Greetings everyone!
Well… where to begin?
We knew going into this trip that it would be difficult. We knew there would be good days and bad days. The past week has given us a lot to think about.
On the positive side, the boat has performed very well. We’ve had some minor mechanical issues, but nothing significant. North Star has surpassed expectations.
Our problem is the ice within the Northwest Passage itself. Earlier this week I received the ice reports for the passage, and it’s a tale of two halves. The eastern half is already navigable, with the ice melting ahead of schedule. If we can reach the eastern half, we’ll be very happy.
It’s a tale of TWO HALVES. The western half of our passage
is blocked with ice whereas the eastern half is melting ahead of schedule
The western half is another story — the ice there is extremely thick. For comparison, we pulled up ice charts from July 15th of each of the last 20 years. This year has the most extensive ice blockage. The next worst was 2018, a year when only three boats made it through the passage.
North Star 2
The last twenty-two (22) years of ice in the arctic. All of the images are from mid july of their respective years. To my great frustration, this year is the worst for navigating the western half of the Northwest Passage
We have engaged an ice pilot — an expert in reading and analyzing the ice — who will be onboard to help us weave our way through. Clive, our ice pilot, has made several trips through the passage. He’ll join the boat in Nome and leave us on the east side of the passage.
There is a real chance the passage simply will not open this year. I pressed Clive for his unofficial best guess. He really didn’t want to answer, but after some pleading he finally said, “It’s impossible to predict, but I think there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll need to cancel.”
We’re not giving up. All it takes is some warm air to blow in, or a strong southerly wind that blows the ice away from Alaska’s northern shore, and we’ll be back in business. We are monitoring the situation closely, but we are confident it will work out, and we are not slowing down. We are going for it!
Ken and Roberta Williams, patiently waiting for enough ice to melt that they can enter the Northwest Passage
As I mentioned in my last update, Roberta and I are presently at our home near Seattle. We flew home figuring that sitting on the boat for a month watching ice melt was best avoided. We fly back to the boat on August 6th. Because there is currently no path through the ice, we are stuck. The expert’s best guess is that the boat can’t continue past Nome until August 15th at the soonest. We’ll be reviewing the ice charts daily to pick our exact departure date.
North Star is currently in Nome, ready to enter the passage. Which brings me to a whole other challenge.
I’ll be honest: I hadn’t studied Nome closely. I knew it wasn’t a big city and wouldn’t have a marina. It does have a small boat harbor which is only 9′ deep — but North Star isn’t a small boat and has an 8′ draft. I assumed there would be some nearby anchorage where we could drop the hook and tender into town. I was right about it being a small town, and wrong about there being anywhere nearby to anchor safely.
North Star approaching Nome. Over 3,000 miles to get here!
North Star visiting Nome briefly before heading to an anchorage at Port Clarence
The nearest safe anchorage is a ten-hour run from Nome. And it gets worse. I’m typing this on July 19th, and the soonest we imagine the passage might open is August 15th. That means the boat will be sitting near Nome for roughly a month. What are the chances of bad weather in Nome sometime in the next month? It’s summer, but it’s Nome, and this is the Arctic. The bottom line: Yes. Several storms will very likely roll through before we leave.
Tomorrow, North Star will depart Nome and head to Port Clarence, 70 nautical miles farther on, which is the nearest safe place to anchor. There is basically nothing in Port Clarence — certainly no rental cars. A gravel road connects it to Nome, but it’s 4×4-only, and I don’t know how bad it is or whether we can find a way to travel between the two. My guess is the boat will end up running back and forth, between Nome and Port Clarence, several times, including a trip to collect Roberta and me.
And of course, the situation gets more complicated still. Nothing is easy on this trip. I spent this morning hunting for lodging in Nome. Roberta and I fly in on the 6th, and if the weather is rough the boat will be at anchor in Port Clarence. We’re traveling with our two dogs, and no hotel in Nome accepts dogs. After much begging, and some appropriate bribery, I found an Airbnb that will take us.
The bottom line: we need to wait in Nome for the ice to melt. Roberta and I need to somehow get back to the boat, dogs in tow. The boat will need to weather some ugly storms between now and then. And if the ice doesn’t melt enough that we can squeeze our way through, all of this will have been for nothing, and we’ll be left horribly disappointed and scratching our heads, asking, “What next?”
AND LASTLY
We have now reached the place where things are about to get interesting and I’ll be sending more frequent email updates. There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email if you don’t want so many emails. There is also a link to subscribe to the newsletter. If you like these updates and want to share them with a friend you are encouraged to forward my emails and ask them to consider subscribing.
Write to me at: ken@mvnorthstar.com
That’s it for this edition of the blog.
Ken and Roberta Williams, with Pixie and Keeley
PS UPDATE FROM A COUPLE HOURS AGO: North Star did wedge their way into the marina (harbor?) in Nome and is rafted alongside a sailboat which is also doing the passage.
There are cameras on the boat that allow Roberta and I to feel like we are on the boat, even though for the moment we are thousands of miles away. We have a 100″ screen and livestreamed the arrival in Nome. It was exciting! I captured the video of the boat’s arrival. It’s overly long, but you are welcome to see what we saw. Here it is, uncut and unfiltered!
Unfortunately, North Star can’t stay long. A storm is coming and staying where they are would be unsafe. The current plan is to head to Port Clarence ahead of the coming storm. The storm is predicted to last three days and then hopefully North Star can return to Nome. It’s a long story but when a storm blows from the north the water level in the harbor lowers. We are cutting it close enough that the boat might be left sitting on the bottom and we could snap off a stabilizer fin. Rather than take the risk, anytime there is the potential for a wind from the north the boat needs to exit the shallow harbor until the storm passes.
A raw capture of the boat arriving in Nome. Overly long and unedited, despite being played back at four times the actual speed, but we enjoyed it!
TO SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE
https://youtube.com/@mvnorthstar?sub_confirmation=1
OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
https://youtube.com/@mvnorthstar
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM
https://instagram.com/mv_northstar
PAST BLOG ENTRIES
EMAIL NEWSLETTER
If this email was forwarded to you by a friend, and you’d like to be added to this newsletter, click this link:
https://kensblog.eo.page/nh9zj
CHECK OUT OUR LATEST VIDEO GAME: COLOSSAL CAVE 3D!
Roberta and I are video game developers when we aren’t on a boat, having published literally hundreds of games during our long career. Our most recent game is a re-imagining of a fifty-year-old classic game called “Adventure (aka Colossal Cave).”
https://www.colossalcave3d.com
NEW: KEN JUST RELEASED A MARINE RADAR TRAINING SIMULATOR!
If I had to go to sea without a life raft, or … without a working radar, I’d choose the radar. A well tuned radar and the knowledge to use it effectively is mission critical. I’ve gone out on days with perfectly blue skies only to be blindsided by fog so thick I couldn’t see the bow. I’ve had to pick my way through crowded seas where the ability to predict which of the surrounding ships represented danger meant the difference between a safe passage and a really bad day.
To make a long story short: I combined my tens of thousands of sea miles with my long record of building software to create a Radar Simulator. I believe there is no better way to learn than by experiencing it yourself. Check out my radar training course, which is built around a very realistic simulator. https://navsimacademy.com/
