Blog Archive

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Sitting out a gale

A gale was forecast from the NW so instead of pushing all the way south to Hamborgerland we nipped in behind Cruncher Island and got the anchor firmly down at the third attempt.

Nicely sheltered from the NW this anchorage does not appear in any of the published guides but was a recommendation from Bob Shepton. It's a stunning place surrounded by steep mountains and sheer rock walls. All liberally coated with snow. Pancakes of ice were forming on the sea's surface and we measured the surface water temperature at -0.3.

Ashore the insects had hatched and we got our first assault of the season. But the rewards were spectacular with stunning views in all directions. The flowers were advancing from spring into summer adding colour to the dessicated tundra of moss and lichen.

By afternoon the wind had arrived and we were soon dancing around our anchor as we were hit by gusts to 33 knots. The anchor though was firmly dug in and came up the next morning with 200kg of kelp hanging off it.