I have set my departure date as June 27. This is about 10 days later than I believed that I would go. Why the delay? No delay at all, just adjusting to ice conditions on the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Lots of ice still! Landfast ice breakup at Barrow is projected around the 1st of July. Then I need another 10 days to make sure that I have enough clear water to maneuver from hazards. I also have to worry about pan ice reforming. My boat will not be a great icebreaker.

I have one more major test with the Attu Voyager in the water on the 25th. She has been upgraded in many areas and all these changes have to be tested. Engine systems that were upgraded or rebuilt need to be thoroughly tested as a mechanical malfunction would be a serious and possibly fatal event. Many other systems can only be tested at the point of use and this bothers me a bit. It will be interesting as I get deeper into the journey and these systems are tested.

Logistically this is a very tough expedition. It is long, it is remote and it is bereft with unknowns. I am still unsure of how I will obtain enough sleep while in polar bear areas. How much fuel I will use and the cost? How many rubber slugs to take vs. real slugs? Will my siren based bear perimeter give me enough warning when sleeping on ice or on the barrier islands? Communications, how will this work without satellite phone coverage? In late September will brown bears bother me as they are looking for as many calories as they can find? Will my name become calories to them?

These are some of the questions that I have not been able to answer completely. These are some of the issues that I will probably not answer until the moment that they present themselves. Exciting huh! Well that is what I think too and that is why I am looking forward to this adventurous challenge.

Just prior to my leaving and after the last engine and mechanical, I will write and post a final update. On this one I will detail each system and each section of the journey. This should be interesting for anyone wanting to do a long trip and to others just watching and wondering how one prepares for a never before attempted adventure.

Just relaxing and doing a little expedition work. It is my birthday so my time to kickback and have a nice dinner.
Did do my normal weather checks in the arctic. Bering Sea is mostly ice free south of the Bering Straits. Chukchi Sea is still mostly ice covered with some holes near Point Lay and west. Barrow is still froze in. On the Beaufort Sea some holes exist offshore of the Mackenzie area but not nearly passable. Air temps in Kotzebue and Nome are about 55 in the daytime and freezing at night. On the north coast temps do not get much above the freezing line. No sunbathing up there yet.
Tonight I will get my shotgun, finally found what I want, Mossberg 500 with no choke. Good dependable weapon and fairly inexpensive.
working on the boat and more gear preparations daily. just poking along. I am not at all excited about the trip. I look forward to it but excited, no. If you get to high or low dissappointment can become an issue. Just stay calm and focused on the mission.
That is what is new. Enjoy your day.

Getting closer and planning is continuing as is procurement of gear. This past week I bought a new sonar/fishfinder unit. The one on the Voyager had seen better days long ago. I also found a purchased two new 1200 GPH bilge pumps. This takes my bilge capacity to almost 3000 GPH which I hope to never need but if I do this will add to my safety immeasurably. Next week I get to install all this new hardware.

I also have all my food bought and just about packaged for the expedition. Let me tell you there is ‘ a lot’ of food. Over three months packaged and sorted in waterproof dry bags of stuff sacks. The logistics on this expedition are complex and have to be done correctly.

I conditions are continuing to change on a daily basis. Much of the Bering Sea is passable as are chunks of the Chukchi. A few small open patches are present on the Beaufort Sea but nothing that would allow for a safe passage. The projections for landfast ice breakup at Barrow is late June to mid July, still a bit early to tell exact dates.

Otherwise, things are going well in this logistics phase. Still lots to do before we do the actual boat testing in Lake Pleasant near Phoenix. That will happen probably late next week. All should go well as we are not see any problems.

As for me I am not getting excited yet, just working hard to get this right. If I do not get things right, things can get bad in a hurry.

Just planning and procuring more material. Ice conditions are changing daily in the area. At least 50% of the ice has disappeared from the Bering Sea in the past month, Chukchi Sea has open pockets near Kotzebue and the first area is opening up close to Point Lay on the arctic coast. Beaufort Sea is still showing no open areas. That should happen as the main rivers experience breakup. Upper Yukon is broken and I suspect so is the upper Mackenzie. That is a hurdle I just have to wait for. Traditional breakup at Barrow for landfast ice is around July 5th or so. After that I need to give it a week or so to get safe passage in larger leads, otherwise i can get iced in and that is really bad.
Monday I have a mech test my boat motor for compression and many other engine checks. This is the final engine and mechanical check for the boat. Then I take it onto Lake Pleasant north of Phoenix to do final runin checks with fuel flow, trim and propellor specs. If all this checks that is the final thing that can stop this expedition. It should checkout fine but it is a machine, as in space shuttle. It will also give me an indication of my fuel consumption per hour. That is important as this will give me my range per tank and how much fuel I need to bring in jerry cans. Another bad thing would be to run out of fuel as supplies are far and few.
Otherwise things are progressing and I cannot wait to go. Just patiently waiting to pull the chain on this one.

The newest ice updates for the Bering Sea are considerable ice melting south of Nome. Large areas around the Kamchatka Peninsula are ice free as in most of the areas north of the Aleutians. The first small section of open water is being observed on the southern Chukchi Sea close to Kotzebue. No open water is observed north of Kotzebue, either on the Chukchi or Beaufort Sea. The Bering Sea ice has broken up with a certain amount of speed possibly not seen there as the norm. My satellite images do not see pancake ice so there are possibly sections still covered by this thin ice layer.

Atmospheric temps are rising as well with temperatures in the Yukon Basin as high as 48 in Eagle. The Yukon River at that point has not broken but should fairly soon. Typical breakup is about May 6 and this year’s prediction is around May 10. Nome temps are above freezing during the day. Barrow is still cold, subfreezing, but is getting closer to that above 32 degree mark. Farther north, at Sachs Harbor, the sun has had a difficult time warming this place. Temps are still well below the freezing mark. Sachs Harbor is about 1000 miles south of the North Pole. I may be getting that far north, just depends on the polar bears and the sea conditions. Getting caught in open water in a 17 foot boat would not be conducive to enjoying my next birthday. There are a few hazards on this trip, the ocean being a large impediment to survival but a sport challenge at that.

Otherwise planning is progressing well. In a week or so I will be introducing the two people that will keep you informed as to the where, what and why when I am up there. Dee and Steve will be adding weekly updates with position and a descriptive narrative of the expedition. I will update this later. It will be entertaining.

Lastly for this evening the updates will be weekly at least. My communications systems are a bit more primitive this time as I am a bit out of the local cell and even satellite systems. Much of my trip will be around 1300 miles from the North Pole, some even closer. North of Barrow is the small Canadian village of Sachs Harbor. Sacks Harbor is a huge city, about 300 people, so one can understand why the cell phone companies are not clamoring to establish new towers and expensive systems. After Sachs Harbor the next place is Santa Claus village and he has his own communication system.

I would need a fixed base unit to get dependable satellite service and this would sink my little pirate ship. So I will be communicating when I can with my cell, like in Barrow, Prudhoe Bay, Kotzebue and possible a couple other areas that I can sneak a signal. In short at times you will be reading the blog and finding out that I have not been heard from in a week or so. I am sure that the blog will still be entertaining just not too informative. I will try to get a message out so people can see this expedition unfold. I am looking at another option but it seems like a long shot. This involves 2 tin cans and a really large spoon of string!!

Hope all have a great summer. I sure will be.

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