We sailed away from Nome in a building northerly and made great speed towards Nunivak Island where we knew that we had to shelter before the next low pressure would hit us. And after three days we reached the south side and the wind decreased and we anchored for the night. The weather forecast showed that we would see a strong Easterly gale the next morning so when we woke up we spent the day cruising around the shallow uncharted bay in search for a better anchorage. We found a small stretch of land that would give us just enough shelter from the East but that meant that we had to go all the way into the beach to only three meters depth. It was a beautiful evening and we decided to take the dinghy ashore for some exploring. The barren beach was lined with tall beautiful sand dunes which reminded me of the Swedish West coast and beyond them a vast marsh land appeared. We waded through the bogs for about an hour in the direction of a few moving dots on the hillside ahead which we assumed to be Muskox. Halfway there 
we encountered a large furry muskox all by itself. It did not move as we slowly approached it and we soon realized that one of its legs was badly injured. We moved quite close to it but when we realized it was trying to get away on it´s bad legs we backed off and watched it from a distance. It was sad to see the magnificent animal abandoned by it´s herd and we figured that it would be dead in a matter of days. We continued to explore an abandoned summer hunting camp complete with sweat lodge before we headed back to the boat to sleep for the night. At dawn we where abruptly woken by the terrible noise and motion of huge waves washing over the boat. The wind had turned to the East and we swung into it by the anchor, but a large swell came in from the South and at our shallow anchorage that meant huge breaking surf waves washing over the boat from the side. The waves rapidly increased in height and force and the boat was knocked over with only a few meters between the mast and the surface. We fearfully realized that in the time it would take to raise the anchor onto the boat we would most likely end up on the Beach so we decided to put another anchor out to align the bow against the waves or in a worst case scenario we could sacrifice it in order to bring up our main anchor. But with both chain and line in the water it soon turned in to an uncontrolled situation where the anchor line got stuck in the propeller killing the engine and pinning the rudder. At this point we were seriously afraid to loose the boat or worse and while Morgan got into the dry suit Nick and I rigged a blade on to the boat hook and managed to pull out and cut the anchor line. With the adrenaline pumping we decided to abandon our main anchor and 35 meters of chain and tied a line and a fender to it and set a mark on the GPS for later retrieval. At full RPM we motored out into the waves until we reached deeper waters where the waves no longer broke as severely. We got some heavily reefed sails up and headed for a cape 20 nautical miles away that would shelter us from the Southeast where we hoped that the waves wouldn’t be as bad. A few hours later the wind dropped as we came around the cape and we managed to anchor with our third anchor. With the wind howling in the rig we set up the computer and watched at least 4 movies in a row in order to forget the wind, waves and our traumatic morning. The next morning the wind had changed to the north and we sailed back in heavy wind to retrieve our main anchor. At the scene of the close call there was no floating fender to be found. With vague hopes of ever finding the anchor we began to drag the third anchor in circles around the GPS point trying to hook the chain from the bottom but when darkness fell we where tired and out of ideas.
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On our return to Resolute we experienced some equipment failure that we needed to deal with before heading back out into Arctic waters. So while we sailed through the stiff winds of Parry Channel we began to organize the complicated task of having a package shipped up to the Arctic in any reasonable sort of time. A solid logistics chain would be paramount in making sure we would not be delayed in our time sensitive expedition.
Even with the advent of satellite phone and email onboard we found that organizing a complicated parts order and shipping to this remote part of the world just wasn’t possible, but after a few calls we had the most amazing team working tirelessly to research and bring us the needed equipment.
After localising the part Edvin’s father, Lars, drove across Sweden to pick up and deliver the parts to FedEx’s international terminal who would send it to Nicks father in Montreal, Bernard, who would then drive to Ottawa where a good Pilot friend of ours would ensure the shipment to Resolute via his airline. It was a solid three day plan which in it self is amazing regarding that the normal shipping alternatives would take over 1 week. We where thrilled over the generosity of our friends and family as well as the beautiful logistics chain they had put together.
In spite of all this effort we where saddened when we learned that the package did not arrive this morning because FedEx had lost it and had no record of it. So the wheels where set in motion again and this time the parts were localized in Canada and it is now on its way to Montreal again. While we intended on staying here for several days to wait for the ice conditions to change these added shipment days are concerning. We need to be able to make it out of Resolute at any time and are worried about the consequences if we can not.
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Posted in Posts by Edvin on May 11th, 2012
It´s been eight months since we left Belzebub in Newfoundland. After spending a lot of that time behind our computers researching, planning, writting and making new friends we cannot wait to return to the boat and get started.
I left Sweden with more than 60 kg of equipment spare parts and foul weather gear in my luggage. Flying via Iceland the plane followed the same route as we did last summer and seeing the jagged Icelandic coastline though the window brought back good memories. Over the southern tip of Greenland I could see the ice breaking up on the Labrador Sea. By the time we leave in June it will have melted all the way up to Disco bay. Tomorrow I’m meeting Nick in Montreal where we will spend a few days stocking up with supplies before our long drive to Newfoundland.
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Posted in Posts by Edvin on Apr 13th, 2012
Today we are proud to announce a partnership with AXIS Communications who is the world´s leading expert in network video. Our expedition will be documented with a pan tilt camera mounted in the mast top. The camera, an AXIS Q6034-E has HD resolution, night mode and 18x zoom which will help us discover passages through the ice. This model has been out on adventures before as it has been launched into space from Swedish rocket range Esrange and survived both vacuum and temperatures of -90 degrees Celsius. We are confidant that the camera will survive our trip even thoe we promised to treat it rough.
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Posted in Posts by Edvin, Uncategorized on Feb 2nd, 2012
Finally time to edit video !
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Posted in Boat, Posts by Edvin on Feb 1st, 2012
I just received a mail from our friend Peter Watkins in Newfoundland. Peter has been sending me regular status updates during the winter and this time he attached a couple of pictures of Belzebub in her winter sleep. It really warms my heart to see that she is fine and I am a little surprised that the tarp around her has been holding up against the harsh Atlantic weather. We are truly grateful for Peters support and we are looking forward to meeting him and our beloved boat in May.
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