No Fog (for Now!)

Greenland disappeared very shortly after departure a couple of days ago, not
because the land had slipped below the horizon, but because the fog was so
thick that it swallowed up the coast. The blanket stayed on us for about 40
hrs with no sign of letting up. We sighted some ice bergs just as we were
leaving Nuuk but with the visibility down to less than a 100 meters for most
of our voyage thus far, we have not seen any since. We peer in to the
white, squint at the radars but so far, no sightings in what we know are
"bergy waters". Chris Dickson, during the 1993/94 Whitbread Race commented
that during the Southern Ocean leg, from New Zealand to Cape Horn, they
would see many icebergs during the day but none at night. He theorized that
they must all return to Antarctica once the evening sets in. In these
northern Arctic waters, the icebergs exhibit similar behaviour, retreating
back to shore when the fog gets too thick. Great peace of mind for those on
watch.

Our destination for this leg, Arctic Bay, is still 2 days away but now that
we are above the Arctic Circle, we have the midnight sun. Richard, who
shares the engineering role with Boxy, sailed with the yacht on the 2016
expedition; he told me yesterday that he has already contacted his friend in
Arctic Bay to be sure that a round of golf will be possible. Incredulous, I
said, "Golf?"

"You play on rocks and gravel," he explained with an Aussie twang, "and on
top of your drivers and wedges in the golf bag, there is the important club
the locals call the 'bear club.'"

"Is that for really long fairways?" I asked. He chuckled and showed me a
photo. "The bear club is a rifle, usually loaded with non-lethal rounds at
the front, and more deadly last-resort rounds at the back."

We sailed out of the blanket of fog a few hours ago. When I came up at
0300, I was greeted with a startling blue sky and the sun just above the
northern horizon. It had dipped but not set. Mark and Marcus were on
watch, buzzing over the views and the exceptional visibility. To port and
starboard were massive bergs seemingly fixed to the ocean floor but on the
move at about a knot, according to our plotter. Now that the fog has
lifted, it seems the ice bergs have come back out to sea.

Jonathan