We Continue To Wait…

Weather Chart

The accompanying picture is the a representation of the subject of all our attention; an ice chart from The Canadian Ice Service.  We download these charts once a day and try to get a picture of the speed and direction of the ice melt.  The areas in red are 9-10/10ths ice, yellow are 7/10ths and the areas in green are 1-2/10ths ice, the later being ice that we can move through with very little problem.  If you look closely to the upper right of the large, red area you can see a lot of green with even some blue (we’re just to the upper left of this area), this was red only a few days ago.  This is good news in that a lead is opening up for us, but not quite ready.  Unusually high temperatures and an expected NE breeze will help open this even more giving us a clear run down to Gjoa Haven in perhaps four to five days.  Obviously this isn’t anything we want to rush so, we continue to wait; we read, sleep, eat, read, sleep and eat… and try to give one another as much space as possible. 

Years ago I had the great pleasure to do some work with and eventually became a friend of Ned Gillette’s.  If you don’t know of Ned’s exploits he was a world adventurer who ultimately met a very tragic demise.  He was a gentleman, a philosopher and a great mentor to many.  At one point he and I discussed “Expedition Manners”. Ned pointed out that at some point during an expedition one should develop the “Five Minute Rule”; think five minutes before you ask a question and wait five minutes before you answer one.  Happily we’re not quite there yet but it does keep running through my mind.