Yeva, Storm Tossed

It's been quite the day in Tuktoyaktuk for the Yeva and Sardinha 2. A major windstorm blew through yesterday with winds hitting 50 knots and associated coastal flooding. Locals say it's one of the worst storms they’ve seen in 40 years. The trip from Summer Harbor to Tuk last Friday was basically a race against time, trying to get to safe harbor before the winds arrived. Both ships made it in time, arriving at Tuk within an hour of each other, with enough time to get some provisions and find the most secure mooring they could before the storm hit.  

As it turned out, the low terrain of the Tuk Peninsula offered little protection from the wind, and water in the open, shallow bays rose with the storm. Ella Hibbert had to relocate the Yeva numerous times during the storm and was forced to cut rather than untie one of her mooring lines to make a quick escape when the pier to which the Yeva was attached became submerged in the floodwater. She tried anchoring the boat but the anchor wouldn’t hold, and the Yeva very nearly ran aground.

To top it all off, the alternator bolts rattled loose right when Ella needed the engine the most, but she managed to fix it with time and sheer determination and somehow managed to muscle the Yeva over to a large barge during the very height of the storm.

By late last night, the wind finally subsided and the Yeva and the Sardinha 2 were tied alongside each other, Ella and Tamara both utterly exhausted but safe.

The Arctic is warming up to four times faster than the global average, amplifying storms and contributing to sea-ice loss, shifts in atmospheric patterns, and changes to the jet stream. Warming also leads to more moisture in the air and generates more powerful storms that can deliver wind, rain, and heavy snow.

It's ironic that the same global warming that is melting the ice, making Arctic navigation easier, is also generating storms of such ferociousness that navigation is all but impossible, delaying boats with no choice but to hide from it. 

Ella notes that storms like that test every ounce of resilience, but also remind one of the raw, unfiltered reality of solo Arctic sailing.

Update: As of 3:00 pm EDT, Ella and Tamara are both on the move again, having pulled out of their mooring in Tuk. Also, it may be quite a long while until this is possible again, but here's a Google maps street view of the harbor they were moored in this morning (it's that blue spot of water on the horizon near the center of the photo). Imagine facing 50-knot winds with that little protection!