Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

By Randall

July 2

Under power for Sand Point with 50 miles remaining.

We departed Geographic Harbor in sunshine at about noon on Monday, having eased Mo slowly into several of the more private coves and bays and after but one evening and one morning in this fantastic anchorage. Destination: Sand Point in the Shumagin Islands 275 miles to the SW. All day and all night and all the next day, a following breeze with just enough oomph to make one wish he could sail at its pace, but we have motor sailed instead, knocking off the miles at a steady 7 knots.

Because already we are men on a schedule. 

Weeks ago Harmon sent a text. “I just found out there’s another boat ahead of us. They’re already at Dutch Harbor!”  

“Harmon,” I replied, “the Northwest Passage is not a race. The cheechakos always get there (i.e. to the ice) too early.”

And not without experience, that remark.

In 2014, Arctic Tern, skippered by Les and Ali Parsons and for whom I crewed, departed Upernavik, Greenland to cross Baffin Bay and arrived in Canada’s Lancaster Sound on July 26. Following that, she bopped around S Devon Island for a whole two weeks waiting for ice to clear in Peel Sound and Prince Regent Inlet just to the south. 

I noted to myself not to make the same mistake. But when on the same route in 2019, Mo crossed from Sondre Upernavik (the above village’s neighboring sister), arriving in Lancaster Sound on the same day, July 26. She was the last boat in the tiny fleet of Arctic voyagers, and all of us were, as at least I should have expected, stopped until the ice cleared further on.

With so much to explore in Greenland, why do we all cross too early? Because it’s hard to enjoy one’s present surroundings with so many uncertain miles in one’s future. 

I can feel it happening now as we make for Sand Point and leave to starboard Alaskan mountains carved out of the sky and their deep, quiet bays. I wish to reject the rush. Why pursue a distant prize when the jewel in the lotus is right here? This was Tillman’s lesson, who gave up sailing to the distant south for the pleasure garden in his own back yard, Greenland. 

Thrice today I have suggested to Harmon the fun of a summer in the Aleutians over the sure difficulties up north, thrice rejected. We have a goal, I am reminded, and it will not be repudiated. I get it. We need to make miles, but I’ll bet you now that we arrive too early!

To my knowledge, there are two other boats making for the NWP from the west. Finnish boat Lumi has already arrived at Nunivak Island and French Que Sera looks to cross an Aleutian pass into the Bering Sea very soon.

Lumi tracker here.

Que Sera tracker here.