September 6. Waiting for high tide to raise the anchor, we enjoy again the sun for a picnic ashore. But it is time to sail south. Ice came close to the coast with the south-west wind. The light is beautiful. In support of its awareness message about Arctic lusts, Emmanuel with Catherine and Bénédicte are deploying 193 colourful flags on a nice ice floe. Vagabond is sailing around them to capture images of that symbolic moment. Emmanuel, committed writer, will send later his message to all countries. As expected, fog is coming and wind is picking up around one in the morning, Vagabond drops anchor near Littleton Island, in a small bay that dries up almost entirely at low tide! On land, we are still seeing a lot of remains of stone huts.

The next day the wind is still blowing hard when we seek an anchorage for exploring the island of Littleton. Having sailed all around, a part of the team manages to land in search of traces left by the explorers of the last century. Unfortunately the snow is hiding most of it, only the large cairn at the top of the island is easy to access. Again, we find a bottle and a message left by the crew of Dagmar Aaen, 4 years ago. Eric can still inspect the weather station repaired two years ago. The wind is strong, very strong at the top of the island. Vagabond is pushed by the wind, she quickly moves on to the nearest shelter, Kenrick Bay, waiting to pass the famous Cape Alexander. The wind dies down the following day, the road is radiant along the snowy coast. So quiet that the plankton net is launched, tiny and very red bodies are going crazy at the bottom of their bottle! In the night Vagabond drops anchor a few hours from Qaanaaq, one day ahead of the plane's departure of our friends.

Aurore and Eric are going ashore, splendid weather, while the rest of the team is sleeping in. But later, the ultimate picnic trip is suddenly cut short by severe storms. We rush to the beach as soon as possible. The sea, glassy before, is already rough when we are going back to Vagabond by dinghy. Very quickly, we get forty then fifty knots of wind, then sixty, even sixty five knots in gusts! The anchor doesn't hold, the sea is white, bits of icebergs are passing quickly nearby... We have to use the engines, all afternoon, to avoid drifting. Some worries, children's stories, everyone keeps busy on board, also admiring the sight outside, while tacking on the spot! The next morning the wind finally calm down, the anchor has drifted for 800 meters! Vagabond has just enough time to sail to the airport to drop off the team, without even going through the village.

Alone again, all four of us are going to visit Hans and Birthe, enjoying the nice weather, on land. By a happy coincidence we meet Marius and Naja, we were so warmly welcomed at their home in Savissivik two years ago. And we are disappointed that we cannot accept their invitation, since we're on the start, the weather window can not wait!

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