After the rough weather, it’s now foggy and almost windstill. The water collection system works perfectly; in a short space of time we’ve gathered 10 litres of freshwater. It may be a while before I can send new videos. We are recharging the batteries on our electronic equipment, after using up a lot of the charge in Murmansk. All is well on board.
Updated position 11.36: We’re off the southwestern tip of Novaya Zemlya, about 50 miles from the entrance to Kara Strait.
When the weather is rough, the watertight survival suits are pure necessity.
Expedition report 16.10:
Let me give you a further update for the 1st of August. The seas have calmed down and wind has died and turned. We are still doing 5–6 knots; that’s one of the great advantages of this boat – good speed even in the lightest of winds.
Our wind generator is, unfortunately, not so good in low winds. We have drained the batteries a bit too much and are down to 50 % capacity, so we have to be careful with our power consumption until we are on top again. That means no video clips until we have enough power.
At the outset we are still heading for Yugorsky Strait, although Kara Strait is still an option. Later today we will study updated ice charts and make our decision. Either way, we will soon be leaving the Barents Sea (and Europe!).
It was foggy all night, and that meant condensation on our sails. The result? We collected 10 litres of freshwater from the fog alone! All collected in the channel I made under the mainsail and boom, and without spilling a drop tapped into the bucket hanging under the mast.
One not so good discovery is that we had lots of seawater in the floats from the bad weather. The floats frequently become momentarily submerged as we plough the waves, and clearly the inspection holes were not completely watertight. We had at least 100 litres extra water in the floats. This is now scooped out. We have added Vaseline to the rubber seals on the inspection holes to try to make them more waterproof, hoping that will help.
We have enjoyed some sunny spells today, which allowed us to dry our sleeping bags. We also brought out our solar panel for additional charging.
A proud catch: 10 litres of freshwater collected from the sail. And it wasn’t even raining!
At the first hint of sunlight, we brought out the solar panel to charge our batteries and dried our sleeping bags.
Vaseline has surprisingly many uses – such as making the rubber seals on the covers of the floats’ inspection holes more watertight.
Who says an Arctic expedition is all serious? We had quite a laugh when Stas accidentally inflated his life vest.
Слишком хорошо Ctac! .. Счастливого пути вам всем Gigi from Italy
Det ser ikke helt godt ut dette, Børge! Mor følger med hele tiden; takk til Olav Grinde for kontinuerlig oppdatering.
Jeg har stor tillit til at dette skal gå bra.
Båten (og ikke minst mannskapet!) har gjentatte ganger bevist sin sjødyktighet selv under vanskelige forhold. Nå er også forseglingene rundt lukene utbedret.
Neste prøve blir passasjen til Kara Sea – faktisk er det to mulige passasjer. Og det skal nok gå bra.
Med vennlig hilsen,
Olav
Husk, når ting ser mørkt ut, så er det bare å ta fram hesteskoen som dere fikk i Kirkenes for å drysse litt lykke over båten. Det er en stor sko, med masse lykke, så ikke vær sparsom
lykke til videre å ha en god seilas
Ærbødigst
Tor-Erik
I dont like the silence, something wrong? Just asking?
Hi Espen,
They’ve been sailing. Because of ice conditions they decided to head for the southernmost of the two passages to the Kara Sea. They’re now by Vaygach Island, in the Yugorsky Strait. Received positional update at 14.25. All is reported well.
Best regards,
Olav