Exped Report 4 - Waiting for Wind

I rang the Met Office with my fingers crossed. After 5 days on the East Coast waiting for a weather window we weren't expecting good news but I was still hoping for a miracle. Yesterday the Met Office had told us that the system of high pressure sitting over Greenland and suppressing the wind was likely to stick around for at least a fortnight. This was terrible news. We had 15 days left before we had to be on the Western edge of the ice sheet – some 530km away. If there was no wind we'd be unable to use our kites and have to walk back. It had taken a supreme effort to cross the ice sheet in 16 days – If we were forced to walk, how long could we afford to wait before we started back on foot?

Despite prayers, crossed fingers and lucky charms the Met Office confirmed what they had said the night before. We were unlikely to get any wind for at least 7 days and even then it was likely to be in the wrong direction for our crossing. The news was the end of any hope we had of challenging the World Speed Record. We couldn't risk waiting on the East coast any longer. The following day we had to set off for the west coast on foot. We had left ourselves just 15 days to make the crossing.

Every day we hoped that the wind would pick up. It did, eventually, but in the wrong direction. The ultimate slap in the face was to find ourselves battling against a 25 knot headwind. Finally the Met Office offered us some hope. They forecast light winds in the right direction. All day we were twitching, sensitive to any change in the direction of the wind but it stubbornly refused to swing around. A few days later the Met Office once again forecast ideal winds. Kites ready we started walking, stopping every time the wind seemed to pick up. Twice we got the kites up in the air to test the wind – but it wasn't quite strong enough to pull both us and the weight of our pulks. Next day, with only two hours sleep, we woke to a tent flapping gently in the wind – this was it!! The joy of having all four kites in the sky after such a long wait was short lived. Jenny emerged from a pile of broken ski's and twisted traces. She was fortunately unscathed but it was a sign that the wind had become too strong and too gusty for us so we called it a day.

With just three days to go and over 200km to cover our window of opportunity for kiting had closed. Now we had to concentrate on getting home.

Felicity