29th August 2023 – Day 26
Tuesday
We remained safely at anchor while the wind howled by. I was rather tired last night and ducked out of playing “…. Head” and retired to my splendid quarter berth for the night. With no urgent need to get up, we all slept in for a while before breakfasting on eggy bread and toast.
There is some minor anxiety creeping in regarding timings. Each day we remain at anchor we need to make up for it in speed or time at sea. It reminds me slightly of my time in Husavik waiting for a weather break to head to Greenland but knowing that time was fading away. I eventually gave, but we don’t have that option. We still have over 1,000 nm to go and we will need to call in at various places to buy diesel and FFV. There is nowhere sensible to overwinter between here and Nome. The tricky question is do we risk pushing off into a deteriorating forecast to make progress, or remain safely here perhaps increasing our need to push on into even poorer weather further down the coast. It is a hard call.
If the wind drops off later this afternoon, Dan and I will take the dinghy to do a spot of fishing. We spent the morning trying to repair a transom leak but the glue specifies 25 degrees C and we were at 5 degrees C with a force 6 blowing over the deck. The glue almost instantly turned to a sticky lumpy gel. We shall discover later if our work was in vain. While Dan and I worked on the dinghy, Arthur shelled haricot beans to make the finest hummus I have ever tasted. Is there no end to his skills?
Life is good and there is excitement in the air!
30th August 2023 – Day 27
Wednesday
We are around half way through our allocated time to complete the voyage but only ticked off a third of the miles. Will has found a few more possible anchoring points along the North Alaskan coast to help segment the journey. We will often be able to hop 60 or 100 nm between weather systems but longer distances can hold us up on anchor waiting for a bigger weather window. We remain anchored in Lady Richardson Bay. There is due to be strong winds on Thursday and our current plan is to head off on Friday. If we can sail, then fuel is less of a problem. If we need to motor then we will need to call into Tuk to fill the tanks.
We got ashore today and went for a long 10 M walk to the Kugaluk River for a spot of fishing, which proved unsuccessful.
After filling up with 200 L of water from a stream and washing a few clothes, headed back to the boat to re-anchor at N69 degrees 33.6245 x W116 degrees 41.0856 behind a protective spit. We deployed two 35 kg Fishermen’s anchors laid in tandem. Safely anchored we retired to super and a game of “….Head”. Tomorrow we will probably explore the three pingo looking mounds on the hill near the boat.
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