Our way westwards remains blocked by the last remaining ice challenge In southern Greenland. Hot from the Sirocco winds of Mallorca we have just received ice charts and satellite imagery with Richard's spin on them. All fjords and anchorages to the south of us are barred by ice of 2-6/10 keeping them completely out of bounds. Thankfully we do not have major constraints on our time so we just need to be patient until the widow opens. We have plenty of fuel, food and water so can wait.
One of the nagging anxieties we have had in the back of our minds is Wales. Wales is a massive sheet of ice that has been drifting steadily down from the head of the fjord since we arrived. I haven't mentioned Wales before because she is so big that she could, potentially, slew across the narrows between us and the sea and block our exit to the open sea for weeks, or perhaps months to come! With nowhere to go we have just had to accept that remote possibility but today things changed. Powys, Ceredigion and a big chunk of Bettws Cadwallader broke off and passed, without incident through the narrows. Now that the risk of incarceration has passed it feels safe to blog about it!
Talking of icebergs our pet iceberg, now christened Houdini, remains chained to a rock 30 metres to our starboard. He's a slippery customer. Three times he has either shed a limb or rolled to slip his noose and when he does he comes marching towards SHIMSHAL with menace in mind. Three times we have caught him in the act of escape and hauled him back to his kennel where we have chained him and watched him cry tears of ancient meltwater. We have abused him in every way and have even rowed out to amputate a digit to add to the gin and tonic. Every now and then he rolls and shakes his chain and tugs on our mooring line but with every antic he diminishes. Now he is a virtually skeleton burger having shed huge amounts of his bulk since we arrived. Tomorrow we will set him free.
