Arctic!

By this time tomorrow I will have crossed over into the Arctic circle and will be sailing in the Arctic ocean. I’ve made some great time since my last entry. I got very lucky and have had several days of 20-25kt southerlies. I was throughly enjoying surfing at 7-9kts down the face of the following seas. I had two days where I made more then 140 miles in 24 hours. I also was pushing the boat hard trying to make up for lost time, which I think I accomplished.
The weather in general has been wet but the wind hasn’t gotten over 30kts in a week. A sail boat that was north of me got hit by a bad storm and had to go to Greenland for repairs. I hope they can get there boat fixed so they can make it through the NW passage in time. Thats the way sailing goes – two boat taking the same route maybe four days apart can have completely different passages. I personally think that the Labrador Sea is the most dismal body of water I’ve ever sailed. I’ve had much worse weather in other bodies of water, but the daily gloom can effect your moral. Funny enough, I’m going to miss this dismal place because its become my dismal place. I’ve bonded with the Labrador sea, different bodies of water seem to have different personalities. The Labrador reminds me of a grumpy old man.
I saw my first icebergs yesterday. It was one of the best days of the trip so far, I had blue skies and light southerlies, so I put up my big asymmetrical sail and around the time I finally got the big sail to behave properly I saw my first iceberg. Soon after I sailed past an iceberg the size of a mountain. I knew they could get big, but not that big. It must have been 600-800 feet tall with several dramatically shaped peaks. It’s diameter must have been a couple miles. I saw another dozen icebergs of all shapes and sizes and decided to head east again to get away from the ice. I was skirting the southern edge of a huge ice pack that goes on for hundreds of miles. The only way around the ice is to sail close to greenland for another 300-500 miles then turn west and head for the NW passage. Seeing the ice was great but I didn’t get much sleep last night. I kept worrying about hitting a berg. The nice thing is that I’ve sailed so far north that the sun has stopped setting so 2am looks a lot like 2pm. So at least I can see the ice, except for when there is fog of course. Right now I can look off into the distance and see the dramatically desolate coast of greenland. Even though I’m 25 miles offshore I can see the snow covered mountains and I’m starting to feel like I’ve sailed into a different dimension. I’m very happy to finally be in the Arctic and I hope the ice pack in Baffin Bay clears up so I can start heading west.