Slept most of Friday and most of today. Got up 3x a day on both days to eat vast amounts of food, drink a ton of hot tea, pop electrolytes, multivitamins, salt. Not much else. Current plan is to start rowing at 4am and reach pick-up location by 12 noon. From there, a fishing boat will pick us up and tow Hermione the last few miles to Paulatuk. Fingers crossed.

Friday the 13th, yayyy. Now, I’m not superstitious. I’m a pretty level-headed guy, but I’d have to lie to say I didn’t spend a moment or two pondering if there is such a thing as a bad omen. MAGIC We had all four of us just witnessed the magic trifecta of nightly light-delights, the Northern Lights, millions of bright stars, and the bioluminescence under the surface of the ocean. Then the fog came back and took all that away from us. It immediately turned much darker without the light from the stars. The sea got choppier and – unusual for thick fog – the wind got stronger. It started to drizzle and the amount of sea spray from the wind and waves increased. ANNOYING AUTOPILOT The autopilot went through a lengthy erratic phase where it would steer a sinus-curve line. Gradually further away from the course until at around 12 […]

We all were ready to row from 9am, as planned, but as usual, the weather hadn’t received the memo, so we ended up waiting until 11am before we finally lifted the anchor and set off on our 48h push all the way to a new anchorage within easy reach of Paulatuk. ONE LAST 48H PUSH BEFORE PAULATUK Once we would be close to that target location, we would contact our ‘mystery rower’ in Paulatuk, who would then get one of the local fishermen to pick us and Hermione up from there. ROCKY COASTLINE Early on we passed very close by some magnificent coastal rock formations with arches, pillars, tiny rock islets and all. CHANGING SCENERY The stark, dark rock cliffs gradually turned into more slanted, softer, lower, beige sandstone cliffs. Just before we reached the football field sized rocky outcrop called House Rock, the sandstone cliffs became steeper, firmer (less […]

Got up at 4:45am from my rest period. Accidentally woke up Mike along the way. Then intentionally woke up Karts, as agreed, as I needed him to switch the WiFi on from his and Leven’s cabin. This accidentally woke Leven up. “JUST OFF CALL WITH PETER” When I was finally logged in at 4:59am, I was eager to get the call with my client over and done with, as my fingers were starting to freeze stiff. But no such luck. At 5:11am I saw a WhatsApp message pop up “Hi”, then, at 5:14am: “Just off call with Peter.” CHEERFUL PETE Cheerful Pete is another freelance consultant with a different skill set to mine, whom they employ. He rents two desks at a fancy office space sharing centre in the City, employs a good looking assistant. Apparently, that justifies a direct open line to the client’s chief executive and a cool […]

One of the dullest days so far, even though it was made much more bearable by beautiful Durdle Door and the general scenery. LOVELY DAY FOR A SWIM With nothing much else to do and considering it had been more than 5 weeks since my last shower, 2 weeks since my last swim and several days since my last proper full-scale wash, I decided to go for a swim and clean myself up a bit along the way. I was also going to wash and hang to dry the clothes I was wearing and change into some saltwater stained clean damp (they never fully dried) clothes. BIRD POO… EEK Exactly as had happened once before, I was about to take off my clothes and suddenly I see floating pools of bird poo mixed with feathers, some driftwood twigs, bits of fleece fabric and what I presume was bird blood drifting […]