When I got up at noon after a 4h rest, the wind and waves had picked up, but on the plus side at least some of my clothes had dried to some extent.
THE PLAN FOR THE DAYS AHEAD – CURRENT VERSION (CHANGES LIKELY)
The plan now is to row again for 6 miles from tomorrow, Tuesday, morning at around 8 or 9am to a spot on the South coast of Victoria Island that has massive cliffs, protecting us from Wednesday’s expected Northwesterlies with gusts up to 50 knots (57.5 mph/92.6 kph). Alternatively we could leave our current location at the same time but row for 9 miles to the first of many islands in that area. The 6 mile option is probably preferable as best protection against the winds.
HARD ROWING FROM WEDNESDAY NIGHT
From early noon or early afternoon tomorrow until Wednesday evening or late night we sit out the Northwesterlies, anchored safely. Then we expect there to be tailwinds for at least two days. We will plan to row hard for 12h or so, then switch to a rotation system that will allow at least one, possibly two of us at a time to get a nap, before switching back to rowing at full steam 12h later or so. Hopefully we can keep this going for two days or more. It’s hard to tell. Chances are we’ll have to allow for slightly more rest time.
PAULATUK HERE WE COME
It would be great to finally start getting some proper mileage in and get closer to our next big stop, Paulatuk, on the other (Southern) side of the Northwest Passage, which is currently still just under 300 miles (345 statue miles/555 km) away. In a perfect world we’ll reach the settlement (official population in 2016: 265) within the next two weeks. We have already emailed the local supermarket to make sure they are open and stocked up. (Not heard back yet.)
AND FROM THERE: THE BEAUFORT SEA
From there it will be around 150 miles (173 statute miles/278 km) until we reach the Beaufort Sea.
CHANGE OF PLANS, WE ARE ROWING NOW
At 11:30pm Leven decided to ignore the weather reports which were predicting strong adverse winds and trust his eyes and instincts. The sea and winds had calmed down and there was nothing (apart from the forecasts) to suggest that this would change very soon. So we all got ready to row.
