SAT 30TH July. 12 midday N76 19, E090 27 Pressure 999 water temp 5.4 outside temp 3 cloud 8/8 Drizzle. batt 13.2
Making steady progress East. We had the latest ice charts for the Vilkitskogo straight. Still blocked and the Laptev still blocked, but big changes from the last set of charts, and encouraging.
Nikolai and Dennis are having bets. Nikolai thinks it will be free on his birthday, the 9th Aug, and Dennis on his, 6th Aug . Either way, would mean a few days rest. We are heading for a small sheltered Island. Different to the first choice, as the ice from the North has come down and blocked it, so trying for another Island closer to shore and closer to the straight. So if anything dramatic changed quickly, we would be close to react. Ie, A strong southerly taking the ice from the shore.
Saw our first ICE today on my watch, just an hour ago. What is slightly worrying, it didn’t show up on the Radar. It’s probably good for the big icebergs, but not low ice in the water. I think we will see a lot more of that before the trip is out. You can’t beat that old eyeball.
We had a couple of days of rolling along. We use a lot of power this year. Chart plotter, Radar, Comms coming out of our ears, bread maker, water maker, In fact, we should have a small nuclear reactor on board.
Anyway, whilst we have a brute of an engine, we need a small Generator. We had this lovely brand new ‘Panda’ installed. Made in Germany. As we all know, tested to an inch of it’s life and can work upside down whilst making coffee. Except on the north east passage… It reminds me 30 years ago when I first went to Moscow, I went to the Russian space museum. They had the Apollo/ Soyuz capsule. The American gear looked shiny and expensive, the Russian rusty but functional. It also reminded me of the story how the Americans spent thousands on developing an anti gravity pen, the Russians spent $1 and used a pencil.
SO, this lovely shiny panda broke down. OMG Panic on board. How would we cook our bread, send back emails and wash our teeth ? So the Russians, Comrade Nikolai and Comrade Denis, They know one English swear word starting with F and a German swear word starting with S, and quite a lot of Russian swear words beginning with B. They have taught me well !!
So the Panda stops. F Panda, German S. With lots of laughter. So floor boards come up, they strip down, lots of Russian, tweaks, spanners out, F & S.
These guys are extremely bright, probably both have electrical mechanical degrees in Nuclear power technology. SO, circuit diagrams come out, lots of F &S, lots more tweaks and spanners. Nothing. Dead as a Donkey !! F& S.
Comrade Nikolai comes from the age of being a Khrushchev baby. Nothing was thrown away, you made it work. He built his car engine from scraps of baked bean cans, Anyway, he goes to the tool chest, comes back with a hammer. Taps something, BINGO !!!! The Panda started. Lots of F and German S and laughter.
We need to celebrate with a Vodka.
David
7 Comments. Leave new
The story about space pens and pencils is false. Both programs initially used pencils. An American private company developed a pen that would work anywhere.
The Americans immediately used it, as they were worried about wood shavings, and especially graphite shavings, interfering with electronics and as a fire hazard.
A year after the Yanks ordered the pens, at about 3 bucks a pop, the Russians ordered 100 for Soyuz. At the same price.
So, it is actually a tale of capitalism delivering a product that neither US nor USSR governments could.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/
Thankyou for that revelation! I can’t check that link right now really. But I’ll take your word for it. Yes wood shavings, that makes sense but what about a retractable pencil had they been invented then?
Where we sail we have the odd problem of debris, mainly tree sections or other pieces of broken off timber. These tend to be dark and contrast with the water so generally are not too difficult to avoid in a slow speed vessel. As the conditions worsen it’s easier to ‘hide something’ in the surface ‘noise’. So they become a bigger worry. I don’t imagine that ice is easy to see in small, but still potentially dangerous chunks. I recall that local Mariners used to call them ‘growlers’ as that was the noise these mini bergs made scraping down the sides of slow moving steel ships during passage. Not a pleasant sound.
It appears that recent weather conditions have set the body of ice in motion towards the Laptev Sea and Severnaya. I cannot estimate their momentum or ability to fractionally dissipate but near the Russian mainland the wind still appears to be from the east and north pulling local ice into the gap between these islands and the mainland and bring low temperature anomalies onto the local landmass.
Sea surface temperature anomalies are high very near your position so the clearing of the North East Passage is a battleground of ice flow against surface energy. Hard one to call. You do need a change in the wind just now.
Well written and entertaining story about the generator. I wonder if Russians are familiar with S*ds Law. The underlying force of nature that says if something can go wrong, at the worst possible time, it probably will. Surely this must be multiculturally understood?
Stay safe. Best regards to all.
Great blogs, team. I’m here at 02.59 hrs still reading them. Wish I was with you. Graham
Hey thanks for the feedback. You could be sitting on anchor watch instead at 02.59!
Good blog very informative I can see all in my minds eye.
Sending positive healthy vibes to you all.
Julie (Walking poet)
Good to hear about your travels. .it s Tim here who went with David and Ros to South Pole
Its interesting that as part of that expedition legacy we digitised the diary of Wordie one of Shackletons scientists. We had some other funds for digitisation and the Scott Polar wanted to digitise meteorological records from Royal Navy
vessels involved in the 19th Century exploration of the Northwest
Passage, Arctic Canada. Let me know if you are doing any scientific records as there could be a comparison
Best of luck and hope the Panda clings on , Best Tim Holmes