Peter & Ginger - Exploring Under Sail

Irene made a quick, if not particularly comfortable, passage from the Canadian Arctic to Aasiaat in Greenland. During early planning stages, we had thought to skip Greenland and head directly down Baffin Island to Labrador. As we popped out into the Baffin Sea, driven by a fierce arctic 75 knot tailwind, we altered plans based on these factors: 1) We were low on diesel fuel – the long detours around heavy ice had depleted our reserves. 2) An extra nasty storm was brewing on the Baffin Island side. Our shore support, Mike, was emphatic that we head east. 3) Greenland seemed like an interesting place to visit. Good pastries were rumored to be available there. 4) Aasiaat is the destination of the Norwegians tug with the Maud that we had followed through the ice and we were very interested to meet the crew. Sometimes serendipity helps out – in this case, we reluctant visitors to Greenland were oh so glad we were diverted to this country. All of the factors that directed us to G

Departing Fort Ross we were planning to exit the arctic as quickly as possible. Our ice and weather shore support team (Mike and Edie) let us know that we should not have much challenge with ice pack anymore. However, we were warned that a major blow was forecast (north 50 kts) in a few days. So we planned a few possible shelter spots on the chart and sailed on up Prince Regent Inlet towards Lancaster Sound. We had read and heard that many boats lose autopilot steering in Lancaster Sound, and Irene had issues as well. The magnetic north pole is only a few hundred miles away, and the magnetic field is weak here. To make matters worse, some of the islands in the Sound are magnetic themselves. Our pilot started disconnecting with error messages. It seemed like we might have to hand steer for a while with the tiller outside. It was windy, icy and very cold outside, motivating us to experiment with the system. Anything to avoid hand steering! We discovered that by setting and “go