Blog Archive

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Dodging the weather and finding our way

Dodging the weather and finding our way

Sailing in Greenland without a reliable engine and without access to weather information must have been a nightmare. We have both and are in awe of those pioneers in whose wake we are following.

Of the 'modem pioneers' HW Tilman is the most famous. He cruised this coast 56 years ago in his beloved Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter named Mischief. He did have an engine but, by all accounts, it often didn't work. I don't think he had weather information although he did get occasion ice observations from aircraft. What he definitely didn't have was satellite navigation. Instead he had often to rely on asking local boats where he was.

I can't imagine what it's like to be fog bound off an unknown, ice bound coast with inaccurate charts and the only method of measuring depth was a lead line. Tilman, and all who came before him, felt their way around here with none of the bells and whistles we now take for granted. Even more extraordinary were the Danes who settled the coast in the 1700's and Davis who 'discovered' it in the 1580's. We know too that the Vikings came this way on their way to Newfoundland but, apparently, 40% of the longboats departing Iceland didn't survive.

Of the 'Modern Pioneers' we had the pleasure of meeting Willy Ker at an OCC event a decade ago. By then he was an elderly man but his eyes twinkled when he heard of our plans to come this way. When asked for advice he said simply, "buy my book".

We did, of course, buy his book and even managed to go one step better by acquiring photocopies of his hand annotated charts. He wandered around these waters in his Contessa 32 diligently collecting and collating all the cruising information required to write the first yachtsman' s pilot to Greenland. Thank you Willy.

We now have the benefit of the indispensable Cruising Guide to the Arctic and Northern Waters published in 2014 which will surely encourage more to venture this way.

However, there is now a new source of pilotage information. Intrepid souls such as Bob Shepton, Clive Woodman, Jonathon Maguire and John Andrew have added depth and breadth to the existing literature and either published it on their own blog sites or on Forums such as the Ocean Cruising Club's. A simple search of the OCC website revealed a wealth of information from a dozen or so modern pioneers. With great foresight Sally printed, bound and cross referenced this information so we are cruising here with the combined wisdom and experience on board of many that have gone this way in recent years. A luxury indeed.

The other thing that has made our cruise dramatically more comfortable is access to reliable weather information. We use a subscription service called PredictWind. They take the raw weather data and run it through their prediction model and present it in a way that compares the sources and predictions. We are able to draw down by satellite bespoke forecasts which are updated every day. We have found this of inestimable value for planning and thus far we haven't got caught out or had to labour against unexpected head winds.

Indeed, as I write this, we are snugly anchored in a bright and sparkling anchorage waiting for winds to go through that we saw coming a couple of days ago. We have been able to plan our passage around them and snatch miles as some weather windows open and others close. Our predecessors would, instead, have been out there shivering at the helm.

We are doing what we can to contribute to the literature to make it still easier for those that follow us. We are writing up detailed anchorage and berthing notes and will publish them on both the OCC Forum and the Cruising Association's database. Where possible we are supplementing this with drone photographs of the anchorages.

Sharing knowledge and experiences, made better by digital media, has added significantly to the comfort and safety of our cruise. It has led us to places that we would otherwise have never known about. Long may that spirit of sharing continue.