Today we’re bound for Siorapaluk which is about 5-6 hours north of Thule. Carl, AJ and Michelle spent the morning lugging jerry cans of fuel up from the beach. There is no harbour or wharf here so the fuel truck drives down to the beach to fill jerry cans, we then use our dinghy to transport them back and forth from the boat. We have our fuel bladders on deck now. We filled them in Upernavik via fuel truck. Our tanks carry 400 gallons of diesel and the bladders combined carry an additional 350 gallons, Salty will go into the Northwest Passage with a hefty 750 gallons of diesel onboard. We topped off our tanks and bladders this morning just in case Resolute is unreachable because of ice. We’ve had three recommendations for the Northwest Passage:
1. Keep your fuel tanks topped up
2. Keep your water tanks topped up
3. Keep a good supply of chocolate
CHECK, CHECK and CHECK!
We’ve heard that due to the cold water temperatures our watermaker may start to fail soon so we’re making sure we make water every couple of days so when this happens we’ll have full tanks and plan on melting glacier ice and filling from streams. We have been in Greenland for about a month and today is the first time it has rained, it’s only a light drizzle, just enough to make the weather cold and miserable. Up in the Arctic you can’t rely on rain water to fill your tanks.
It’s rainy, foggy, cold and our boat looks like a laundromat. We’re all sniffing with colds. It’s time to move on to the next anchorage. The ice charts show 2/10, 4/10 and 9/10 ice before 80 degrees north, we’ll push as far up as safely possible before turning south.
SV Salty
77 27N, 69 14W
Dave Tobey says
Stay warm. 7 to 12 inches of rain in Tarpon Springs over the last few days. Playing with grandchildren all weekend. A scavenger hunt in the rain and other assorted adventures. Stay warm, We pray for smooth sailing for all of you each night. Take care, Dave and Joan
Sailing Yoga Family says
Crazy, crazy, crazy – I think of you guys a lot. I know we haven’t met in person yet, but cruising family is cruising family, and thus we are connected in our hearts. Much warmth and sunshine, Vit C for the snotty noses and chapeau for daring to go that far north. Abrazos from Turkey’s sunshine where we’ll be heading west soon to tackle the Atlantic (nothing compared to your adventures, lol!). x