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Denmark
to the USA
April saw us back on board the Evanna ready to continue
our Round the World voyage. The next leg would take us
across the Atlantic and here we had two choices; we could
either head south to the Azores and join 500 or so other
vessels that collect there to cross together, or we could
take the North Atlantic route. While there might be the
doubtful comfort in numbers, we have always preferred to
travel on our own. On looking carefully at the northern
route we found that by following the Great Circle course
from Norway, around the top of Iceland, across the Artic
Circle, down to Greenland and Canada we would in fact be
covering a shorter distance. This would end us in Carol's
home town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. |
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How
does this come about? As was discovered some time ago, the
Earth is not flat but a sphere (I believe there is still a
Flat Earth Society). In order to portray the curved Earth
on a flat chart, a convention called the Mercator
projection is used. This distorts the meridians of
longitude, and to a lesser extent the latitude, so that
distances, particularly in the higher latitudes appear
greater than they actually are. It follows then that the
shortest distance between two places on a Mercator chart
is in fact a curve. We decided on the circle route, with a
couple of small deviations to visit Shetland and Faeroe
Islands.
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David
and Penny joined us for the cruise through Denmark and
Sweden to Oslo. The Evanna had spent the past couple of
years in a Danish shipyard, and the previous autumn Carol
and I, together with our shipwright John Johnson, (who
built the vessel) spent two months on an extensive refit.
Despite this, the first couple of weeks were plagued with
minor problems. Good charts were becoming harder to find
and a brush with some rocks on the west coast of Sweden
finally persuaded us to invest in a plotter. But the
weather was pleasant and we had some delightful berths,
notably the old town of Sonderbourg and in the very centre
of Copenhagen. |
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From
Oslo we were joined by Nancy, Pat and Faye. The first stop
was Larvik where Carol has an extensive family of second
cousins on her Grandfathers side. As usual, they made us
very welcome with dinner parties and outings. We continued
"harbour hopping" around the south coast of Norway to
Bergen, our departure point for the Atlantic crossing. It
is impossible here to describe all of these delightful
ports, but one is worth mentioning. From the little port
of Tananger we were all trooped across to the
Hardingsfjord where there was to be a re-enactment of one
of the great Viking battles. It was here, some 1200 years
ago that no less than 8 Viking regional "kings" fought a
battle until only one was left standing who then became
the supreme ruler. It was a magnificent spectacle.
Suddenly, out of the mist appeared 8 Viking ships and they
fought furiously as they manoeuvred under oars. The battle
then continued on the beach. At this stage it all became a
bit confusing, but one king was finally proclaimed the
winner. |
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We
reached Bergen via the beautiful Hardinger Fjord and found
a berth in Vagen Harbour, right in the centre if the city.
It's a town full of history, and we spent some
time in the museums, especially the well preserved
Hanseatic houses. It was from Bergen that we would
begin the trans-Atlantic crossing. Pat and Faye
remained on board, and we were joined by Joanna.
Normally, Carol and I sail the ocean passages on our
own, but now I had an all female crew and two of them
were Grandmothers! But what great sailors they all
turned out to be. |
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The
North Atlantic lived up to its reputation and we
often ran into heavy weather, but there was nothing
the sea could do that would bother these women. They
had complete faith in our little ship, and they all
took their watches, much of the time having to steer
as the automatic pilot was giving trouble. (the auto
pilot did not like the high latitudes. The further
north we went, the more erratic it became. Once around
Iceland and on a southerly heading it decided to
behave itself again)
On
passage to Iceland our first port was Lewick in the
Shetland Islands. The austere grey stone buildings belie a
happy and friendly people. The islands are known for their
fiddle playing and we went to several concerts of local
fiddlers. It was in Lewick that we were able to load up on
bond stores. We may have over estimated our needs because
when the stores of drink came on board, Evanna settled a
little in the water!
Some 3 days sail to the north saw us in the Faerore
Islands. Recently independent from Denmark, the Faerores
are best described as "a care free fishing nation". Wee
berthed in the centre of the capital Torshavn, (the only
town name we were able to pronounce!) and from there took
several walks and bus rides. The Gulf Stream considerably
modifies the climate here, and although at a latitude 62
degrees north, they seldom get snow in winter. But the
tides around the islands are fierce, and we had to
continually consult the tide atlas before cruising from
island to island. |
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We made
land on the east coast of Iceland at the fjord harbour of
Djupivogur. (We can't pronounce it either!) Joanna and
Faye left us; Pat remained on board and Henning came on as
crew. Then began the cruise around the magnificent north
coast of Iceland - a world of deep fjords with little
fishing harbours nestled at their heads. The fishermen
were generous with their fish and we lived on fresh cod,
halibut and haddock. On the 10th of July we crossed the
Arctic Circle (Lat. N 66 degrees 31 minutes). Sadly, we
were too late for the summer solstice, when the sun would
remain in the horizon at midnight, but even so, it barely
dipped below to rise again shortly after. Reykjavik was
our last port of call in Iceland, and from here we were
able to tour inland and visit the hot springs, geysers and
the famous tectonic plates. Pat left us here; Henning
remained on board and we were joined by Neil, and Carol's
cousin Finn Birger, both of whom had sailed with us
before. |
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The 750
nautical mile sail from Reykjavik to southern Greenland
turned out to be the most difficult yet. Our heading was
SW and the wind blew from the SW at a constant 35 knots,
gusting up to 45 knots. We set staysail and reduced main,
and made 100 mile tacks to the north and south to make
some way and to set the ship on a more comfortable
heading. Our only source of weather information was the
weather fax out of Northwood in England. I would
scrutinize the weather chart searching for a more
favourable wind and a slacker gradient in the constant
fronts that came in from the west. |
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But our
main problem would be the pack ice in Greenland. We were
all looking forward to cruising through the wonderful
Prince Christian Sound, a 70 mile passage on the southern
tip of Greenland from the east to the west coast. Daily
calls to Ice Central in Greenland informed us that all
harbours on the east coast were blocked with icebergs and
pack ice, including the Sound. Each day was the same
until, when we were 50 miles off the east coast, we heard
to our delight that the sound had just opened, and we
could pass through! "What if it closes up when we get
inside?" asked Henning, apprehensively. "Then we will be
spending a long cold winter" I replied. "But I think we'll
have to risk it". The passage itself was awesome. (we've
squandered the superlatives of our language on relatively
mundane descriptions, but "awesome" is the only word to
describe the Prince Christian Sound). The passage is a
series of interconnected narrow fjords. The elevations on
the chart showed the mountains on either side rising up to
2000 metres, (6600 ft) and in each valley between, a
glacier led down to the water. We made it a 2 day passage
and anchored for the night in one of the rare bays. That
same night, at about 11pm we heard a dull roar from
somewhere near, then shortly after the Evanna began to
rock gently. The next morning we saw the recently calved
iceberg drifting by. |
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We had
to be constantly careful of ice in Greenland. (In
Reykjavik we met up with an aluminium yacht that had her
entire side stove in after running into pack ice). The big
icebergs were not a problem as they showed up easily on
radar. It was their itinerant retinue of bits that had
broken off - the "growlers" and "bergy bits", each one
several tons of ice that we'd rather not run into! In most
cases the giant bergs would drift slowly south on the East
Greenland Current, little affected by the wind while the
growlers and their friends would lie in wait down wind, so
we always tried to pass the big bergs on the windward
side. At anchor, we would often feel a bump against the
side of the ship during the night. Once through the
passage, we spent an enjoyable couple of weeks in several
of the Inuit communities, and visiting some of the many
Viking sites, including Eric the Red's original
settlement. It was here that his house and the first
Christian Church had been restored. (Eric's wife
apparently converted early to Christianity, then withheld
her favours from him until he also converted. There is no
record of how long this took). |
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The
sail from Qaqortaq in Greenland to Canada was one of the
most pleasant of the voyage. Ice Canada informed us of a
large area of pack ice off the Canadian coast, but after
plotting the coordinates on the chart we were able to give
it a wide berth. We made land at the little port of St
Anthony on the north coast of Newfoundland, then entered
the great St Lawrence Seaway for the inside passage south.
Sadly, we were not able to visit the Viking settlement on
the north Newfoundland coast as a fresh northerly
prevented us from anchoring. But we put into the harbours
of Corner Brook, (where Fred and Cheryl joined us) and
Prince Edward Island before spending a few days at
Halifax. Here everything dates from the big explosion. In
1971 a ship laden with TNT collided with another vessel in
the harbour and the resulting explosion wiped out half the
town, killing several thousand persons. |
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More Photos
Coming Soon! |
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Our
first port of call in the US was Portsmouth New Hampshire
where we cleared US customs and also met some very
friendly people. A short passage saw us to our final
destination, Carol's home town of Gloucester,
Massachusetts. Needless to say, there was much rejoicing,
and I think, some considerable relief. We spent a month or
so in Gloucester where we met up with many friends. Mary
joined to help take the vessel south. We are now in Port
Canaveral on the coast of Florida where we will lay
Evanna up for some much needed maintenance.
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What
next? In the early New Year we hope to cruise part of
the Caribbean before we come to our "fork in the road".
Our choice will be either to transit the Panama Canal and
cross the Pacific back to Australia, or to sail Evanna back
across the Atlantic to Europe. At the moment we favour the
latter option as there are many places we missed in Europe
(such as the Baltic and the Adriatic Seas), and neither of
us feels that we have quite finished with sailing this
magnificent ocean traveller, which turns the entire world
into our own backyard.
Our
plan would be to sail north again to Halifax, Nova Scotia
and make passage (in mid May) due east to Brest on the NW
coast of France. From there we'd sail to the Baltic and
spend the summer before dropping down to the Mediterranean
for the following year.
If you
would like to join us anywhere along the way click
here for details.
Peter and Carol Evans
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