Progress Report 2 July 2005
How quickly the winter passed!, it seems such a short time ago that Northabout was safely laid up in a river barge in Khatanga.
The river ice is gone, time to launch Northabout as the barge is now needed so went the e-mail from our friends in Siberia. Tom Moran and I were waiting for that call for some time and were soon on our way.
A Lufthansa flight took us to Moscow and from there, a 5 hour Kras-Air flight to Krasnoyarsk, another four and a half hour flight to Norilsk, and the final leg a 2 hour flight to Khatanga. The border guards at Norilsk, were not happy with our visitors visa and held us for over an hour while we were checked out. Eventually they were satisfied that we were no threat to the state and allowed us to continue our journey. 'Welcome to Russia' said the officer in charge. We had the same difficulty on landing at Khatanga. With the inevitable delays between flights and checks at airports, two very tired crew checked into the hotel in Khatanga on Tuesday 14th June. Showers, hot water or flush toilets were not available in the hotel, which worsened our mood.
The town was in the process of recovering from the severe (minus 57 degree) winter. Heating and water pipes were being replaced, and the dirt roads re-surfaced.
Next morning a visit to the harbour brought more surprises, Valodia, our barge-man was out of town, nobody knew for how long, or the location of the barge containing Northabout.
The river was in full spate, and the harbour area unrecognisable under an estimated 10 metres of meltwater. With the help of our friend Vladimir and the assistant harbour master, we were assured of assistance in the morning. Maybe tomorrow was a phrase we were to hear many times over the next two weeks.
It was 16th June before we saw Northabout, still snug in its barge which was moored downstream. The harbour tug brought us out for a quick look, with a promise to bring us out to work on her in the morning. The engine started immediately, despite the on-board min / max thermometer recording a lowest winter temperature of minus 36 degrees.
The only casualties to the frost were Colms celebratory cache of champagne and the hot water calorifier, ruptured by ice. No more hot showers on this trip, though we hope Colm will re-stock!
The constant north wind force 6 to 7 against the river flow of 5 to 6 knots created a dangerous chop. The temperature generally was in the region of +2 to 3 degrees, with the novelty of 24- hour daylight.
In the morning after a couple of hours work, the tug came back to take us and other ships crew ashore, concerned for our safety, severe winds were forecast for the afternoon. Maybe tomorrow ok
As the days passed, Tom, the ships engineer, got through the list of work, including fitting the new depth sounder transducer and other work below the waterline.
Try as we might we could not get any commitment on a launch date. Eventually a contract to launch was signed, and we waited patiently. The lack of communication frustrating and exacerbated by our lack of Russian.
On 22nd June our barge was moved and moored alongside the floating crane. Tom and I were ready from early morning with slings in place. We waited and waited, and in the evening as we were about to give up hope of a launch, the crane crew swung into action and Northabout was in the water on the ninth day after our arrival in Khatanga. Stepping the mast was difficult in the windy conditions but was accomplished without any panic. The only damage was the loss of the VHF antenna.
On a lighter note, the waiting time was spent stocktaking the food on board, and to our delight, Tom found the missing stash of cheese, under Paddys bunk, matured and in perfect condition.
Northabout is now at anchor on the Khatanga River in the care of our good friend Vladimir Yurchenko. Without his help in dealing with officials and in translation, Tom and I would have literally been up the creek. The crew are all looking forward to returning to Khatanga in August and resuming our attempt on the North East Passage,
Jarlath.
Tom Natalia and Vladimir
Northabout at anchor in Khatanga
Tom with Cheese
Calorifier showing frost damage
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