Live from Onboard

Sunday 28 August, 15.12 Greenland time, 217nm to go to Akureyri, somewhere in the Greenland Sea

We're motorsailing with 1 reef in the main and the yankee 3 up and it's no fun. We left yesterday just after lunch (we had to wait for Hildur to leave as they dropped their anchor over ours!) and were all set for ice and wind. We got more than we bargained for. Before we were even out of Hurry Inlet, we got hit by 30 to 40 knots, of course on the nose, and steep short nasty waves. Coming out of the Inlet, there was a dark ominous cloud hanging above the north shore of the Sund and it looked we were in for a bit of a beating. Spray was flying over the decks and blown off the top of the waves and the wind was icy cold. Even more so when you got hit in the face by that ice cold spray. It got most of us a bit queasy to say the least, especially yours truly who was making Bamie Goreng, no mean feat in these seas.
Although the wind calmed down a bit during our watch (18-21), the seastate was (and still is, 20 hours later) horrendous and we're being tossed around like in a washing machine. During the night, when it was clear that we were more or less out of the ice zone indicated by the ice charts, we hoisted the main with 2 reefs and have now even got the Yankee out, but we're still inside that washing machine and having to motorsail to make any headway. It's promising to be a long, slow, very very cold trip to Akureyri and all that is keeping us going is the thought of that wonderful pool complex with the hot tubs and the pummeling waterfall...