Grounded Expedition Cruise Ship Freed in Remote Greenland Fjord

Grounded Expedition Cruise Ship Remains Stuck in Remote Greenland Fjord: 

But three days after grounding the ship was pulled free by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources fishing research vessel Tarajoq.  Salvage costs of 3.8 million Danish Kroner were agreed upon.  The hull was not breached by the grounding in soft arctic silt. The tide on Greenland's west coast at Alpefjord is less than 2 meters.

“We’re really happy that it went so well and that the passengers and crew of the ship can now see an end to the difficult situation they’ve been in for the last few days,” said Captain Brian Jensen, Commander of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command. “Regardless that no one was in direct danger, I understand if being stuck in such a deserted area with no possibility to move forward has been uncomfortable.”

Initial attempts to refloat the Ocean Explorer at high tide were unsuccessful, prompting the assistance of the Knud Rasmussen, an offshore patrol vessel with the Royal Danish Navy, which was located 1,200 nautical miles away. The Knud Rasmussen was expected to arrive at the scene Friday evening, but has now been stood down.

Jimmy Buffett - parting shot

USS Nautilus: On Top of the World, Under the Ice - gconk@fordham.edu - Fordham University Mail

USS Nautilus: On Top of the World, Under the Ice - 

USS NAUTILUS (SSN-571) National Archives Identifier 77273

The various quests to reach the North Pole were equal parts danger and glory, with scientists and thrill-seekers alike pushing the limits of human endurance and technology. While the explorers Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 all claimed to have first reached the geographic North Pole on foot, and the 1926 journey of the Italian-built, semi-rigid airship Norge  was the first verified craft to reach it by air, the USS Nautilus was the first sea vessel to accomplish the same feat in 1958.

The USS Nautilus (SSN-571), a nuclear-powered submarine that was created from the ambitious mind of Admiral Hyman Rickover, challenged the limits of scientific innovation during Operation Sunshine in 1958. With ice year round, the North Pole was inaccessible by all ships. However the use of nuclear technology in compact, submersible vessels allowed the Nautilus to move faster and stay underwater up to seven times longer than previous submarines. According to the Nautilus deck log on August 3, the submerged ship “proceeded further north than any other previous ship in history” at 0812 hours. Then, at 1915 hours, it passed the North Pole and became the “first ship to do so under its own power.”

[Hyman Rickover in 1981] ADM Hyman G. Rickover, deputy assistant secretary for naval reactors, Department of Energy, speaks at the commissioning of the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine USS OHIO (SSBN-726), National Archives Identifier 6352639

Nautilus (SSN-571) - August 1958, page 9, National Archives Identifier 181921919

Many more submarines have transited the geographic North Pole since then. One noteworthy example is the USS Skate (SSN-578), which at 1600 hours on March 17, 1959, breached the ice as it surfaced at the top of the world.

USS SKATE (SSN-578) IN ICE North Pole Area, National Archives Identifier 83024

Frontiers of human endurance and technology will always be broken. Ten years after the Nautilus and the Skate reached and breached the top of our planet, man’s first steps appeared on the moon. By foot, by sled, or by ship, what steps in our long march of history might appear tomorrow?   Would you like to learn more about Polar Exploration?  Check out these blog posts:  Mystery of the Arctic Ice: Who was First to the North Pole  Images of the Week: Polar Expeditions Women of the Polar Archives: The Films and Stories of Marie Peary Stafford and Louise Boyd

Vanish- Georgetown, BVI

 Larry Van Tuyl sold his auto dealership network to Berkshire Hathaway for $4.5 billion. Now he heads their auto dealership group. n As one who has hitched his financial star to Berkshire and pur Manhattan riv vu cooper apartment, should I be a little embarrassed by his extravagance?.  For the 12 guest a crew of twenty...

Anyway the helicopter is cool, as are the panels on either side from which smaller craft emerge.

Clark Island Quarry - Spruce Head, Maine

 

RUTH - a 1935 Maine-built touring boat

The folks at Portland Schooner Co.  have purchased - and plan to launch tomorrow - RUTH - a 1935 touring boat.  Built in Falmouth Maine in 1935 by Handy Boat Company it will be returning from Friendship to its home waters after years as a lake boat.  I'm sure she will appreciate the preservative virtues of salt water. - GWC

At Lash Brothers, Friendship for minor repairs.

 

Friendship - July 2023

 

Dreamboats - Points East magazine

 High Idle was one of my late friend Jeff Armstrong's great passions.  He told the story beautifully in one of his long mid-winter letters For Love of a Boat.  If you follow me you know about my now 24 year affair with North River 2.  We have a house in Friendship, Maine because when I was ten years old I fell in love aboard a Friendship Sloop owned by my Dad's friend Lou Peretti in Hempstead Harbor. And then there was the 15 foot Snipe on which I learned to sail, kept up with it through college and bought another - built by Hermann Gerber on City Island - when I won my first trial.

Snipes

So that's how Don Street started out - in Manhasset Bay, L.I. But he went on to cruise Iolaire a 46 foot wooden sailboat (that word meant NO engine - the Times used to list boats for sale as Sailboats and Auxiliaries.) that he cruised and wrote  A Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles. The first edition was a mimeograph but it went on to appear hard bound and in paper as a classic.

Don Street - now 92 shows that it's never too late to fall in love with a boat.  So last fall he fortuitously went for a sail on the restored Arion - a Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff boat.  He wrote of his enchantment in June's Points East. A "pierhead jump" onto a classic - - Arion - Don Street - Points East Magazine

Rumination continued.  How would I re-design that perfect boat with modern materials?  His answer is My zero-carbon-emissions dreamboat - Points East Magazine .

Arion

But the editors of Points East got the brilliant idea to ask sailboat designer and artist Chuck Paine to comment on Street's vision.  Paine's answer is a brilliant, friendly critique.  Read Designer Chuck Paine's comments on Don Street's dreamboat.

- GWC July 23, 2023

Archaeologists Find Maya City in an ‘Empty Zone’ of the Yucatán Map - The New York Times

Archaeologists Find Maya City in an ‘Empty Zone’ of the Yucatán Map - The New York Times

A wall of icebergs in a foggy Labrador Sea.

 

Thanks to Lisa Olson for passing on Lyman's updates on Felicity's voyages.

UPDATE Sunday 7/23/23:  Tracking Felicity is now live. It looks to me like they have made it to Cartwright, Labrador.

Monday, July 24:  

UPDATE - Departure from Cartwright,  NL 

 53.42N   57.7S  Predict Wind

Yesterday we left Cartwright after seeing that the southerlies we were concerned about did not develop. We stayed close to the coast, ending up in Domino Harbor after rejecting an earlier anchorage. The harbor was a 300 ft wide slice into the cliffs. We were anchored off an abandoned (in the 80s) fish processing plant. Since the guide was written, an indigenous community has grown at the head of the harbor. We left this morning under somewhat overcast skies,  making our way towards Frenchman’s tickle. We see more and more abandoned fishing communities as we head south. Leaving Frenchman’s, we came across a lot of icebergs. One was the size of a cruise liner. 

As usual, the fog rolled in so we made our way south using the radar. Labrador has quite a complicated coast. In this region there are multiple inland passages with hundreds of coves, bights, harbors, islands, etc. We turned into land so we could take Squasho Run, a narrow long passage lined in places by 80ft moss/lichen covered cliffs with a few small trees clinging for life. It’s a destination for many sailors. On the south end is Eagle Cove ( 53d 1.5m N,55d 49.6 m W) where we are now.
After anchoring, we climbed a nearby hill and got spectacular views. We went for a brief swim (the water is 55F). Later, another cruising boat, the first we’ve seen since leaving, came into the cove. Not too long after that, a whale joined us briefly. A seal is sunning itself on a rock 100 ft away.

In harbor

7/22/2023

Well it was quite a couple of days. Yesterday we had a beautiful sail. We followed our plan, which was to go to 55 d N, and the cut over. About 125 nm out we came across a set of 8 bergs where there should have maybe been one. We kept on hoping that it was anomalous. It was. By this time we were motor sailing. The number of bergs increased as we approached land. At times it was foggy and at times clear. About 40 nm out there was a berg every 4 nm. Lots of them split up. Early this morning, about 30 nm out we were fogged in and there was almost a wall of bergs on the radar in the direction we were headed (west). We pushed on at low speed relying on the radar. Then the fog lifted and we saw the path. At some point we just stopped counting. There were hundreds of bergs and bergie bits of all kinds of interesting shapes. We made our way to Edwards Harbor. The guide says the entry is 50 ft across. It is beautiful. We went ashore for more stunning views. We had to anchor four times
  to get good holding even with double anchors. There is a lot of kelp on the bottom. Of course there were other difficulties. After we shut off the engine for the first time, we noticed more diesel on the engine than usual. The fuel input line to the injectors had sprung a leak. A failure of the line would have been a disaster, but we fixed it and seem to be in good shape. At the moment we are eating cheese and crackers, drinking beer/wine, and soaking in the location. Tomorrow we head to Cartwright.