On Wednesday morning we were sailing down the eastern side of Victoria Strait when we got a text from Philip (thanks!) letting us know according to the ice chart there was 7/10 ice directly across our planned route. After much agony trying to get and stay online with the sat phone we managed to receive an email of the ice chart. We debated what to do but thought we’d have a look since we’d come this far and an easterly wind was blowing, which was also forecast for the next day or so. About this time we began to see some ice about and changed our course more to the south. We then altered our course to the south east heading towards Alexandra Strait, keeping an eye on the depth as it’s not well charted in this area. After a while like this we spotted the Royal Geographical Society Islands and couldn’t see much ice between us and them so altered course for south straight down the middle of Alexandra Strait. The wind, sea and cloud cover had increased by then too so it was quite an exciting afternoon. Not sure where the 7/10 ice had gone but was very glad we didn’t encounter it! We were through Alexandra Strait by about dark and we’ve been following the recommended track on the chart since. This has taken us along the Requisite Channel between the Nordenskiolds Islands and Hat Island, and south of Jenny Lind Island heading west to Cambridge Bay. It’s been windy, raining and the sea has been quite lumpy but we’ve had some good sailing conditions and haven’t seen any ice since Victoria Strait. We hope to be in Cambridge Bay within 12 hours or so, hopefully we won’t see any ice before then. It’s been a very dark night and although it’s now getting light the fog has descended!