I was sitting by the fi re the other night, sipping whiskey and thinking
about Fata Morgana – and before you jump to conclusions, this is an optical illusion
occurring in the Arctic that can make objects like cliffs appear where there aren’t any. The explanation, along with just about
everything you need to know about ice, appears in edited by Andrew Wilkes and published by the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Arctic and Northern Waters,
Foundation/Imray, at £60.latitudes ranging across Faroe, Iceland and Greenland and then to the North-The book spans the northern high
West and North-East Passages. For armchair voyagers it’s a compelling volume that takes the reader into waters that few will trave. For those
who go there, this is essential reading. Some of the harbours and anchorages are familiar to me, but the quality and clarity of the information adds
signifi cantly to qualify this as a vital part of the library for any skipper heading in that direction. Of particular interest is the chapter on ice navigation. The
RCCPF deserves great credit for this and other publications in the series. BBFireside reading and more, much more...like cliffs appear where there aren’t any.Boandarofor home after the 2015 attempt to reach East Greenland headingJANUARY 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 61a falling tide was heading out to sea. ARCTIC PILOTAGE
The gravel spit saved us by diverting the ice so that it crunched its way along our starboard side, open water and the shore a
few metres away to port. do about it except pray. Then, just as I was thanking whatever sea-gods had prompted There was absolutely nothing we could
me to choose this spot to anchor, a female bear and her two cubs appeared. The situation had developed with seamless and rapid progress from a drama to a potential
crisis. Luckily, a plump seal on a nearby fl oe proved more appealing, and we got only an interested glance as they passed us by.Then there’s the question of charts.
Those that do exist for East Greenland are woefully out of date, mostly from the 1930s, and for big ship navigation anyway. Pilotage is therefore based on a composite
of paper charts, the chartplotter and land maps, which are surprisingly accurate.when approaching what appeared to be a One occasion that comes to mind was
wall of solid rock where the words Neild Bugt on the chart indicated an anchorage of some sort. I was navigating more on instinct than with any degree of certainty.
Suddenly the entrance to a perfectly sheltered, landlocked bay was open before us and in we went. Low-lying cliffs to starboard, a glacier that appeared
stable up ahead, a gently sloping snowfi eld and below it, a fl owing stream to replenish our water tanks. Perfect. Again I quote from
the log. ‘... you make the right call and no-one says a word, get it wrong and suddenly everyone is an expert.’ My reward was the
cracking of a few cans of beer and the expressions of delight on the faces of my companions, there was no need for words.
boats – several French, one Finn and a couple of Dutch – hoping to make it to East Greenland. We did This season we met a handful of
not see any other British-fl agged vessel intent on getting there, though I understand that out of Gosport, got to Ammassalik. The Hummingbird,
Irish yacht the pack-ice, and an extract from her log illustrates the diffi culties encountered. ‘Tuesday, 1000: Sea temperature dropped Ar Seachrán struggled through
from 8°C to 3°C in about an hour... 1930: Met 2-3/10ths ice... 23.00: Too much heavy ice exposure, polar bear 100 metres distant, going back out to sea.’ They fi nally
made anchor and had four days of climbing and exploring but the pattern of pack-ice blocking access to the coast remained. A source of knowledge for these waters
is Sigurdur Jonsson, ‘Siggi’, an Icelandic charter skipper who I have got to know well over the years, and his specially adapted 65ft yacht Aurora. ‘Some of the
local hunters say you have to go back to the sixties or seventies to fi nd so much ice this late in the season,’ he said. According
to Siggi, the ice that gave all the trouble this year was the coming from the high north. This is multi-year ice from large fi elds or from the Polar storis – gatherings of ice
Basin itself. It takes several storms blowing down the Denmark Strait to break it up and these didn’t occur until late August. The generally accepted optimum time to
get into East Greenland is around the third week of July, although in recent years there was access from late June or early July.For us on Boandaro, the 48ft Bowman
I crewed on last year, this information was largely of academic interest. After months of planning and preparation, a long slog from the Solent and a
frustrating wait in Isafjordur, we had to accept defeat and head for home, sadder but wiser. In the end, when it comes to an East Greenland cruise, it will be the
ice that decides. WAurora at anchor under the Northern LightsPHOTO: VIDAR KRISTINSSON