Our plan was successful!! We avoided the ice by sticking to the coast and by nighttime we had been moving forwards to Tuk, without spotting any ice ahead of us, only to our starboard. I love it when a plan works out!
But today the plan had to change somewhat.. We were heading for Tuk, hardly any wind, but nice weather. Most of the day all crew were on deck enjoying the sun and the playing seals around the ship and also the peanut butter muffins at 16:00 hours. But now we are closing in on Tuk, a shallow harbour, which lies to the South of our course line to the Beaufort Sea. Making our way in with an eye on our depth sounder, we start wondering what might be wrong… are the charts old… is the depth sounder having strange readings… or is there just hardly any water on this side of the bay due to a offshore wind that has been blowing…
Gijs contacts a tug that is in front of us but the tug is also reading a 1,5 meter difference with the chart depth.. and it is almost high water…
So this plan has to change.. because at some charted parts there will only be 1 meter below our keel according to the current charts. We make our way in a bit further, but soon have only 20 centimeters below the keel.. time to really change plan. So now we are on our way to an anchorage outside the harbor a bit more North. Tomorrow this will give us the chance to hike to a unique feature on these shores, Pingo’s. These volcano shaped hills are made by ice and are at close distance to our anchorage.. we just have to pick one of them.
Other then that we hope some of our pictures of the Northern Lights of yesterday have come through. It was again a spectacular show that lasted and lasted, even when the sun started to rise again! It felt like stardust falling from the sky, right above us!
Previous Post