11th September 2016, by Meret:
The whole night we relied on our radar to tell us when there was an iceberg. Luckily, there were not many as we left Cape Dorset. But as the wind picked up so did the waves and these high waves kept setting off the alarm we had set on the radar. Though it was a little annoying for Dario and Sabine to keep getting up to define if it is a berg or a breaking wave and switching it off. I think we were all very grateful to have a radar. This will probably become a nightly event until we are out of bergy waters.
Our mast navigation light stopped working last night, so we had to improvise and use our anchor light and emergency navigation light. Thankfully we have some due to Pachamama’s participation in the Sydney to Hobart Race. Once there is less wind or we are in a safe anchorage, Dario will climb the mast to try to find the problem and fix it.
The wind had been forecasted to die down but instead it picked up. All of today we have had completely different winds to what was forecasted. Instead of 15-20knots from the east we had 25-35knots from the southeast. The weather forecast has also been constantly changing. For now we are in windy weather with high waves. The kids all described today as “wavy, wavy, wavy!” On top of the waviness all the adults are feeling unwell. We struggled so much more than usually to pull in the Genoa.
Today we also had a little visitor, Noé will tell you more:
“So at school it was Meret’s watch and then she saw a birdie. It had a yellow tummy and otherwise on top it was brown and a bit of black. We tried to give him food, he was so tired. The wind almost blew him away. But the birdie went further and further and further to the mast. It was even more windy there. And then it flew off.
Later we saw an iceberg and after we saw a smaller one too. The big iceberg was shaped like a house covered in snow sinking. After it was very sad we saw a dead goose.”
In the last four days we have seen four dead birds floating by. Three were the same grey color the last white with black wing tips. We are curious as to why they died.
Attached a picture for Sabine’s friend Susan in Igloolik with Mia on Pachamama
