No ice in sight as we sailed out of US waters and into Canada. The barometric pressure is dropping rapidly and the wind has changed direction. We have 25 knots of wind on the nose and the waves are slowly building. The water temperature is 5 degrees Celsius when the spry hits you. You know you are no longer in the tropics.
Just around the corner of point Barrow we sailed into the ice. It was old ice and not to dence,it took us 8 hours to get to open water again, Today it feels like we are sailing in the tropics, lovely sunshine and no ice in sight. It's hard to believe we are in the Arctic!! In 40 years from now they predict that there will be no more ice in the Arctic during the summer months. Itr's going to change our world!!
Pangaea is at anchor in front of Point Barrow the most Northern tip of Alaska. From here, we will start sailing to the east through the North West passages. It's not to cold but we have not seen the sun for the last 10 days. We have seen many whales heading south before the long Arctic winter sets in again.
July 2011 – Pangaea sets forth on an amazing journey through the North west passage, the legendary and mystical passage north of Canada where many great explorers have ventured.
To find out more about the NW Passage look at the following link click here
Another 100nm and we will reach Point Barrow far north of the Arctic Circle. We are sailing in in shallow water along the coast. It has been wet, cold and windy since we left Nome with no sign of human life, or so we thought. Coming around Cape Lisburne we saw a flashing light through the fog in the distance. It made me think about the reason for exploring. Life is not about what you KNOW! It's about what you going to GET TO KNOW!
We sailed through the Bering straight in very calm conditions this morning – not at all like in 2003, when I had rough weather blowing more than 60 kn! The most western point of the USA, Cape Prince of Wales, is behind us now. It has not stopped raining but the seas are calm. Adam gave us some Alaskan Red King crab before we left and I will cook it up tonight and will let you know how it tasted in my next post.
Mike meets American journalist Mary Buckheit, from ESPN recently during a short stop-over in San Francisco.
Click on the links below to view the articles.
Arriving in Nome was like going back in time. In 2003 on the Arktos expedition I had to wait 3 months here for permits to enter Russia. I made some very good friends in that time. I called Jeff and Peggy Darling and told them I was back in town. They welcomed us with the best breakfast ever. Traveling is about meeting people and making friends – friends you will have for life even if you see them once in 8 years.
Today one year ago Kobi and I stood on the summit of Broad Peak without supplement oxygen. Today I'm back in the Arctic. So much has happened in one year. In average we have 30'000 days to live. Live each day to the max even the max is sometimes not enough.
Grey, calm, shallow water, strong currents and foggy – the perfect conditions to sail through False Pass today. Pangaea entered the narrow on a rising tide with a following current and we raced through False Pass at 15 knots. We even had seals as spectators popping out their heads to see us go by. We are in the Bering sea now heading due north to Nome – another 500nm to go. This is crab country where they filmed the amazing movie called 'The Deadliest Catch.'