Weather:

Heavy seas

Report:

The last 48 hours have been a very humbling and

frightening experience - and we are still at sea. We left Labrador at 7am in what was supposed to be good weather but within a few miles there was a north westerly chop developing that slowly grew and grew as the day progressed. Within a few more hours waves were coming over the boat and everyone was getting wet. Every few minutes a serious amount of water was pouring over the boat. After 24 hours of this we were in mountainous seas, up to 5m high, making slow progress, at times reduced to a mere 9 knots, getting absolutely soaked- yet the map showed us still only a few hundred miles from the Labrador coastline. We were now entering seas where the local fisherman rarely go. The waves and water gets everywhere, through seals, into gloves and helmets, over our heads and down our neck seals as well.

The water here is icy cold and very early on into this leg we saw icebergs
and growlers much sooner than anyone expected. These had come straight down from the high Arctic from the North and gives an indication of just how cold this breaking water and spray is. The waves have just shown no sign at all of easing and we have been in these huge seas with the wave breaking at all angles around us. These walls of water are a terrifying sight. We have been crawling at a very slow pace feeling intensely vulnerable amongst these giants. Travelling at this slow pace has meant that after almost 36hrs we have become critically low on fuel and for the last hundred miles we have been down to 8 knots in a desperate attempt to save fuel and somehow reach this distant island of Greenland. After 40 hours of this everyone is showing early signs of hypothermia - a feeling that brought back memories of being high on Everest. This makes all actions on this small boat very slow and concentration almost impossible - people are kneeling on the floor, with shaky hands, fumbling to take a pee and hang on as the boat lurches from side to side unpredictably. If we are not on watch or helming the 3 of us are huddled together in the 18 inches of cover that sits above the engine hugging each other trying to keep warm - even this is for emotional comfort above the physical need to keep warm. Still we are shivering. Concentration is so hard but so vital to maintain an accurate course ahead- essential given our low fuel state. Still wave after waves pours over us and down our necks.