing the rigging we were able to see the first sea ice ourselves.

Just the day before, Gijs gave a presentation on Ice navigation, different sorts of ice and how to read the Egg code of the ice charts we receive. The ice chars show the ice ridge we just spotted as first 2/10ths of ice, with big flows and fairly thick ice, this band is just a few miles thick and behind it comes an area with 6/10ths of ice, with mainly large floes of kilometers long 30 centimeter ice. That’s what will give the white ‘ice blink’ on the horizon! Lucky for us, there was a 10 mile wide ice free area between the coastline of point Barrow and that ice, making it an easy passage for us. No pictures of the ice yet, it was just a too far off.

We did spot a Grey Whale with young this morning, they stayed close to the ship for over 15 minutes, showing off and just playing around in the water.
In the afternoon we reached the town Barrow. We stopped for a quick visit of 2 hours, then got back on board and continued our voyage. There is a South Easterly wind blowing and so we do not want to get stuck on the lee shore of the east side of point Barrow. So we need to keep going, we have no luck with the wind so far and are still under engine, but making good and fast progress! Which is also very favorable.

The next few days we will be dealing with the accumulated ice shown on the chart of the Alaskan Coast ice chart. Close to shore there is a passage of ice free water shown on the chart of August 4th. The real question is, will it stay free with this easterly wind. There are also ice belts shown on the chart, coming from the ice onto the land. This ice is about 80 to 90 miles from our current position. So tomorrow may turn out to be a busy day!
We will keep you updates! For now, all is well on board.
Jet
Thoroughly enjoying monitoring your progress via the logs and photographs, so much more to see and new experiences to be had. Say hi to Dr Sue from the Isle of Man, it’s a pity your final leg finishes in Ullapool and not the Isle of Man, the boat enthusiasts here would have a field day! Kind regards to all.
Me and my kids saw the Tecla. First thing my 4 year old asked when he saw it. “Are there pirates on that ship?!” Lol. We live by the beach and had a good view of the ship driving away. Very interesting to read about this voyage. My great grandfather made this trip many times in the 1800s. Some of our homes were constructed from the beached ships and are still standing in Utqiagvik today.