Fishing at Midnight

What do you do at midnight when the sun’s still up and you can’t sleep? You go fishing.

Still in Sisimiut, waiting for crew. Chauncey & Greg fly in this afternoon around 4:00. Shouldn’t be hard to know if there flight is on time as daily it comes in around 100’ over our heads. In past blogs I’ve mentioned some of the mechanical problems we’ve been having aboard and our successful and not-so-successful work-arounds. While we did have to buy the upgrade from Nobeltec, and we’re still dealing with our Sea Recovery watermaker issues, our Iridium/Open Port satellite situation was handled with all the professionalism and expediency I’d expect from such a large company. Open Port basically gives us our Iridium satellite connection via Telaurs (I think I have this right and guys, please send me a “comment” if I don’t). Since we left Newport uploading these blogs and video clips as well as phone calls via satellite had been problematic. Once I got a handle as to how things were working on this end I had land based co-producer Matt Dutra start making phone calls. Very happy to say that Open Port and Telaurs acted like the consummate pros they are and within hours some trouble shooting was done on their end. Happier yet to report that for the past day the files have upload very quickly and without a glitch. (Thank you Sidney et al!)

We plan to leave for Disko Island in another day or so, just waiting to see how the off-shore winds shake out. As it is we’re ahead of schedule so an extra day here may help the new crew get settled in. Disko Island is considered the birth place of all things iceberg and draws special excitement for me as this is where the historic part of the trip begins. It was Francis M’Clintock aboard his 177 ton ship “Fox” who staged out of here July 1857 when he went on his search and hoped for rescue mission for the missing Franklin Expedition, who themselves were searching for the Northwest Passage some ten years earlier. Franklin’s crew of 128 men as well as his two ships “Erebus” and the “Terror” simply vanished off the face of the earth (Eventually over 40 expeditions were sent to try and find them. It was M’Clintock who later found cannibalized bodies on King William Island – but I’m getting ahead of myself). Disko Bay also plays host to the amazing Greenland Ice Cap as well as the great Jakobshavn Isfjord, both considered environmental “barometers” in the ongoing global warming concerns.