A misunderstanding

Suddenly, he burst out laughing. “No, we are leaving the fjord, heading east!” After a long pause on the line, the answer came. “Oh! Well, in that case you should be fine. The open sea ahead of you is pretty clear of ice.”

Unable to hear clearly on a terrible line, probably compounded by our language difficulties, the Ice Patrol had thought we were sailing in the opposite direction and into the pack ice we’d just left behind.

Gazing back at Greenland, on course to Iceland, the evening haze had transformed the island’s jagged peaks into layers of soft pastel tones, while the sun twinkled on gently undulating seas. Looking deceptively benign and inviting, it was hard to imagine that only hours earlier the same expanse of open water was awash with deadly ice bouncing freely in the swell.

Navigating ice-covered waters is as much art as science. Conditions change hourly and often unpredictably. Our misunderstanding with the Ice Patrol could have cost us dearly, but Magnus’s knowledge of high latitude sailing gave him confidence in his own judgment.

When it comes to high latitude sailing, ice charts and reports are invaluable navigation tools, but ultimately, human experience, judgment and intuition are key.