PROGRESS REPORT NO.9 Wed. Aug.31st. Goin' for Novaya Zemlya, south end.
We landed on White Island this morning; you'd have to, this island at the top end of the Yamal Peninsula. Michael is going do a write up on that.
Well we stopped into Dickson as planned and the less said about that unfortunate place the better. We sent on a couple of pictures, the big three-wheeler-we never saw the dude who rides it. And the picture of the dockside scene would hardly have you rushing to your travel agent.
However we got our diesel there and filled our water tank, all in very fast order. And come to think of it the craic we had in the café-bar that opened up specially for us on the Monday night wasn't at all bad. We'd had a 'banya' in the afternoon and maybe it was the euphoria of being so clean!
24 hours after arriving we were to sea again, in the fog. This is a foggy place. All around the mouth of the Yenesi River it's foggy 15 days in the month at this time of the year. With our GPS and Radar and electronic charts the fog is not a problem.
Unless of course one of the freight vessels coming down the river from the huge mines of Norilsk happened to be converging! It hasn't happened, the Yenesi and the River Ob are behind us, it's sunny and warm.
It wasn't so in 1912 for our hero Valerian Albanov. He was first officer on the 'Saint Anna'. They intended to traverse the North East Passage to the Pacific Ocean.
'Saint Anna' became trapped near here in the ice of the Kara Sea, and drifted northwards towards the Pole for one and a half years.
Albanov, leading 13 men, left 'Saint Anna' and made an epic three month journey over ice and sea to safety in Franz Joseph Land.
His story is in the book 'In the Land of White Death'-charming! Happily ice is no longer a problem for us, just wind and weather now.
It' 800 miles to Murmansk, we'll be passing Novaya Zemlya, but can't stop there. It's high security and all that, and maybe somewhat radioactive too, between nuclear testing and occasional dumping of the bad stuff.
Our current problem, isn't there always something, is that in 6 days, Tuesday next, there's a forecast for the father and mother of a westerly gale. We are trying to get to Murmansk before it hits.
So we're hammering on, into headwinds at the moment, using engine and sail, when it helps, trying to cover ground fast. Happy days, if uncomfortable.
Dickson Docks
Northabout at Dickson Docks
Motorbike Outside Dickson Banya
