This year Labrador was the great cruising ground I had remembered. Less ice than last year (apart from the 64 sq km Peterman ice island which calved off northern Greenland) but more whales than you could poke a stick at. Roaring along at 8 knots near Cartwright Harbour we missed a humpback by no more than 5 feet and I still shudder to think of the outcome had the gods not been smiling on us that day.
We had a cold and windy but uneventful trip from Labrador, up Denmark Strait to Iceland. Greenland Ice Service having confirmed that Prinzchristiansund was well and truly chockablock with ice, with much regret we left Greenland for another day and passed 200 miles south of Kap Farvel, one of the world’s notoriously windy capes, and set course into Denmark Strait to Reykjavik. It was an uncomfortable 10 days at sea, including 24 hours hove to (a deep low passed right over us) – too long for this old bloke.
As crew, Mike was a brick – solid, reliable, tireless, and ever willing. It is easy to forgive his obstreperousness.