Featured Image by David Thoreson
"Sailing vessels have destinations, not schedules," an oft repeated adage spoken by experienced sailors of a certain age.
One Ocean has now been home to a team of enthusiastic sailing educators of varying ages for over 135 days, covering 7,000+ nautical miles, and just officially finished the Arctic Circle to Arctic Circle transit of the Northwest Passage. The landscapes and seascapes we have experienced have been worthy of the thousands of images we've now collected. From flat calms to uncomfortable swells; unlimited visibility to zero in all directions; broad reaches of open water to ice choked impossible passages; and so many just amazingly beautiful days and nights it seems impossible and a bit of an understatement to declare how much we all look forward to more of what's just beyond our horizon - all of us, everyday.
Some fifteen years ago, with a somewhat more weathered group of sailors (no disrespect intended to anyone of that 'certain age'), we sailed this same Baffin Bay/Davis Strait passage on S/V Ocean Watch. Sailing conditions during that earlier passage included days I truly never wanted to repeat and mental images I didn't really want to remember. Give me Cape Horn any day over the Davis Strait experience, something I've only thought quietly to myself. It was just not something I wanted to drop into a dinner conversation. No sense spoiling the moment! Fabulous casseroles (crew created) with a warm slice of freshly baked bread (Mike created) shouldn't have to share mental images of mayhem-causing breaking waves rudely chasing Ocean Watch and crew out of the Strait.
Anyone sailing anywhere will be faced with making multiple decisions all of the time. And time sometimes becomes the issue. We are midway through our Pond Inlet to St John's, Newfoundland passage. Baffin Island is one long and very rugged coast flanked across the Baffin/Davis water by Greenland. It's a 1700nm passage known for strong currents, changing weather, enormous icebergs with thousands of small boat-sinking bergy-bits scattered in their wake. The Titanic fell victim to one of these 'Greenland Born' bergs - just to add perspective and anxious drama. The passage can be flat, calm and gorgeous on some days, as we have experienced - and not so nice at other times.
We have looked ahead to our planned stopover ports and compared it to our 'hoped for' schedule to make sure dates and times match. Thanks to Jenn and Tess we have school presentations (in person and online), science presentations and in-person appearances scheduled from here to Charleston and beyond. We're really stretching the 'destination vs schedule' adage to be sure and trying to make it all work.
A week ago the 'long term' forecast was very good for our timing to St. John's with reasonable sailing conditions predicted for the 1700nm transit. There didn't seem to be any doubt about whether we would stop in St. John's for a few days or not. Forecasts have been very good thanks to several different online weather sources, no reason to doubt any of them now. However, the Davis Strait gremlins must have heard the optimistic predictions or they were just turned into my reflections of past events and somehow organized a 'gotcha' bit of drama for us.
A well-organized weather system (actually two of them) looking very much like hurricanes, are heading our way. Predicted winds and wave heights directly on our path are significant for a very broad area - the entire width of the Davis Strait! We have 'eyes on it' and are sorting out some options along the Baffin Coast. ETA for colliding with these systems, 24 hours.
Bob, Jenn and Mike have found what looks to be a protected anchorage close to a small community served by an inland ferry - meaning charted soundings and navigation warnings in the surrounding waterways. Instead of pushing on direct to St. John's we will head for that anchorage, now 120nm along our route (24 hours away) and plan to stay there until these two weather systems roll past. Great news we have the option to hide someplace for a few days. . .better news it appears from our research this is not a 'dry' community. Our distilled spirits locker has been empty for a while. Wine with hurricane, perhaps? The bad news, we will probably miss our planned stop in St. John's, a concession to 'schedules over destinations', with apologies to those crew looking forward to being properly 'screeched in' in the Newfoundland traditional way! Perhaps we can arrange something onboard.