A Meeting with Destiny
In 2016 Shimshal won the coveted OCC’s Vasey Vase which is an award for a, “voyage of an unusual or exploratory nature”. We received it for our attempted circumnavigation of Milne Land. In 2017 it was awarded to Andy and Janice Fennymore-White for their circumnavigation of Svalbard and passage down the East Coast of Greenland in a difficult ice year.
Andy and Janice were aboard their boat Destiny in Greenland when the award was made and so Sally collected it on their behalf and promised to deliver it to them this summer. A rendezvous with Destiny was thus one of the imperatives for this year’s cruise.
We found Destiny at 67N swinging at her anchor beneath an imposing 700m buttressed mountain. The anchorage was uncharted and does not appear in any Pilots or cruising notes. It was thus the perfect venue for the handover of the Vasey Vase.
Bits of silverware have no place on busy cruising yachts and so John Franklin had sculpted and engraved an exquisite plaque out of African hardwood and, over afternoon tea, Sally handed over the plaque which will soon be displayed on one of Destiny’s gleaming bulkheads.
The award was, of course, just an excuse for a get together and fine food, great company and conversation were the inevitable consequences. Coffee and cod were exchanged as well as the usual intelligence about technical stuff such as SSB propagation, anchor buoy innovations and ski mountaineering destinations in North America.
After two nights at anchor with Destiny we slipped out of the bay and pottered south to Sisimiut where we knew fresh stores, internet access and laundry awaited us.
