In the wake of Vikings – changing ice, weather, and sailing plans

Now that we are safely anchored in the cove of the Prince Christian Sound by the weather station, we can tell the story of the huge detour we took getting here and some of the challenges that we had to overcome.

After having waited in Iceland for the ice on the East coast of Greenland to clear for weeks, we finally saw an opportunity to sail west straight across the Greenland Strait (aka Denmark Strait) to Tasiilaq. We were a little intrigued by the East Coast as it is less visited and inhabited.

It’s also important to note that much of it is uncharted, and the areas that are charted are based on surveys completed over 60 years ago. So whilst the coast appears to have an abundance of sheltered fjords, they may all be shallow, full of rocks, reefs and ice (aka “moving rocks”) – not places to run to for shelter.

We set off from Ísafjórður in Iceland on a breezy Wednesday morning. After a short stint of motoring into headwinds when leaving the fjord, we had a lovely 120° reach, the wind was just a little stronger than the 8-12 knot forecast. As it had looked like perfect weather for our UPS (Doyle Utility Power Sail) we had it flying quickly, but it is a huge 160% overlapping sail that can quickly become overpowered.

As people sailing in colder regions know, the wind is denser here (Boyles Law, but we just use +10-15%) so while it might furl fine in 20-25 knots wind in 30C sun, it is just impossible to furl cleanly in the same wind at 5C. So when the wind kept building, we got the sail mostly furled, but part of the leach remained flapping in the wind, so we quickly had to drop this huge sail and fight to get it stowed on deck. When you release the halyard it’s inevitable that more sail unfurls but fortunately we managed to keep most of the sail out of the sea. 20 minutes later, sitting wet, exhausted and feeling a little terrified as we usually do when something goes wrong we agreed on our first lesson.

Lesson 1: Never fly our UPS in the Arctic if there is any chance of winds gusting over 20 Knots – EVER

For the non/less experienced sailors we should mention the risks of having a large out of control masthead headsail flogging away in strong winds.

Danger to crew: Powerful forces on sheets, halyards, injury from being hit by the sail and sheets and being dragged overboard.

Danger to mast and rigging: Shock forces and getting the sail halyard stuck on the rigging could damage, and potentially dismast the boat, a dismantling or broaching (boat being rolled on its side) could also sink the boat.

Danger to boat: Sheets and sails thrashing about on deck can do a lot of damage to fittings and equipment. If the sail and sheets get in the water they can easily get wrapped around the keel, rudder and propeller, limiting the ability to steer the boat, loss of engine propulsion, damage to prop shafts and gearboxes can also occur.

And in most cases the sail will be damaged and it may require climbing the rig or diving in the water in dangerous conditions to retrieve it.

So for us this was a lucky escape, no damage done.

Great sailing started

We then had some lovely sailing conditions and we settled into life aboard at sea, taking turns to get plenty of sleep. As the forecast had predicted the wind died so on day two we had to start the engine and motor. Not long after we then started getting into the infamous foggy weather off the Greenland coast. We kept the radar on and suddenly the icebergs started appearing around us in the water. At first they were barely visible in the thick fog.

It is an indescribable feeling to see these big chunks of ice floating gracefully by, when you know the damage they can bring.

Navigating with radar in ice

We have a Raymarine Quantum 2 Doppler radar on Snow Bear and have mixed experiences and views on its performance.

We have been impressed by it in the past. In Svalbard last year it performed well identifying ice in the water (even quite small pieces) but conditions there were usually calm flat seas and some of the ice was sea ice rather than glacial. Recently as we approached the Faroe Islands we could identify standing waves in the tidal rips off the headlands and navigate to avoid them. It’s also very reliable identifying other boats and obstacles, triggering alarms and tracking targets.

But this year it has at times been completely blind to some huge icebergs. We understand the challenge: Glacial icebergs are full of air bubbles that scatter the radar signal, and in a less flat sea the bergy bits and growlers get identified as sea clutter and are difficult to clearly differentiate from waves, but we have come across some Ice, really big bits, just do not show up on the radar.. heres an example of one!

We are still experimenting with the configuration settings to improve ice identification and would love to hear from anyone who thinks they have cracked the right combination for the Quantum radars.

We also have a handheld Pulsar Axion XM30S Thermal Imaging camera onboard. Steve bought this as both a safety device (finding a body in the water) and an animal detecting device for photography. It has a range over 1KM. We have read today that it should work well in identifying Ice and have been testing it today on Icebergs floating past the boat. It certainly works but we need to put it to the test it in the fog and rain.

We are also aware that Furuno make a better Ice detecting Radar and Raymarine have their Flir Camera systems that have been proved to work well but these are expensive (and big) systems. This article from Raymarine is an interesting read.

Lesson 2: Never trust radar in Ice. Its no substitute for keeping a physical watch for ice.

New ice charts for East Greenland

We were motoring west in light winds towards Tasiilaq when we checked online for an updated ice chart. The ice had been pushed by the wind and now presented a large barrier between us and our intended destination. It was foggy and night was approaching so not a time to enter and get stuck in a moving ice-field. We made the decision to head south and around the ice overnight. Adding 40 or more miles to our journey.

The wind unexpectedly strengthened overnight and by dawn it was blowing around 25 knots from the east. This lifted the fog for a while raising our spirits a little. However, as we got closer to Tasiilaq we were met by a big ice-field. It was on the move to the west with big icebergs, bergy bits and growlers and we couldn’t see how wide it was, so we didn’t know how much ice to zig-zag through, we certainly couldn’t see any clear leads. There was too much wind to fly the drone to see what was ahead and the wind also meant there was a danger that we could get trapped in this moving ice-field.

So it was decision time and also lesson 3.

Lesson 3: When at Sea, Always have a plan B.

We quickly weighed up our options, 1: Find another harbour or anchorage, 2: Return to Iceland, 3: Risk the ice-field and try to enter Tasiilaq, 4: Continue to Prince Cristian Sound.

In our preparation we had identified all the other charted anchorages and knew that the nearest one (that had a chance of being ice free) was a day and a half away further South along the east coast. To reach it would mean sailing in 40 knots of wind and we would need to pass through icebergs moving south along the coast in poor visability. We didn’t fancy an upwind sail back to Iceland, and didn’t want to risk of navigating through what appeared to be a relatively closed ice-field – remember that Snow Bear is not an ice class vessel.

South into the storm

We decided our best option was to head South to Prince Cristian Sound at least 350NM away. This also came with some some troubles – a low pressure was building and two systems were colliding, this could result in potentially sustained winds 50 knots along coast. Anywhere else we might have taken this fast downwind sail, but this was where all the icebergs were also travelling South.

So we studied the forecasts: If you have read some of our previous posts, we use and trust the quality of weather forecasting and routing that we get from our PredictWind professional subscription. The lower resolution forecast models and ocean data help us to plan our routing with some precision. We used the weather models for wind, waves, gusts and currents to pick a route along the edge of the weather system until we were almost due east of the Sound. This put us 50-60 miles offshore which was perfect. Our charts confirmed we would be off the continental shelf, so hopefully a slightly better sea state. And according to the ice charts well away from any icebergs.

Our maximum wind strength would be below 40 knots, so still galeforce, but manageable.

We needed to be slow or we would arrive before the coastal winds had eased. So we put the third reef in the main, flew a tiny amount of jib and got ready for some big seas further along the track and three miserable and uncomfortable days in a rolling and pitching boat.

We always prefer to keep sailing if we can, rather than heaving to, especially if our route is downwind. It’s much safer in big seas. Our next strategy if we were ever caught in anything bigger would be to use our Jordan Series Drogue. Fingers crossed it will never get to that.

But we were not quite in the clear yet: Shortly after our turn to the South we came across another ice-field. At first we turned East hoping to get around it but it seemed to go on forever. It was fairly open though and we could see some clear leads through so we started the engine and motor sailed through. This is always a strange experience. It is surprising how noisy ice can be: The sea flattens, wind drops and the air feels much colder.

The next tree days were spent hanging on, more hanging on, trying to feed ourselves, trying to get some sleep in a noisy boat that pitched and rolled on a broad reach in 3-4 meter seas. Occasionally the wind died for a few minutes, but this just made the rolling worse, then it came back just as strong and relentless as before.

But the plan worked! Our timing was perfect for the final leg towards the entrance to Prince Cristian Sound.

Just as we neared the Sound we passed a few boats heading East and felt the excitement of a good nights rest, we started the engine just discover the fresh water cooling system was completely dry. We needed to quickly prime the system.

After that job being done, we got ready to hand steer the boat and disengaged the autopilot, only to find that the autopilot didn’t disengage and the wheel was locked. Steve quickly disappeared below and physically disconnected the Autopilot ram from the quadrant. We will write more about fixing these problems in the next post.

Lesson 4: Be ready for the unexpected and know your boat intimately

Reflecting on this trip it has been interesting experiencing how ice affects the mind. As one of our sailing friend says ‘You really have to be crazy to sail into an area that is badly charted and where the rocklike things are moving around in the water’. It is not a thing you can prepare for before you try it. And the darkness makes navigating in Ice so much harder than we experienced in Svalbard last year where the sun never went below the horizon.

Passage Statistics

Ísafjórður (Iceland) to Prince Cristian Sund Weather Station (Greenland)

• Passage Time: 6 Days 2 Hours
• Air Temperature Range: 4C-8.5C
• Sea Temperature Range: 2.9C-4.9C
• Total Distance: 802 Nautical Miles
• Sailing Distance: 585 Nautical Miles
• Motor or Motor Sailing Distance: 217 Nautical Miles
• Engine Hours: 40 (38 Propulsion – 2 Charging)
• Fuel Consumption: 94 Litres 2.44L/Hr
• Engine Oil Consumption: 210ML
• Water Consumption 200L
• Watermaker 2 Hrs+ Auto Flush = Net 80L IN 5.5C
• Average Speed: 5.5 Nautical Miles per hour
• Breakages – Autopilot Clutch, Boom Vang missing a washer, Inspect/Service Cooling water Anti Siphon Valve and Raw Water Impeller.
• Starlink – Priority Ocean Data cost £39.50