June 21, 2002 | The Tamara has been on it's current voyage for three weeks. Currently the Tamara has traveled up the east coast of Nova Scotia and traveled through Bras D'Or Lakes, Cape Breton Island. The Tamara has crossed over to the west coast of Newfoundland and is currently in Corner Brook about half way up Newfoundland.

Mark and Nancy have plans to continue up the Newfoundland coast to Port Au Choix and then cross over to the southern coast of Labrador, and travel up the Labrador coast. There is still ice on the Labrador coast north of Cartwright but we're hoping it will be gone when we get there in approximately two weeks.

From north Labrador we will cross over to Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island. Then cross to Greenland, a big maybe. Back down the Labrador coast and continue southwest along the north coast of Quebec (this will be new to us.) Finally back to Cape Breton and on to Maine.

The success of this trip, like the two previous adventures, will depend greatly on the sea ice. To find out what's involved in a safe North Atlantic voyage click here or get the June 2002 issue of Blue Water Sailing and read Nancy and Mark's article on page 44.

July 3, 2002 | We arrived in Battle Harbour June 28th after stopping in L'Anse aux Loop (Schooner Cove) and Chateau Bay, both on the south Labrador coast. The number of small bergs visible increased each day we moved north as compared to previous years when we'd maybe have seen a few. There was a big tabular berg (picture 4) just outside Battle Harbour when we arrived but it has shrunk quite a bit since we arrived. The view from here of the Straits of Belle Isle has been spectacular with as many as 15 bergs visible at one time. Gale force winds have blown the last couple of days (from the SW, helping to clear the ice from the coast) but we're hoping to leave tomorrow and slowly make our way north. The bergs are clearly visible posing no problem to our progress. The last ice report we saw while in Corner Brook a week ago had the ice at Cape Harrison, a 3 day sail from Battle Harbour. To date we've met 2 boats - one hoping to make Greenland and the other circumnavigating Newfoundland, none heading to Northern Labrador (it's still a bit early for most).

I've attached some photos I took in Battle Harbour with our very funky digital camera but they'll give you an idea of the area. We're able to check email here and maybe in Makkovik, about 10 days from here. North of Makkovik there will be no way to check email.

July 20, 2002 | By the number of icebergs we were seeing from Battle Harbour, on the southern coast of Labrador, the ice pack might be later than last year in clearing the coast. All the ice charts we had seen showed that there was still ice at Cape Harrison. During our 5 days at Battle Harbour we'd go to the top of the island and enjoy the spectacular view of the southern coast and Belle Isle. One day we saw a long, narrow patch of loose pack ice off in the distance.

July 4th we took off again hoping that the way would be clear by the time we reached Groswater Bay. On July 6th we heard the m/v Sir Robert Bond, a small passenger/freighter coming out of Goose Bay, on the VHF radio. We hailed her to see if they had word on the ice conditions. The word was that there was still ice at Cape Harrison. Knowing it might be days before we could proceed north, and wanting to do "city" business, we decided to head into Cartwright. And while in Cartwright we knew we could check current ice charts on the web.

Cartwright (Photo 6) is a community of about 500 people. While there we paid bills; bought provisions; tried to take a hike everyday; and got invited to dinner one night. If it was sunny and no wind, the black flies were treacherous. After a week, the ice chart started to look promising and we needed to feel we were making progress, so we took off once again.

A few hours out of town we began to see lose pack ice on the horizon and about half way across Groswater Bay we realized that we were going to have to alter our course westward (to shore) if we wanted to clear the ice. A large tongue of ice had come into the Bay and was too thick for us to punch through. There was enough space to the West to push through and we continued to the north shore. But once we reached the north shore our way was blocked again and we were forced to head 15 miles west up Harrison Inlet to anchor for the next 2 nights.

On July 17th we tried again and were able to get into Smokey Tickle, an outpost on the north side of Groswater Bay. The following morning was clear and sunny and we left early to make our attempt at clearing Cape Harrison and reaching clear, inside waters. The sea was littered with many small icebergs and remnants of the pack ice, but the way was clear and after waiting for over 2 weeks we finally (Photo 7) rounded Cape Harrison. Last year we had rounded Cape Harrison 10 days earlier.

We're currently in Makkovik taking on fuel and will leave by 10 am this morning (July 20, 2002) for Hopedale. There shouldn't be any more problems with ice until we reach the north Labrador and that's almost a week away. This will probably we our last opportunity for e-mail for a while.