Al and Graeme Have Been Lying…

How did we all get tricked into believing them for all this time?

But first, let’s catch you up on how we got to where we are now.

Leaving Nome felt bitter sweet. On one hand, I think a week long stay seemed long enough, but on the other, the friendships, characters, and stories that make Nome…so Nome-y…I guess there really is no place like Nome.

The dilemma of every sailor’s life is waiting for wind…and trying to not bash into the wind. Our departure was being delayed because of weather, but we finally decided to take advantage of a small window that would allow us to finally get into the Bering Strait without too much trouble. It was a fairly uneventful, but exciting sail, Dogbark does what Dogbark does best, smooth easy sailing between 7-9 knots.

Our first stop was just outside of Teller. We picked up some beach ice for our whiskey, some smoked salmon from a Teller native named Joe, and our crew gathered a big old hat full of wild blueberries, which Shauna promptly turned into muffins with her rhubarb from Nome.

A nice long evening of beachcombing resulted in a new gas jug, a funnel, a new whiskey mug, and enough musk ox fur to work on a new craft project (should I make a musk ox insulated vest or a hat?).

Our crew of five have been divided into two watches…I call them the Blue Team and the Red Team.

We love our shore time, but we were all itching to get back to the water and into the arctic circle!

So far it’s been a pretty easy motorsail between 6-7 knots with some occasional opportunities to turn off the engine. Some ocean birds, 3 orcas, and our first experience of the Novaya Zemlya effect. Which is basically an arctic mirage caused by an atmospheric refraction phenomenon in polar regions. So when we were seeing large areas of snow on the mainland on the horizon, as we got closer, we saw the image slowly retract, until the snow/ice bank was just a thinner layer on land. First sign we’re getting to the arctic circle!

Sailing into the Arctic Circle has always been a rare and sought after opportunity by many sailors. It’s traditionally been called earning your “blue nose” after the naval Blue Nose Ceremony for crossing the arctic circle. Back then sailors also had to do a series of challenges in the arctic temperatures to gain a visit from Boreas Rex, the King of the North. I hope my cold plunging counts!

Graeme having already been up here several times has crossed the arctic circle in recent years. Al last crossed the Arctic Circle during his time in the Coast Guard 47 years ago on Polar Star, an ice breaker, so he’s been really looking forward to revisiting this part of the world doing what he loves most, sailing.

Now this brings us to why Al and Graeme have been lying to us this whole time.

First of all, we all have been taught (or so we thought) that the Arctic Circle was a fixed measurement of latitude. Turns out, the arctic circle actually changes each year because according to Brittanica: “Because of Earth’s inclination of about 23 1/2° to the vertical, it marks the southern limit of the area within which, for one day or more each year, the sun does not set (about June 21) or rise (about December 21). The length of continuous day or night increases northward from one day on the Arctic Circle to six months at the North Pole. The Antarctic Circle is the southern counterpart of the Arctic Circle, where on any given date conditions of daylight or darkness are exactly opposite.”

And according to Wikipedia: “Its latitude depends on the Earth’s axial tilt, which fluctuates within a margin of more than 2° over a 41,000-year period, owing to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the Moon.[6] Consequently, the Arctic Circle is currently drifting northwards at a speed of about 14.5 m (48 ft) per year.”

After we learned this life changing fact, we determined we would be entering the Arctic Circle at 66°33.50′ N. We wondered which crew would be the ones to write it down in the log book. Graeme and Brian heading down after an evening watch told us that we (the blue team) would be the ones to sail into the arctic circle (we were only at 66° 33.40′ N at the end of their watch).

Imagine our surprise, approximately 180nm since we’ve left Nome, when we realized, we actually had already crossed the arctic circle, which was at 66°33.38’N this year. We were following the measurement from LAST YEAR. Here’s a handy site that calculates it for you.

Wah – wah. So while we were all lead to believe one thing, it wasn’t intentionally misleading. We just really wanted you to read this. One of the things I love about sailing is that even the most experienced sailors still get to learn something new everyday. We laughed at ourselves and decided to mark the occasion by holding up a line to represent the “invisible line” of the arctic circle. We did it!

High fives all around, for some of us this may be a second or third occasion, but for some of us, it’s a first!

I read that the traditional nautical tattoo for crossing the arctic circle is a polar bear. I’m hoping that with some more polar plunging, we might actually get to see one (from a safe distance!).

It’s past my shift, but getting you some real time news for your morning inbox and the opportunity to see another vessel, Seabelle, (just finished the NW Passage Westbound) coming our way is too exciting!