Which Way...

I sent Tomas Sabag and Hadas Feldman an e-mail to explain that our ice season was lasting longer. It was also over a larger area than anything we have seen in a while. The ice pack along the north and north east coast(and also reaching into the gulf to the west) may pose a navigational hazard to them if the proceed north in a clock wise direction. Our winds are continuing from a northeast direction, keeping the ice fast to the coast. They will be stuck in it. So that we may finally see summer, the winds should eventually move around to the west, but that may cause the ice in the north to move back against the tip of the western peninsula. I also let them know that this clockwise coarse would leave them heading into strong westerlies once they make it to the south coast for the final leg of their journey. It's not uncommon to be stuck for a week on that coast in the late summer, waiting for the weather to calm down. Clockwise or counter clockwise...it would be a sea kayaking challenge and a great adventure either way. They wrote twice to me about this, but their blog site explains their coarse of action just as well...As for the possible south coast winds, they explain that they will be so strong by that point. Last reason, that the well respected sea kayaker Jeff Allen said; going clockwise is good luck. Continue to monitor their site, this should be interesting. They departed mid day on Saturday.

Also ice, weather and journey related. When Freya Hoffmeister was here at the KNL retreat last week, she saw her first iceberg...funny, all those travels, even to Greenland, but finally she found one. Her and Greg Stamer set off for a ten day trip heading south from St. John's. A new section of the coast for her too. You'll remember that she joined Wendy Killoran for the south coast portion of her 'Around the Rock' 2006 expedition. As for Freya, some days I wonder if she is planing to circumnavigate the whole island one visit at a time. At the rate she's going, that'll be less than half a dozen visits total. Neil, their Newfoundland ambassador, may have some word next week as to where they finish this trip. But just a note, they left last week in a force 5-6 gusting, heading straight out to the open north atlantic, rounding headlands including the most easterly point in all of North America...yes, Scotland has the next beach. I remember hiking that day thinking that it wasn't fit to kayak in bays, only to return home to learn they had gone out on a headland excursion. Good God.

We are having lots of ice and cold temperatures so far this season. We can also expect to have lots of icebergs this year. People have mentioned how beautiful but dangerous they can be. I have a clip I'll post later. Also, I've soloed a bit lately, finding myself out on changing wind and waves...more on this later too. Speed tests in a 19 foot kayak. River play. Trying the wing blade... And web cam shots. Oh, and yes, I'll post about rum too!