Back and Forth, What the Heck?

For those of you who check the tracker link here regularly (its in the main drop down menu) the news that Dogbark is moving again is not too surprising. But there have been a couple of questions about this, mostly  “what the heck are you doing?”  So Janna asked me to give a brief explanation.

A couple days ago, we moved out to Pole Island, one of the barrier islands that help keep the areas we have been staying “free” of ice.  There were a couple of thoughts here.  It was a clear day, and I wanted to check out the pass that we hope to use to exit to the east, when our ice blockage shakes free.  (And charting in the part of the world can be hit or miss)

The girls were interested in a change of scenery, and the weather forecast said the wind might be from the east.  Tigvariak was fine in a SW gale, but open to the east.  To be honest, I don’t sleep well when the wind blows the boat towards land.  It is called a lee shore, and sailors have had nightmares about them for as long as boats have been anchoring.  So off we went.

The exploration was excellent. We got a good long hike in, and I plotted GPS positions along the way.  Surprise!  The island was not where charts said it would be. In fact at one point, we were standing on the highest part of the island ( perhaps 10’ above sea level but twice as high as the Coast Pilot said) and at that point, my GPS said we should have had about 9’ of water under us.  Oops!

Today we are off in another direction, back to Cross Island.  Same reason, wind.  But now we know the way, and the best places to anchor for maximum protection. It is a good little hidey hole, and we look forward to safe shelter from the coming blow.

One more thing.  This is not a retreat, though it may look like it to you tracker junkies.  This boat still plans to go to Greenland.  We hope that this next weather system will shake things up and let us go forward.  We believe that, and our reasons are based on conversations with knowledgeable people who know ice and know the local behavior of it on this stretch of coast.

But there is a chance that this may not happen, that the passage may not open in time for us to get through. The clock is ticking. There are lots of risks here in the Arctic, and we are constantly balancing risks.  Fast boat, strong crew that love each other and work well as a team even in challenging situations.  Pitted daily against rapidly changing conditions. Vast distances.

At some point, the risk of getting caught may exceed the risks of going forward, depending on where we are and what the ice in front of us is doing.  We aren’t there yet, but we are having lots of conversations about these What Ifs, and there will be contingency plans for every scenario we consider. (We have 2 rockstar planners aboard). So if the day comes when our destination changes, rest assured, Dogbark will make that plan as safe, interesting, and full of surprises as we can.  Until then, on to Greenland, never mind we are going backwards!