Getting somewhere

Today was a day spent getting to the next town. We have one more stop to make before we head out to the open ocean and make some time toward Nuuk, and that is the ghost town of Ittivut. We made it about half way today and are anchored in a little bay called Tunilliatsiaap Nunaa that is barely large enough for our boat. It is almost completely landlocked and well protected. If you go to the main website www.svprecipice.com and click on "where we are" and then go to "satellite view" you can see the little spot we are in. We have been enjoying taking these little inside passages and the challenges they present navigating. Today, just as we got to the hard part, the fog set in.

Last night after dinner we found that another sailboat had snuck in. We went over to visit and got invited on board. The vessel was BestevearII, a Dutch yacht from Amsterdam owned and crewed by none other than Gerard Dijkstra - the man who designed the Maltese Falcon among other boats. We got a tour. It is hard to compare a 53 foot aluminum racer cruiser to a 30 foot heavy displacement wooden cruiser. They were making 200 mile days on the way over to Greenland from Europe. As soon as they found out Deb's parents were Dutch, they started to play Dutch bingo. For those who don't know, Dutch bingo is a game where all Dutch people must find out how they are related to each other, or at least know someone mutually. It is a compulsory tradition I have endured countless times since joining forces with Deb.

One more thing, as we go further north it gets trickier to send email through the HAM radio. I may end up missing days depending on propagation and frequency use. The villages here use something close to my main frequency so it is difficult to send when I am close to a town.

We will sleep good tonight if our anchor holds.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Have you driven in a Fjord lately?

Today we left Qaqortoq with heavy hearts. We met a family with kids and ended up spending two evenings with them, delaying our departure for a day. We had a great time getting to know them. Lasse and his beautiful wife Tara and their three kids were here from Denmark so that Lasse could be a fill-in dentist. They were having a great adventure in Greenland and we got to share some of it with them. It was hard to leave. We sailed/motored for five hours up a couple of fjords to the town of Nassauq. This town has a completely different feel than Qaqortoq in that it is less geared up for tourism. A couple of people came over to greet us upon our arrival here, and I immediately took my chart out and started asking questions about my next day's route which wasn't making any sense according to the pilot book. They all knew exactly where I had to go, and let me know I was missing the correct chart. (This all happened in sign language) They told me where to buy it, and when I found the store was out of that chart, the captain of one of the whaling ships sold me his copy. Our sailing today required that we work our way through a spot of loose ice pack. With everyone on deck using poles, we made it through with nary a scratch.
Today was another day of beautiful sunshine that made the icebergs gleam. Tomorrow we will spend more time driving in a Fjord.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

UPDATE ON MAIN SITE

The main site www.svprecipice.com has been updated with pictures galore. We are safely in Qaqortoq, getting ready to depart for Narsauq on our way north to Nuuk. We have found showers, internet, water and fuel. (In order of importance).

I appreciate the comments left here. We are thankful for the friends we have.

Getting ready for land.

Last night we got a visit from three whales. We think they were fin whales. We could hear them through the hull before we saw them. I tried shining the spotlight on them and they disappeared. Later in the night on Deb's watch a single whale much larger than the others swam alongside the boat for awhile, crossed over right in front of the boat (Deb was worried we would hit him) and then swam alongside on the other side of the boat. Today we saw a pod of pilot whales. It is a real treat to hear whales breathing while you are sailing along at night. We spent a good chunk of this afternoon trying to identify them in our marine book. We haven't seen whales for awhile. We wonder if it is because we are closer to land.

Land is less than 100nm away. We cant see it yet, but we hope to tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow the wind will hold up and allow us to make landfall later in the day. Otherwise we will be hove to waiting for daylight as we try not to approach unfamiliar harbors in the night.

We have been sending in a position report to the Greenland Island Commander. I sent our first report at 3 in the afternoon. You are supposed to send a report every six hours, so I skipped the six PM report. I immediately got an email telling me to send an updated report ASAP! The whole email was in CAPS. So, my first contact from someone from Greenland was getting chewed out. I am not even sure that we are required to file these reports as a non-commercial vessel. I haven't ever heard of anyone filing one before, but the rules don't exclude vessels under a certain size or tonnage like most countries. I am glad they take their system seriously. Maybe they don't know CAPS MEANS YOU ARE YELLING. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come in dealing with Greenland officialdom. Hmmm.

Tomorrow will be a day of taking showers and washing things and getting ready for landfall. We have plenty of water to get us there so we are going to splurge a little. We have used 26.5 gallons of water on this trip out of a total tankage of 100 gallons. We wash our dishes in salt water and spray them off with fresh water using a mist sprayer. If we boil potatoes, the water used goes into something else. Deb is really good at conserving water.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

A Different Day . .

Today we are sitting still going exactly nowhere. The sea is glass and the sails hang limp. It is hard to believe we are in the same ocean as yesterday. We are cleaning up and repacking things that shifted over the last two days, and getting some rest. Our tracker is apparently not updating. South Greenland may be on the eastern edge of the Spot trackers arctic coverage, or something may be wrong with the tracker itself. I replaced batteries yesterday and got a low battery alert already today. The batteries are supposed to last 14 days and usually do. I replaced them again this afternoon and hopefully it will work. Otherwise, we are all healthy and Precipice is seaworthy - just waiting for wind.

We have had six days of no or light wind. If we had motored those days, we would have burned around 80 gallons of fuel. We brought 50 gallons overall. It is really tempting to motor through the light days, but you never know if you are going to have one light day, or ten.

We needed this break today. Hopefully the winds pick up again tomorrow.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

This is why boats get left in New Zealand

We have been beating to weather (heading into the wind) for two days now. This is the worst sailing direction for the crew. You lean way over, and you bash into the waves. It makes it hard to sleep, eat, and pee. Everyone is tired. We reefed down the mainsail last night as the wind picked up and the intensity picked up all day today until we were at 25kts sustained. At least it has been a steady wind with few gusts. The waves have moved to consistent bus size waves. The rules of waves say that every 1300 waves or so one wave will be 2 times higher than the rest, and every 10,000 waves one will be 3 times bigger than the rest. When the two timer comes it washes over the entire boat and blasts against the dodger windows. When the 3 timer comes it stops us dead in our tracks. All 22,000 lbs of boat stoped like you hit something. This morning when that happened the pantry locker popped opened and about 30 jars, cans, and storage containers fell on the floor. Thankfully none of them broke, even though they made a frightful noise. Another sailing vessel, Sereia (www.svsereia.com), calls sailing like this more like being in a car crash. Many boats sail the mostly downwind course from South America to New Zealand and get left there because the only way home is either continue around the world meaning the Suez canal and pirates, or slog to windward all the way back up the Pacific. Many choose to sell there boats there.

We will be glad for a wind shift that allows us to sail in a more comfortable fashion. We are glad to be moving though.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

We are halfway

It took us ten days to get here, and it looks like we will be out here for at least another ten days. This voyage has been characterized by light winds which slow us down. Last night the winds picked up and this morning they changed direction. We went from beating to windward (heading into the wind and bashing into the waves) on one tack to doing the same thing on another tack (leaning from one side to another). This kind of sailing is where the boat leans the most and is the least comfortable to sail. You learn to do everything sideways.
We haven't seen the sun for a couple of days, so our solar panel output has been low. I have been charging the batteries by running the motor (which we all hate) for about an hour every day. Yesterday the batteries didn't seem to get as much of a charge so I pulled the engine cover and checked the belt. It didn't seem loose enough to cause a low charge condition, but I snugged it up anyway. I fired the engine up and ten min later I wasn't getting any charging at all. Assuming my alternator died, I dug out the spare alternator only to find the belt had broken on one side and flipped off. I dug out my spare belt n(one of three) and replaced it. The old alternator charged like a champ. Doing this little thing was tiring because it all was done at a 20 deg angle.
Yesterday we did 64 miles. The day before that we did 116 miles. That is the difference wind makes in our days. Our 116 mile day is our third longest mileage day record. Our record day under sail is 124 miles. Our next longest day was 121 miles. Our 116 mile day was notable in that we had set the self steering gear the night before and didn't touch the tiller for the entire 116 miles. We changed sail twice in that time, the whole time our windvane did all the steering. It was nice to be able to change sail with Deb and not have to worry about the tiller for once, or wake up Jannelle. We like our windvane.
Our book supply is quickly being eaten up. I read a Nancy Drew mystery that Bianca had read. Similar plot to the Tom Swift stories I read as a boy, except for Nancy is always kissing her boyfriend when Tom Swift would be devising some mechanical plan to save the day.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

All canvas is up

The wind has died down again to a slight breath of wind. The sea is calm. We have all our sails up. We are blazing along at a whopping 2 knots. I have forgotten Speedy Gonzalas' brother name. Slowpoke something. That is us right now. The slowest boat in the whole Atlantic. Jannelle helped me do sail changes this morning and shake out the reef. She is getting big and strong. Nice to have the help.

We have wind.

Our life on passage is dominated by several big things that you are probably sick of hearing about now:

1. Wind: Do we have wind? What direction? Is it steady? Wind is the biggest part of our day. Closely related,
2. Waves: Are they big? Are they breaking? (The top part collapsing into foam) Where are they coming from?
3. Food: When is breakfast? When is lunch? When is Dinner? What is it? Without good food this would be no fun.
4. Boat: Is the water staying outside? Is anything breaking? Is it moving? Is the slimy side pointed down (mostly)?
5. Watch: Who is supposed to be on watch? Will the radar work with the waves/weather? Where are my scooby snacks? The person on watch and only the person on watch has access to the snack locker.
6. Sails: What sails are up? Are they set right? Do they need to be reefed? Are they chafing?
7. Clothing: Is my suit dry yet? Have you seen my (hat, gloves, headlight, watch, socks (socks are cannibalistic)?
8. Reading material: Have you seen my (book, magazine, guide, chart, journal)?
9. Heater: Is the heater working? Should we turn it up, down, open window? Is it smoking/set right?
10 Sleep: The more the better.

Just about anything that is happening on passage has to do with one of these ten things.

At about midnight last night the wind finally picked up. On watch change Deb and I reefed (reduced the sail area) the mainsail so that we could sail more comfortably and safely with the wind we were having. It felt so good to finally be moving again. The wind has been blowing from about 15-20kts from the east since then. It has slowly been decreasing in intensity all day, but we will keep our reef in overnight just to keep things simple. If the wind blew like this on Lake Michigan, the lake would be pissed and blasting us with suburban to bus size waves. Here on the ocean we have been getting refrigerator size waves with the occasional suburban thrown in.

Rolland's Handy wave scale:

Microwaves: About the size of a microwave. Usually choppy. Precipice hardly feels these.
Refrigerator waves: 3-5 feet. These waves make Precipice roll a little, feels like you are sailing.
Suburban waves: 6-9 feet. About the size of a Chevrolet Suburban. These waves move us around inside the boat. We start to brace ourselves on things.
Bus waves: 9-12 feet. Now we are starting to live differently inside the boat. Water comes on deck and spray goes over the side. You get wet on watch. We tether in at night.
House waves: 12-15 feet. We tether in day or night and crawl on deck. Doing just about anything on the boat takes effort. Cooking gets tricky.
Apartment waves: 15-25 feet. We have only dealt with apartment waves once on Lake Michigan. It was work. Probably only simple things could be cooked.
Condominium waves: 25-35 feet. At this point we would have reduced to storm sails and would probably have deployed a sea anchor.

So far our experience with ocean waves it that they are much longer in period. Lake Michigan waves are square. A six foot wave in Lake Michigan pounds the front of your boat. On the ocean we have found you can sail up and down a six foot wave.

Last night it started raining. I decided to set up our rain catching gear we made just before we left. I got half way through setting it up and it stopped raining. I will get faster at it though. Next time I will get it completely set up when it stops raining.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Just enough wind . .

We have just enough wind to keep a steady heading. This makes us happy. We have gotten a schedule down now and are mostly acclimated to life on passage. We are reading the lonely planet guide to Greenland and learning about places we can go. Jannelle and Bianca have an amazing ability to sleep 15 hours a day on passage. Deb and I wish we could, but watch duty and boat chores call.

We have a really good sealife manual and we have been identifying the different birds and sealife we see along the way. Deb really enjoys the Storm Petrels. They are a quick little bird that follow the mastlight at night. They chatter pleasantly back and forth as they play around the boat.

Deb read "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway to the girls which they really enjoyed. Jannelle says that the book is really about how much a human can endure. I just finished reading "The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole 1818-1909" by Pierre Berton. It sounds boring, but is well written and is anything but. I have read about almost every person mentioned in the book, but this book puts the whole picture together and is in much more depth. I would reccommend it.

If you have tried to send us email, our HF Email account is set so that it only allows emails in to addresses I have sent to already. If I have sent you email and you cannot reply, try using the same address that I sent it to. This happens when people use their gmail account to access work emails. I send email to your work address and you reply from gmail. It wont make it to me. I will change the settings when I get bandwidth and the airmail site is back up. I may also be trying another HF radio email provider - something I will set up when I get to civilization.

Every night we talk on the Ham Radio to the radio net in St. John's NL. It is a nice connection to have. We have made good friends in Newfoundland.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

To much, to little, wrong way . . .

There is a negative saying among sailors that there is either too much wind, too little wind or it is from the wrong direction. We have had our share of too little wind, and all day today the wind was coming from where we wanted to go requiring us to take a tack away from the wind. Later in the day the wind died down. So we had too little wind coming from the wrong direction. I just got off my watch and the wind has picked up, and it is from a slightly more favorable direction and we are on the move again after sitting still for two hours.

We were without heat last night and today because the fuel pump for the heater failed. I just happen to have a spare and spent four hours installing it this afternoon and then rebuilding the old one with the rebuild kit I have had around for about three years. So now I have a spare for the spare.

Anyway, I haven't slept more than four hours in two days so I am a bit tired. Glad to be off my watch and time for bed. I hope the wind decides on a direction.

Everyone is glad to be warm again. It got down to 46 in the cabin. The water temp here is 38. Jannelle is slowly getting over seasickness . Bianca still hates when the boat leans. We are all getting used to being on the water again.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Still no wind . . .

Our sails have hung limp for three days. This means that school has started up again. Jannelle is back to learning about Central American countries and Bianca is working on her math. Deb is back to being a teacher and I have been fixing and improving things. This is one of those things about sailing that non sailors don't hear much about. You spend less than 1% of your time in gales and heavy weather, but spend about 30% of your time in very light to no wind. This is not typical North Atlantic weather, but one thing we have found in 20 years of sailing is that there is no such thing as typical weather. Our trip up the St. Lawrence river was supposed to be a nice downwind course as the prevailing winds are "always" from the southwest. We had east winds most of the way. We did a lot of tacking, waiting, and used our engine carefully and ended up making the 3100 mile trip burning less than 100 gallons of diesel. We are on a sailing adventure, which flies in the face of modern life. On the one end we could have taken the money we have invested into our floating home and flown in a jet to all the places we have been and eaten out and lived in hotels and probably come out about even money wise. But we firmly believe that we would not have come out even experience wise. On the other end we could have a vessel with no engine or electronics and be a purely sail vessel that burns lamp oil in its navigation lights. As with everything there is compromise. We use our engine for safety. We use the engine to avoid bad weather, and to get out of situations where the vessel would be endangered without it's use. Otherwise we try to sail as much as possible. This is a sailing vessel.

Dolphins and other things . . .

So our day of no wind with cold rain, drizzle and fog turned into a night of no wind, cold rain, drizzle and heavy fog. This morning the sun came out and so we have a gloriously beautiful morning with no fog, and no wind. We are starting to think that the guy who is rowing across the Atlantic Ocean right now had the right idea. He is probably further out than we are by now. Just because we have claimed this particular spot on the Atlantic to fly our limp sails doesn't mean that the journey is at a halt. Right now the girls are outside watching a pod of 30 dolphins play around our boat. Deb is catching up on sleep after doing the 0330-0730 four hour morning watch. I am on watch soaking up sunshine and moving things around so they dry out in the sun. This is part of being on the adventure in a sailboat.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Just like that we are out of wind.

We had great wind all day yesterday and all night last night. We couldn't use the wind last night because we parked the boat due to low visibility. We would really like to avoid hitting that frozen water. So while we sat there with our sails set opposite of the tiller going nowhere, the beautiful wind died down. The wind is gone, but the waves have not settled down. This leaves us bobbing around with all the grace of a discarded Styrofoam cup. We have just enough wind to sort of keep a direction going. We know we are moving because our dingy is still behind us. Hats off once again to our self steering gear that seems to be able to steer in wind we can barely feel. The girls are learning to do more and more on their watches. Today they learned how to operate the radar system. One of us is always up on deck when they are on watch but the day will come when they handle their own watches. These are conditions we really don't like, second only to motoring somewhere. It is rough enough so that is difficult to do anything like read or journal so everyone is catching up on sleep (which is also difficult to do.) The wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow, but the light wind conditions are supposed to come and go for at least the next 5 days.

This kind of stuff is what sailing is all about. My brother mountain climbs. To me mountain climbing is about being in control at all times. Sailing is all about managing that which you cannot control. We are getting plenty of that right now.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Just like that we are out of wind.

We had great wind all day yesterday and all night last night. We couldn't use the wind last night because we parked the boat due to low visibility. We would really like to avoid hitting that frozen water. So while we sat there with our sails set opposite of the tiller going nowhere, the beautiful wind died down. The wind is gone, but the waves have not settled down. This leaves us bobbing around with all the grace of a discarded Styrofoam cup. We have just enough wind to sort of keep a direction going. We know we are moving because our dingy is still behind us. Hats off once again to our self steering gear that seems to be able to steer in wind we can barely feel. The girls are learning to do more and more on their watches. Today they learned how to operate the radar system. One of us is always up on deck when they are on watch but the day will come when they handle their own watches. These are conditions we really don't like, second only to motoring somewhere. It is rough enough so that is difficult to do anything like read or journal so everyone is catching up on sleep (which is also difficult to do.) The wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow, but the light wind conditions are supposed to come and go for at least the next 5 days.

This kind of stuff is what sailing is all about. My brother mountain climbs. To me mountain climbing is about being in control at all times. Sailing is all about managing that which you cannot control. We are getting plenty of that right now.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Some wind found us

Today is just about the complete opposite of yesterday. The air temp is 8 deg. (48F), the water temp is 5 deg. (42f). Fortunately our heater is working great and it is 20 degrees inside (70f0. The wind has continued to pick up and move from the south to south/southwest. The wave heights are 2-3 meters (6-9ft) with the occasional 4 meter (12foot) wave thrown in. The plus side is that with the wind we can sail quite nicely and the waves are following waves so they seem less ferocious. We are now moving around 5kts, about as fast as we would like to go as we keep our eyes peeled for ice. We haven't seen any ice for about 150nm. Going with the wind gives us the advantage that any ice we are likely to meet will be the bigger more visible pieces with the smaller pieces trailing behind. In theory. We are all feeling pretty good except for Jannelle who has fed the fishes for dinner. She is keeping down liquids though, so she will be all right. Our windvane self steering gear really is a blessing in conditions like this, freeing us up to concentrate on our lookout. Depending on the visibility tonight we may heave to (part the boat) to avoid sailing without seeing where we are going. Deb has been cranking out great meals even in the rougher weather. Thanks to Carl who gave us the Moose steaks. We all like moose.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

Vacation Day

The wind never picked up until about 9:30PM tonight. We spent the day in t-shirts and soaked in the sun. It was about 75 degrees with no wind. We felt like it was a vacation day. I programmed the SSB frequencies for Greenland and did some reading about Greenland. Deb did some reading and organizing, and the girls listened to a book on CD that was given to us by Ted Blades, the radio show host who interviewed us last month.

The water is crystal clear, but 48 degrees cold.

The wind picked up from the south, so right now we are sailing wing on wing (one sail on either side, front sail held in place with a spinnaker pole). Precipice is a good downwind boat, something a gaff rig is really good at. We have about 5kts of wind and are making 3.5kts which feels fast after being becalmed for a bit. The moon isn't as bright as the last few nights, and we are moving faster so we have the radar on full time and are keeping a close watch. We really don't want to hit any bergy bits.

Grace and Peace,

Rolland for the Trowbridge family

Sailing isn't for the impatient

We spent last night becalmed, in the fog. We have turned North towards Greenland after spending 24 hours motoring. We were able to sail, barely, for the afternoon but the wind slowly died down until there was nothing after dark. Then the fog set in, so we would have hove-to anyway because we do not feel comfortable moving unless we can spot ice. Our Cape Horn windvane works as advertised. As long as there was wind in the sails, it would steer. The self steering in light wind ability takes what is normally a difficult chore - chasing the wind when it is light, and makes it a simple matter of keeping watch. Last night Deb saw two different pods of Dolphin and several ships on the horizon. We have been keeping company with a good size iceberg that is traveling south while we travel north. I am sure that the guy who is rowing across the Atlantic is making better time than us. Even though we aren't moving very fast we are comfortable and are eating well. This is our home, so being becalmed is like spending a weekend at home for normal people (whatever that means). The wind picked up this morning and we were making a blazing 3kts over ground (1200 feet below us) but the wind has died down again. Hopefully it will pick up again after lunch.

We are Off!

Precipice has left the building. We sailed out of Old Perlican today at 1:30 PM. We are presently motoring due to absolutely no wind, which we detest. Hopefully the wind will pick up tomorrow. Deb cooked a absolutely fabulous meal of moose strips steaks and everybody is doing good. The weather for the first half of the trip looks like it will be light winds and calm seas. Hopefully this holds out and we don't get hit by any gales in the last part of the trip.

The spotter in now active, and our website has been deemed virus free by Google so it is safe to go there.

Just go to: www.svprecipice.com and click on "where we are" to see our progress. I will be sending in updates as long as radio propagation allows me to send in emails.

Grace and Peace.

Rolland for the Trowbridges

We are on the move.

Precipice is on the move again. After spending nine months tied up in the same place the process of leaving was just as, if not more, painful than leaving Grand Rapids. We had made great friends here - and they were extremely difficult to leave also. We did the same thing we did last time we left; we said our goodbyes and then sailed a short distance to another port to sort through all our stuff. Just like last time we had acquired more thing than we could possible bring along leaving us with four days of difficult decisions. We are ready to go now, but our weather router tells us to stay. Something about gale force winds and 12-18 foot seas. I guess we will listen to him. Our destination is Greenland. or Iceland or maybe we will turn south. Or not.

In the meantime, our website got hacked. Actually, my site provider got hacked. I would clean my site and then get hit again. I have now changed providers, and my site is clean but I am still waiting for Google to proclaim it clean.

In the meantime, I will be updating here.

You can follow our spotter when it gets activated:

Our Present Location

You can see our past route:

Our Past Route

We hope to have a better weather window by July 7, maybe 10.

Thanks to Patric Collins of the Artful Dodger II for the above picture showing Precipice and Rachael's boat Chanty tied up in Quidi Vidi.