While Belzebub is wrestling through the waves and rough weather of the North Atlantic life onboard is getting complicated. The constant heeling and rolling turns everyday chores like cooking, dressing or going to the toilet into small projects that need to be planned in order to save strength. The berths are the only place onboard where we can relax from constantly compensating for the movement of the rough seas so even if it is hard to sleep we spend most of our time off watch lying down. We are moving into energy saving mode where we only exert ourselves for the most vital tasks. When thing needs to be done on deck the energy comes with adrenaline but the fatigue returns even harder after. We are trying to eat as mush as possible and the locker where we keep our heavy weather food along with the 50 bars of chocolate is running low since its just to complicated to cook a proper meal and we are getting lazier and lazier each day. Due to rain and fog everything is soaked or moist including sleeping bags and long johns. But even in such challenging conditions it is still amazing to see how the boat is battling against the waves with water constantly spraying over the windscreen. we are also having a good time complain and making jokes about “our misery”. The weather file has promised better weather in the near future and we cant wait to see the sun again.
Like clock work after several hours of calm weather in the eye of the low the wind shifted direction 180 degrees. The wind picked up to a manageable 15-20 knot head wind with 3 meter waves. We were forced to sail 60 degrees south of our intended destination but we knew it would only be for 12 hours or so. Edvin and I sat in the cockpit commenting on how lucky we had been with the weather so far……..bad idea. Within an hour the wind had significantly increased to 30 plus knots and the seas were building. We struggled to put a third reef in as the boat is only set up with two internal reefing lines, meaning we had to switch the first reefing line to the third reefing point. We quickly realized the many flaws in this plan as Edvin and I struggled to set up the new line with waves breaking over the boat. This is something that will have to be addressed in Greenland. Our new course also brought us towards three 70 meter fishing ships trawling 1.5 mile nets, while it seems easy enough to duck one and head up over another they continually zig zagged and it took hours of navigating and communication with the ships to break through their fishing swath.
Finally we took off and after half a day on a nice beam reach Iceland disappeared behind us. Soon we reached the first of the many upcoming depressions. Since the lows of the northern hemisphere move anti clockwise we had set a westerly course to make use of the easterly winds that are formed north of the anti cyclone. In just a few hours the barometer dropped from 1018 to 998 and the winds and waves increased steadily. We took in reef after reef until there was just a small strip of the jib left, still we made 7 Kt by surfing the 5 meter waves. Sailing downwind is usually a pleasure but when the wind whipped rain and spray from the stern the cockpit of the monsun becomes a very unprotected spot. Occasionally waves broke over the cockpit and we where all wet and cold. For the first time we started up the heater and it was a real relief to curl into a warm dry bed. Now the wind is about to die out and according to the weather file that means that we are in the eye of the low. During the day we will have to negotiate the western part of the depression meaning that we will have the same conditions only this time against us.
The wind increased during the night and we woke up from the scratching and cracking sound of Belzebub being thrown against the docks. The fenders we had didn’t do the job and we had to improvise. After a few raids of the harbour we managed to find 8 tires that we were able to push in between the boat and the docks. And a friendly neighbor whose boat was better protected then ours lent us some fenders. The boat was heeling 10-15 degrees and we where soaking wet from the waves breaking over the docks. The wind continued to increase and when the waves where so high that the boat pushed the fenders over the docks we contacted the harbour captain to get the number for a towing boat that could tow us away from the dock. Luckily the wind came down and we could get a few hours of sleep. The weather report looks promising and we will take off as soon as possible.
In Rejkavik we had a crew change dropping off Jeremy to pick up Morgan our new crew. We did a couple of days of needed repairs and then were again postponed by heavy winds. We are evaluating our time line and are begining to consider a winter strategy examining places we could possibly store the boat or freeze in for the winter. Due to the series of unfortunate delays and the unique passage we are planning on attempting, which requires many more miles to accomplish then the traditional Northwest Passage, we are being realistic about our ability to accomplish this voyage completely this year. We have a couple of low pressure systems to negotiate before we make landfall in Greenland which will slow us down but once we arrive we will make final calculations to see if the remainder of the expedition is still possible this year. Regardless of the result we will have sailed across the highest lattidudes across the North Atlantic to a perfect staging area to make an early start in the spring and explore some of the least visited areas in Northern Greenland.
After a few days of perfect sailing conditions, the wind died out and the sun came back. We where not to happy about starting up the engine but without the constant healing we had the oportunity to fix the boat up and do some security drills. While I was trying to dry out the boat from a foggy night I started the fan for the engine. Nick said that it smelled of diesel so we opened the engine hatch. It was not a pretty sight, a hose had burst and there was diesel everywhere. Jeremy opened the bilge hatch and found something even worse… it was full with over 40 litres of diesel! even our vegtable storage in front of the bilge was covered with diesel. We managed to find enough containers on board to pump out all the diesel and contain the spill to the boat, but it required some effort and a long smelly clean up process.
Unfortunately the wind did not pick up for awhile and we had to motor for some more. Our diesel supply severly depleted from the spill our concerns grew when we realized that two of the jerry cans we had on board were half empty. Needless to say,after a gruelling day of battling headwinds we arrived in Reykjavik running on the fumes of our main tank.
Belzebub is nestled in between four 50 foot expedition boats but she still gets the most looks. After a few days of repairs we will wait for our weather and ice window to make our way to Greenland’s Prins Christian Sound.
