(16) Nuuk Greenland, new friends and a big Gun.

Nuuk Greenland
We arrived here middle of the afternoon yesterday 17/7/14 and rafted up alongside a neat alloy sloop belonging to Glen and Anne Bainbridge called Gjoa.
They hail from Canada and have most recently come from Ireland (a two plus week trip) They were waiting on customs so we decided to sit pat and wait for them as well.  By 1700 there was no sign of the officials and we reasoned that they were unlikely to turn up out of hours so we headed ashore to explore the town/city of Nuuk. As it happens we found the supermarket, the ATM withdrew some cash and headed for the Fishermens Hostel/Motel for dinner, rumoured to be all you can eat...  Alas, to Rossco's chagrin this rumour proved false, though the meal was more than adequate for everyone else!

Next morning we headed over to the fuel wharf to fuel up.  We stocked up on some some provisions and selected a gun and ammunition at the Arctic Supplies Store across the harbour.  It was Matt and Rossco's turn to pay as we are trying to keep the expenditure per person roughly equal as we travel so there is less sorting out to do at the end.  As you'd expect the bill was largish running towards the several thousand DK.  None of their cards would work and the Store would not take their filthy American $ either!  The Store owner offered to drive them to the Bank a few Ks away and get their cards sorted and maybe change their US$ for proper Greenland money, Kroner.  

This process all proved fruitless as the Bank, where the sister of the Artic Supplies owner  worked coincidently, couldn't solve the CC problem and there was a limit on the amount of US$ they could take in a single transaction.  So  we made other arrangements.

That wasn't the best part though, while they were driving to the bank Matt casually asked their driver (of Artic Supplies Fame) if he knew anyone by the name Arne Petersen.  A bit like asking the taxi driver in Dublin if he knew anyone by the name of Paddy Murphy!  Ah! He said "there's only one Arne Petersen in Nuuk and he's my best friend..."   I'll take you to see him as soon as we've finished with the bank!

And so he did and it was the right Arne Petersen and he invited us all to his home last night where we met his beautiful Greenlandish wife Lisbeth who is a famous local artist and is very interested in native greenlandic culture etc. etc. then a friend of Lisbeth's heard there was a party at the Petersen's as they had visitors from far away and so they came round and the evening went on and on and on... Very Greenlandic we're assured!

Michael and I left, very weary, at about 0130 and make our way (carefully) down the long flight of wooden steps
(think Seaforth Battle Boulevard steps) to the boat harbour and retired to our bunks.  Rossco and Matt held on for another few hours and fell into the boat about 0500 this morning...  Arne G Petersen and Lisbeth "Drina's new best friends in Nuuk Greenland" Many thanks from Drina for your wonderful hospitality and kindness.

Some Pic's attached, Approaches to Greenland Nuuk, rafted up in the boat harbour, The boat harbour from Drina, Nuuk as you approach the Harbour Leads. PK in Nuuk Greenland.

(15) St. John's NF to Greenland - Tuesday 08/07 to 16/07

(15) St. John's NF to Greenland - Tuesday 08/07 to 16/07

Tuesday 08/07: We left St. John's with a slightly overcast sky and a steady SW wind.  Soon we were in sea fog with very limited visibility between 100 and 200 meters.  The AIS transponder showed lots of other traffic during the day however we were more interested in the fishermen and the ice bergs.  We have a chart listing the positions of the latter but not the former and neither have transponders.  So we sail slowly on with the rdar working overtime! 

At dark we hove too and slowly fore-reached during the next six hours then on Michael's watch at 0300 we made sail again and carefully plotted a course to avoid the worst patches of bergs.  The ice Berg chart is set out in squares each one about one degree of Latitude by one degree of Longitude  and the number of bergs is listed in each. Higher up the coast (of Newfoundland) these numbers are large, 360, 128, 50 and so on. Our track would take us through a series of squares 6, 5, 5, 2,2,2 then hopefully into clear water!  At the end of day 2 Mike and Matt our ice master agreed not to hove too at darkness but to motor slowly at about 3 kts during the hours of darkness.

On day 4 we suddenly emerged form thick fog into bright sunshine.  What a relief to see the horizon again.  The day got even better as the breeze built soon after dawn and soon we were all sails set on a beam reach and heading up our planned course... Champagne sailing!  

By the end of the week we had made enough northing to be entering the land of the midnight sun (well bright sky at midnight)  The log says 53 degrees North and 48 degrees West, and notes that the moon and the sun just below the horizon  at Midnight on Friday 11th July.

To pass the time Matt and Rossco watch a movie on afternoons when the weather is light and we're motor sailing, they are allowed to consume power if the motor is running...  

We play the usual games like guessing the Noon to Noon distance run.  So far Rossco is champion having won the first 4 or five days in a row and is consistently in the first two.  There's cheating going on, I just can't prove it!  

Matt has  been putting messages in bottles for as long as he has been sailing and continues to do so on this trip.  He lets one a day go one at noon and I'm helping him keep up the supply of empties!  He has a surprising number found and confirmed back to him, around one in 10 or so. A bottle set sail in Tasmania washed in Chile two years later and those he set sail in the Galapagos turned up all over the pacific including Papua New Guinea.  Sort of a romantic thing to do!  The other day we had the occasion to use an empty Jameson bottle, can't imagine how it got in that state, and I was allowed the honour of chucking it in the drink as it were.

 It's now wednesday the 16th and we've been at sea for 8 days.  We have no darkness now and although the sun dips below the horizon it remains light.  Today we have been closing the coast of Greenland and are now for the first time in a while dodging ice bergs and small bergs or bergy bits again.  These little bits can be a big as a London bus and that's the bit on top of the water!  They are often very hard to see on the radar and we are constantly calibrating our visual sightings with the image on the screen when the visibility is good.  In fog we have to slow down and rely completely on the "Green Screen"  Today the visibility has been several miles so we are motoring (there's no wind) along at a fair old clip attempting to close the coast in case the next wind is a head wind!   1900hrs The fog is back and now we are back to the old routine, like playing battleships!

Dinner is cooking, a Michael special "rack of lamb" or rather several racks with lots of roast vegs and steamed greens... Can't wait.

(14) St. John's 2/07 to 8/07

(14) St.John's NF Wednesday 02/07 to Tuesday 08/07/204 The Story...

The public Wharf was full when we arrived and so we rafted up outside a small local yacht Roll'n Rose.  This manoeuvre, accomplished in a reasonably seaman like manner, we introduced ourselves to our neighbours on UNA a beautiful Hallberg - Rassy,  Reidar Oesterhaug from Norway and brother in law Mike from London.  They were on the way to cruise the NF coast, Mike had just joined and was without luggage, didn't make the plane in London or missed the connection in Dublin!  He only recovered his lost baggage the day before we left almost a week later.  Next was a very nice looking Alloy sloop with a french couple onboard whom we waved to briefly before they departed for a berth further up the harbour, making way for our NWP buddy Moloda with Gary and Li onboard as they arrived a few hours later.

This was to be our first real catch up with our NWP attempt buddy boat so Gary and Li were immediately invited onboard for drinks and a big catchup on plans, provisions, weather, ice melt progress, information sources and so on and so on...

We ate onboard (another triumph by Matt) and later Rossco and I went exploring the night life in St.John's only to find that there wasn't any (that we could find) on a Wednesday night! 

Thursday dawned bright and clear on what  promised to be a hot St.John's day 24C was predicted.  Sure enough Summer was here and out came all the summer dresses, shorts thongs and hats, think Bondi without the bikinis!

Mike was off to explore the local supermarkets and to find more fuel filters, Lisbet, Matt's wife had flown in late Wednesday and they were off walking to the Coast Guard station on the far side of the harbour to set up our liaison with them regarding ice reports/analysis and position reporting etc. While Rossco and I went in search of "Free WiFi".

Gwenyth had, by coincidence,  been in St. John's early in January 2014 in a vain attempt to reach Fogo Island further north for a holiday with friends Phillip and Cate.  They had been snowed in at the Sheraton just at the top of the street for several days and so were a mine of information on the best places for coffee etc.  Thus forearmed with inside info we made directly for Coffee Matters at the top of Duckworth St.  So good was the info that Coffee Matters became my/our shore base for the next several days.  Very acceptable espresso, nice soup, good sandwiches and Vfast "FreeWiFi" with power to every table!

We met back at the dock towards sundown and choose the local Korean as a suitable place to eat.  This proved to be another inspired choice, the restaurant was run by Julia Kwon, Julia became our "new best friend of Drina" in St.John's and on Sunday  took Rossco and Matt "Hand Fishing" at a nearby lake and then to lunch before delivering them back to the boat where Mike and I were introduced to Julia's husband Ted and we all enjoyed a sundowner on Drina .

On Friday the US Coast Guard sail training ship the Barque Eagle made port and secured alongside within sight of drina just up the harbour.  They were here for a neighbourly visit and a crew change for some of the officer candidates onboard.  It turned out that we on Drina had several connections to the US Coast Guard Barque Eagle.

Rossco had been to High school (Oneonta) and came from the same part of Upstate New York as one of the Officer Candidates.  And myself who sailed against her on Norske in the Tall Ships Race (Hobart to Sydney) back in January 1988 as part of Australia's Bicentenary celebrations.  Some of you (Malcolm, Dicko, Leon, Gouldie, Watto, Jimmy D, Billy M and possibly more) will have fond memories of that race and the few weeks afterwards, tied up in Darling Harbour with a ringside seat for the celebrations.  If I remember correctly the our Commodore hosted the officers of the Barque Eagle to dinner at the club, the crews of Norske and Polar Bear became friends with many of the officers and continued a correspondence long after Eagle departed.

On the occasion of my visit to the Eagle alongside here in St. John's I was introduced to a very young looking Officer, before recounting my previous visit I enquired his age.  "24 Sir" he smartly replied, alas he was not even a twinkle in his farther's eye in 1988.  I was assured (but not shown) that the RSYS Burgee was still maintained in a place of honour onboard!

Rossco had more luck and was invited to dinner with his school mate Officer Candidate who turned out to be a very attractive young lady Officer Candidate!

Saturday Night in St. John's.  Rossco, Mike and I had planned to prove that there was some action in this town after dark.  However circumstances or rather a cultural opportunity intervened for Rossco and he had to attend a piano recital!  That left Mike and I to elplore.  We found the Brewery a nice enough pub and spent a pleasant time over a few pints of the local brew while we chatted up one of the US expats looking after the Oil Rigs.  We learned a lot about drilling and managing rigs in "Ice Berg Alley" as the area is known and very little about the night life.  Later we went for a stroll thro' the local "red light district",  think very small scale Kings X!

Sunday we had to delay departure as the Post Tropical Depression that had once been Hurricane Arthur made it's way up the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfound land.  

While sitting onboard planning our evening we had a knock on the hull.  A friend of a friend of Matt's had come to see if we needed any help, transport, food, showers etc.  The mention of showers was enough to move Frank O'Connor up to the top of our list of "Drina's New Friends"  Frank (an expat Irishman) lived up to his word and the following morning at 11.00 turned up to take Mike shopping for provisions and the very hard to find fuel filters.  Later he took Matt, Mike and me to his very beautiful home in Manuels, overlooking Conception Bay, north of St. John's where we showered, washed and dried lots of dirty laundry and enjoyed some traditional Irish cooking, wine, a tune or two on Frank's fiddle and the odd glass of Jameson.

Frank turned out to be a retired academic at St. John's University and a past Commodore of one of the local yacht/dinghy clubs at Conception Bay.  We, the crew on S/V Drina, owe him a big vote of thanks for his outstanding Irish/Newfoundland hospitality.  Thanks Frank!

Tuesday, the weather had finally moderated and turned in our favour and we planned to take advantage of "Arthur's" coat tails and clear out for Greenland.

Having successfully fuelled on Friday, all that remained was to take on fresh water.  We slipped the lines early on Tuesday morning and motored up harbour to Wharf #6 where we filled our water tanks.  Then with a quick goodbye and thank you to St.John's Harbour Control we made our way out through the  narrows and set sail for the North East coast of Greenland, ETA 15 days from now.

PK On Drina 

Apologies for the lack of Pic's Nuuk "Free WiFI" infrastructure can't support large data transfers!      

(13) Approach to St. John's, alongside the public wharf Queen St.

We crossed the ICE limit sometime on Tuesday (1/07) afternoon and by Wednesday we were running up the coast of NF with poled out headsail and main.  The wind had been building from early morning and we were making excellent time up the Newfoundland Coast having reached our waypoint at Cape Race just after midnight Tuesday.  The water temperature had fallen another degree or so and was now about 3+C 

During my watch 0900 to Midday Rossco sighted our first Ice Berg.  Matt our Ice Master confirmed his sighting,  to my inexperienced eyes it look like a big white cruise liner in on the coast.  But no, Matt was right it was big berg, too far away for me to photograph with the camera in my phone (the only one I have).

Soon we had several "baby bergs" in sight.  So great excitement all round as we closed on the second that was on our course as we made for St. John's Harbour.  Matt pointed out a few bergy bits that were floating in the vicinity.  These are of importance for us as they don't show up on radar.  Mind you without Matt to point them out I found it hard to identify any of the first few Ice Bergs that came in view.  Very faint echoes easily lost in the clutter.  

Towards midday as we changed course onto the leads for St. John's Harbour, here we found to our surprise a Berg in the leads...  So it was that we came close to one of these beautiful things.  Up close they are both beautiful and scary, such a huge mass of frozen water and the bit we could see was probably between 1/10 to ⅛  of the total mass the remainder being below the water.  This berg was cracked and fissured with smooth bits where it had floated in a different attitude previously.  One of the dangers with these beautiful things is that they are inherently unstable and as the melt progresses they can roll onto a completely different axis unexpectedly.  So while we got close we didn't get too close...

     

Matt close up to the Berg in St. John's Harbour leads.

PK,  "all rugged up"

The First Berg or perhaps the second!

(12) An early start... St.Peter's, Cape Breton Nova Scotia to St.John's NF 29/06/2014

Preparing to leave St.Peter's canal Sunday 29/06/2014

(12) An early start...  St.Peter's, Cape Breton Nova Scotia to St.John's NF 29/06/2014

 The boys have been running round the walking/logging tracks in the vicinity of the canal and spending time sucking up WiFi at the local Tourist Information Centre.  There's only one chair inside so they took turns.  Michael and I shopped for fuel & oil filters (successfully) at the local automotive supplier about 100 meters up the road run by a very helpful, knowledgable lady and then paid a visit to Tim Horton's ("The coffee Canadians drink at home") for a little snack and to suck up some not so free WiFi.  

Afterwards we paid a visit to Wallace MacAskill's (1887 - 1956) home.  He was born in this house and his marine photography work is widely published. The home has been turned into a museum, and contains copies of much of his work as well as much of his original equipment.  His "Starboard Lookout" is probably his most widely published photograph and his take on the famous local fishing schooner Bluenose appeared on the Canadian 50 cent stamp.  His work was popular as wedding presents and was coveted by home sick Nova Scotians serving abroad in WWII. 

Mike returned to the boat via the supermarket and I set myself up at Tim's again to download some software updates for Mike's laptop and catch up on some photo editing and backup.

As I sat in Tim's I began to notice that many of the diners were dressed in impeccable leathers, the sort that only weekend bike riders wear.  Sure enough when I left to return to the boat the streets were full of very shiny, noisy Harleys.  I thought it must be some sort of Harley convention. I was wrong!  As I approached the canal I came across our friendly lockmaster polishing the most shiny Harley I've ever seen...  My friend was only too happy to talk about his favourite "machine".  A passing comment from me was returned by a 45 minute tour de force of every component, its source, cost &  provenance:  It seems that every Nova Scotian worth his/her salt is or aspires to be a "Harley" owner!  My friend the lock-keeper proudly showed me his "Chrome Dome" (helmet) that carried the words "I'm not turning gray, I'm going CHROME"

 

The Helmet

The lockmaster and his Harley...

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Later Mike did his magic stuff in the galley and without seeming to lift a finger produced a splendid roast beef dinner for four.  Some rum and Jameson was splashed about and we all retired a happy crew.

Sun 29/06/2014: This morning we were up and about at 0500 local and after a short wait to check the latest forecast we slipped the lines and bade farewell to the canal.  We made our way out of the harbour in glassy conditions and threaded our way through the many of fish tap and lobster pot buoys sprinkled throughout the harbour including the channels.  Must be hard to make this harbour at night without tangling with one or several.

By 0700 we had cleared the last marker and turned onto what will be our course for the next few days, 095M and St.John's approximately 400 miles away.

At about 1100 the breeze filled in from the SW and we hoisted the Main and rolled out the Genoa, later, about Midday, we rolled out the Staysail as well and were soon making 6 plus knots towards St.John's. Michael killed the diesel and the silence was a welcome relief as I came off watch, Matt did his Sandwich thing for lunch and Michael got out the photo's for an afternoon show and tell session. 

Sometime before dinner we rolled up the Genoa and Staysail and started the Diesel as the wind had died and probably not make another appearance before mid morning Monday.  Matt busied himself in the galley and with a little help from Rossco presented us all with a very tasty  Bangers and Mash with a Wasabi twist, DELICIOUS!  I'm getting the recipe for my collection for sure...  Michael, usually very    parsimonious with approval gave it a high mark... " You can cook that again Matt"  high praise indeed!

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Our Second Ice Berg, the first was too far away to photograph.

Mon 30/062014:  Daylight streaming into my cabin woke me at 0445, we are getting more and more daylight as we move  north.  It's hard to believe that we are at the same latitude as the atlantic coast of France and yet the days here hardly get to 20C and that's on a clear day.  If it's foggy or overcast and raining then we see the maximum in the low teens.  The water is getting  colder, now hovering about 4C and we expect it to get colder still as we approach the ICE limit below St.Johns.  We are taking bets on when we sight our first ICE.  The Canadian ICE service reports more than 100 Bergs in the area.   

At about 1500 local we crossed the Canadian Weather Service ice limit advisory and are now officially in iceberg country.  Matt, our Ice Master seems unconcerned and as yet we have not set an ice watch.  We are however playing games.... Guessing our Noon to noon distance, young Rossco won todays contest with a spot on guess of 123 miles.  Now we're betting on when we will see our first Ice Berg!

The wind has been helping since early this morning when we rolled out the both headsails and shortly after the Mizzen went aloft for the first time this trip.  We've been slipping along for most of the day at a fair old clip.

Michael's in the the galley working his magic on what looks like Salmon steaks, yum!  The wind is dying so we will be motor sailing again over night.

It's now about 3 hours later and the wind has filled in and we are sailing again.  Some clouds on the horizon to the west so we might be in for a blow.  And Murphy has struck again and it's my watch!

Our Second Ice Berg

Ice Berg in the approaches to St. John's Harbour

Leaving our first one behind...