Arctic Circle

Thursday, September 3, 2015
Bering Strait
65°N 168°W

Map of Arctic Circle (Image: Wiki)

It's been a long, slow, slog to get here to the Bering Strait from Point Barrow. One day's really great sailing (yesterday) averaging over six knots all day and four days of no wind requiring the motor to be on 24/7. However, we're glad to be here as it's another milestone for Gjoa. Continuing on our southbound journey, we just passed the Arctic Circle, at latitude 66°N. The Arctic Circle is a line that defines seasons of total dark and total light in the north. Above this line, twenty-four hour sunlight/darkness is experienced for some period of the year. The length of the period varies by location. Crossing the Arctic Circle also 'officially' defines the end of a North West Passage transit, so, for whatever it's worth, I guess we've completed it now.

The Bering Strait, forty-four miles between Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska (USA) and Cape Dezhneva, Siberia (Russia), is the gateway between the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea in the Pacific Ocean. So, we are now sailing in our third ocean having been in the Atlantic, Arctic and now the Pacific. Heading due south now, the whole of the Pacific and all its promise, lies in front of our bow.

The Strait is narrow and has a couple of islands in the middle (Diomedes) that, I'm sure on a clear day it is very scenic with Russia to starboard and the USA to port. Today, in the fog, we can see nothing, we have to conjure up the images in our mind's eye. Voices speaking Russian on the VHF do add to the ambience though. There are so few boats around here, everybody is very friendly and we keep crossing paths with the same boats over and over again. We had a nice chat last night with a passing supertug complete with barge and their support vessel, about Alaskan waters. We first saw them in Prudhoe Bay and we reminisced about both of us having to dodge ice there. They said that the ice there is even worse now, glad that's behind us.

Bering Strait sunrise, the fog rolled in soon after.

Nome is about 140 miles away and we should arrive by Saturday. We plan to stop for a couple of days to check in with the officials, refuel and reprovision before quickly getting underway to the Aleutians for the last leg of this season's journey. We're into September now and the first Alaskan September storm marks the start of winter weather patterns. Hopefully, we're still early enough to miss it, but, it's a race against time.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com