Good morning from Novara. We have 70 miles to go to Paamiut, Greenland. It’s 6am and I’ve just started my watch. Getting to Greenland has been years in the making. And the passage hasn’t been easy. After leaving Newfoundland we had a couple of days of fine weather, and encounters with our first icebergs carried south on the Labrador current – beautiful, majestic, and somehow forlorn. But then the wind and sea picked up and we had 2 days of being tossed around. And it got difficult to move around the boat. So, we all took to our bunks unless we had chores or watches.

Right now, the weather has changed again completely. Fog surrounds the boat in a thick blanket and with no wind the sea is as flat as a pancake. I’m peering at the radar, looking for the tell-tale pings of ice bergs. Nothing. Which is good in one sense – we’re not likely to hit anything. But it’s also a sign of the times.

This year marks another ‘record-low’ ice year. Every day we download the daily ice reports in the Arctic to check the conditions through the Canadian Arctic/Northwest Passage. And there’s very little ice. In fact, it looks like we could get all the way through to Bellot Straight, which usually wouldn’t open up until mid-late August, if at all. Living on the ocean, we are witnesses to climate changes that you just can’t see from a desk.

On board Novara we are settling into our roles. Which is an interesting experience for me in terms of my leadership. I’m surrounded by a team who are all more qualified than me. We have professional mariners and engineers and sailors who have sailed many more miles than me. And Veronica is a professional team builder. Yet, somehow, I have to be skipper on board. I’m used to having ‘authority’ vested in me by virtue of an employment contract that puts me in an organisational hierarchy. Out here, I have to establish myself on my own merits. To listen to all the experts, and make decisions. And sometimes let others make decisions without my role becoming redundant. I’m still finding the balance on that but I’m getting there.

Ok, back to watching the radar. Greenland here we come!