Capri woke up this morning with a confused look on her face.
“we’re moving?” – Capri
“daddy got us out of the ice” – Me
She popped her head up to check our surroundings and I think she almost brought out the crocodile tears.
The kids didn’t get a chance to get off the boat in the last 3 days other than to play on the ice sheet that we were anchored to. They jumped the crevasses and slid down the small hills, it was the most amazing playground you could dream of.
A few of us ventured out last night at 9:30pm in the dinghy to hike up one of the small rocky islands to look over and check the ice thickness that had us snug for the past few days. It was starting to break up but was still pretty thick. In 2 days’ time a westerly wind was predicted and we didn’t like the sound of being pushed into the cliffs with the rest of the pack ice. It was time to make a break for it.
We all went to bed for a quick couple of hours rest and got up at midnight to begin our exit with the outgoing tide. The ice was extremely thick and we tried a few times to land Salty on it to see if our steel battleship would break it but that sea ice is some tough stuff. We were only able to find small paths in the corn maze from hell and push the ice out of the way as we went, losing a lot of bottom paint a long the way. It was pretty slow going, we had been going for about 3 hours and the ice was only getting denser, it was time to turn back and retreat to the safety of our ice marina. The ice had already started to close in behind us, we were all getting a little stressed. Carl at the helm, AJ up in the crows nest and Michelle and I manning poles on the bow to help push ice. It was 4am and we were heading back, I decided to go to bed and get a quick 2 hour nap before the kids were going to be up, of course Crew was up at 5am. Bugga.
On our way back in Carl saw a break in the ice and decided to go for it, it paid off!! Making about 1 mile an hour, which is really quite good and are now in open water with only scattered pieces of ice to dodge.
We’re all glad to get going again and will soon make our way over to Canada but it was a little disappointing to leave our icy fairy tale land full of seals, musk ox, foxes and even a polar bear. We anchored to the ice sheet, took a polar dip and pushed 6/10th ice (unsuccessfully, I think we’re a 4/10th boat).
We were able to have an adventure as a family, I think it’s a feat to teach respect to your kids but when they see you protecting them from polar bears and motoring through thick ice they put you on such a high pedestal that your nose bleeds. The love and respect they have for Carl makes me proud, we are a family and a team. Team Salty!
We didn’t make it to 80N as planned but you know what 78N was probably better than any 80 could have given us.
This is SV Salty reporting that we are out of the ice and motoring hard towards Northumberland, Greenland, here we will anchor and make a plan for our Northwest Passage attempt.