September 20th 2013

Blowing Still!

70° 04,726' N, 170° 33,912' E

We had sailed to Pevek as quickly as possible because we knew that there

was a weather front approaching with 15 to 20 m/s easterlies. When we

arrived there after only five days of sailing, the skies were clear and

the seas smooth as silk. For three days we waited for the winds to come

and when we became tired of waiting and were ready to leave, they finally

arrived and with such a force that we were glad to be still in Pevek.

In the morning of the 19th, after four stormy days, the weather seemed so

much better that we decided to continue our voyage. We cast off, bid

farewell to the crew of the small ship to which we had been moored, and

then realized that our good boat Sarema was not moving anywhere. There was

now almost half a metre less water underneath our keel than before the

storm, and we were lying on the bottom. As the engine power was not enough

to free us, we tied a rope to the ship's railing, winched us out of the

mud, and headed for the sea.

We sailed around the corner of Cape Shelagskiy to see what the situation

outside the Chaunskaya Guba Bay looked like. And it looked so bad that we

turned around and continued back to a bay a few miles further south that

would give us at least some kind of protection against the winds. While we

were heading for the shelter, the winds continued to increase in strength

from 20 to 35 knots, gusting 40+, which seems to be the norm out here.

We are now only about 25 miles north of Pevek, anchored in a large, open

bay as close to the shore as we dared. The wind is blowing from behind a

large mass of land but yet sharp, foam crowned waves keep tilting our boat

from one side to  the other, and spray is flying in the air. Clearly, the

storm is not over yet!