MingMing on Ice

[Gargleblaster]

Our most intrepid Jester has done it again. Roger Taylor in his junk rigged Jester and can you believe without an engine, has been not only to the Arctic circle but beyond. He has a photo of his GPS with 72degN on it.

A video of his most amazing encounter with ice can be found here, with not a G&T in sight. http://www.thesimplesailor.com/video.html
What I worry about is how he slept that night. I think I would have had to heave to for fear of running into a berg and doing a Titanic. Of course Roger, in his unsinkable Corribee probably has no such fear.

There is a very good summary of Roger's voyage on the Royal Corinthian at Burnham site here:
http://royalcorinthian.co.uk/newsstory/2000346/roger-and-mingming-make-a-safe-return

If you are out there anywhere Roger, I for one would like to know how you slept after encountering that ice.

 

[JunkMing]

Thanks John. I've been away for a few days collecting Mingming from Whitehills Harbour. In the ice I had to adopt the same sort of sleep/watch pattern as one would if, say, in fog off the Lizard i.e. the most severe possible. The big advantage up there in July is that there is of course no real night. The bergs and floes were reasonably visible at distance. The problem was the smaller bergy bits - often just the size of a football above the waterline, and therefore not so visible, but maybe six or seven feet across under the water. As you see on the video (there'll be another ice video posted very soon) I also shortened sail in the ice, so was moving very gently, just enough to give decent steerage way. Singlehanded in Mingming it was not viable to spend a protracted time in drift ice. I just wanted a look-see, to feel, just once in my life, what it was like to be there. I was very lucky to encounter that first patch of magical and reasonably benign ice in perfect conditions, except for the fog (although that added, I suppose , to the ghostliness and unworldliness of the whole scene). The next day things eventually got much nastier and I high-tailed it out of there double-quick. I did, after all, want to live to tell the tale.

There's a write-up with a few more photos on my website:

http://www.thesimplesailor.com/voyages.html

Hope you had a good summer.

Roger

 

[CPD]

Inspirational as ever Roger. Glad you are back safe.

 

[Lee_Shaw]

Amazing, Roger you have to write another book, soon.

I'm mightily disappointed though that you apparently used a GPS! Whatever next? Triangular sails?