We've made over 600 miles since leaving Greenland 5 days ago. Sailing conditions have been as good as can be expected...sometimes too much wind, sometimes too little. We've had a few days of fog which slowed us down. On a previous watch, we saw icebergs on radar which we never saw through the fog. And we saw smaller ice bits near the boat which we never saw on radar. For those of you following our track, we've had to change course a number of times to stay east of the Canadian ice pack while still being able to sail as much as possible.

As we near the magnetic north pole, the magnetic compasses are losing their usefulness. The Binnacla Compass seems to be the most consistent but is 15 degrees different from its expected readings. The elctronic compass in the autopilot wanders 20-40 degrees. The small compass in the binoculars never settles on a reading at all. Thank goodness for GPS which has always told us our diection of trave.

Before we left Greenland, we had a warm spell in the 50s. The grounded bergs in the anchorage melted a bit faster. Bergs melt unevenly and often crack with the sound of a gunshot. Then ice pieces, big and small, splash into the water and drift around the anchorage.

The picturrs shows Brian and Edward using ice poles to keep a larger ice chunk from scraping our paintwork.