Update from Ben Gray and his sons Brad and Kevin aboard Idlewild in
the Arctic Ocean:
We had a brief stop in Barrow just long enough to get our e-mail, a
few parts and bump into a fellow boater during supper. It was great
timing that we met some marine researchers both based locally and
from other areas including some women from a Swedish research team
that will be getting on the Swedish ice breaker when it arrives. We
also met Gary Ramos of the boat "Arctic Wanderer"
(http://www.ArcticWandering.com) who is attempting to
circumnavigating the North Pole.
We continued south west to Bering Strait, where we effectively start
our round the world trip. Going there now will save us coming up
through ice to do it next year. Saw many whales in the Chukchi Sea.
Fog is a constant companion although it did lift enough for us to see
Asia and Alaska at the same time and to get some good pictures of the
Diomede Islands on both sides of the Russia US border. A lot of
Russian chatter on channel 16, but no English and as usual up north
it is often difficult to get weather information .
We were a long stones throw (7.5 km) from the Russian Island of Big
Diomede. It has been foggy most of the time since Barrow so were
lucky it lifted in the Strait to give us some pictures.
We have crossed the Arctic circle twice on July 31 first at 2:00 AM
then again coming back at 7:40 PM for the third time in 24 days. We
had no sunset from July 7 to July 29 when we were heading south of
Barrow. Barrow will have their first sunset in a while on Aug second
which is 1 day before we get there so we won't see 24 hour sunlight
again on this trip.
We made the trip of 965 nm from Barrow to the Bering Strait and back
in excellent time of exactly 5 days with favorable conditions. Went
past Barrow last night at 22:30 but after turning the corner and
heading east 5 miles our motor stopped and we changed fuel filter but
then it didn't start so we anchored in 25' water and 1kt current. One
person stay on watch because plenty of ice moving. In the morning we
phoned the supplier in Vancouver and repaired our problem.
The latest ice reports say the ice isn't as good as we had hoped from
here to Tuk so we are taking time to stop again at Barrow and send
emails.
All is well on board.
Ben, Brad & Kevin
http://www.idlewildexpedition.ca/www.idlewildexpedition.ca
Update from Ben Gray and his sons Brad and Kevin aboard Idlewild in
the Arctic Ocean:
We had a brief stop in Barrow just long enough to get our e-mail, a
few parts and bump into a fellow boater during supper. It was great
timing that we met some marine researchers both based locally and
from other areas including some women from a Swedish research team
that will be getting on the Swedish ice breaker when it arrives. We
also met Gary Ramos of the boat "Arctic Wanderer"
(http://www.ArcticWandering.com) who is attempting to
circumnavigating the North Pole.
We continued south west to Bering Strait, where we effectively start
our round the world trip. Going there now will save us coming up
through ice to do it next year. Saw many whales in the Chukchi Sea.
Fog is a constant companion although it did lift enough for us to see
Asia and Alaska at the same time and to get some good pictures of the
Diomede Islands on both sides of the Russia US border. A lot of
Russian chatter on channel 16, but no English and as usual up north
it is often difficult to get weather information .
We were a long stones throw (7.5 km) from the Russian Island of Big
Diomede. It has been foggy most of the time since Barrow so were
lucky it lifted in the Strait to give us some pictures.
We have crossed the Arctic circle twice on July 31 first at 2:00 AM
then again coming back at 7:40 PM for the third time in 24 days. We
had no sunset from July 7 to July 29 when we were heading south of
Barrow. Barrow will have their first sunset in a while on Aug second
which is 1 day before we get there so we won't see 24 hour sunlight
again on this trip.
We made the trip of 965 nm from Barrow to the Bering Strait and back
in excellent time of exactly 5 days with favorable conditions. Went
past Barrow last night at 22:30 but after turning the corner and
heading east 5 miles our motor stopped and we changed fuel filter but
then it didn't start so we anchored in 25' water and 1kt current. One
person stay on watch because plenty of ice moving. In the morning we
phoned the supplier in Vancouver and repaired our problem.
The latest ice reports say the ice isn't as good as we had hoped from
here to Tuk so we are taking time to stop again at Barrow and send
emails.
All is well on board.
Ben, Brad & Kevin
<http://www.idlewildexpedition.ca/>www.idlewildexpedition.ca
