Daytime passed with eating, sleeping and tanning in the sun.
LEAVING THE RICHARDSON ARCHIPELAGO
At 7:40pm we got ready to roll. At 7:50 we lifted the anchors. At 8pm we were on our way. We passed the last bit of Edinburgh Island with good views of the DEW Line station (as mentioned, now decommissioned Cold War radar station set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers and ships).
PASSING THE MARKER ISLANDS
The sunset was decent. Not great but okay. After 7 miles we passed the so-called Marker Islands. The wind had been quite strong throughout, sometimes from the front, sometimes from each side or back, with significant waves, sometimes breakers. On many occasions we had to use only the oars on one side to assist the helm with the steering. At times we were making 3 knots or more with a slight head wind, using favourable currents. At other times we barely managed 1.75 knots despite a strong tailwind, while being held back by adverse currents. Overall, relatively challenging rowing.
RED MOON & METEORITE SHOWER
Because of the wildfires, the moon was colored in a beautiful deep red. Interestingly, the American wildfires have the same effect in Old Blighty.
On our way we observed several meteorites rain down on earth. (No pictures, as busy rowing, sorry.) The first one was so bright it illuminated the whole sky. It took almost a minute for the sound of the impact to reach us.
MORE RUSSIAN SUBMARINES
Also, we had another case where our electronics indicated wrong values: They showed the depth go from -50m to -4m in one move, then hover between -4 and -10m for maybe half a minute, then go back to -50m. We couldn’t see any sea floor, the water surface showed no difference from one area to the other, and it is of course extremely unusual to have such sea floor surfaces. We think the instruments struggle when there’s changes in salinity, currents, temperature. It’s funny, though, we got the depth sensor because there is no relying on charts/maps, GPS, or compasses. When the depth sensor fails, especially at night with reduced visibility, it’s not ideal.
ARRIVING AT OUR ANCHORING LOCATION
We arrived at our anchoring location North of a tiny unnamed island (we were expecting strong Southerlies) at 3:15am. It took a while to find a good anchoring spot, because the island is even smaller than Botany Island and there are plenty of huge rocks spread in the waters around it in random patterns. Some sticking out of the water. Some not.
THE FIRST POLAR BEAR WATCH SHIFT
It was time for Karts’ and Mike’s rest time, which meant it was Leven’s and my time to be on watch for pesky furries, anchor slippage, possible contact of the boat with boulders, a deterioration of the weather conditions or currents, or anything other surprises. The rowing had been demanding. Despite reasonably cool temperatures of around 4C (39F) during the row and despite only having worn a thin fleece midlayer over my baselayer, I was very sweaty. During the watch temperatures dropped further. Even with DryRobe, Goretex hardshell, padded fleece jacket above the soaking sweaty clothes I got quite cold for the four hour period.
