19 August 2007:Adrian Flanagan has spent the last days of his ‘vertical’ circumnavigation maneuvering around dangerously thick ice drifts off Ostrov Peschanyy ( see previous story here ). As a result he has decided to drop anchor and hope that the ice soon thins and breaks – and catch up on some sleep:

“I finally dropped anchor at 08:00 local time on Saturday 18 August. Ostrov Peschanyy is not so much an island but an ovoid bar rising no more than 2 metres above sea level enclosing a lagoon with some breaks in the southeastern quadrant. It measures 4 miles across at its widest and is home to a defunct light and a seemingly large number of walrus rookeries. I tried maneuvering into the more sheltered waters of the lagoon but being within the 5 metre contour line I wasn’t hopeful.

“Sure enoughBarrabasbottomed about 300 meters in. I am now anchored off the north-western side, protected form the current south-easterly. I will have to repositionBarrabasas the wind changes. She is dragging her anchor through wave action in winds of 15 knots and more. But the bigger danger is the drift ice, which tends to move more on the currents than with the wind. The currents tend to circulate around the island and the closest I can get inshore is about 1/3 mile and that leaves me with 4 feet of water under the keel. There is unfortunately not much to see and less to photograph. The island lays shrouded in mist and fog a lot of the time so I have to maintain a regular ice watch. But I have been able to catch up on sleep. The plan is to wait here until the ice around and through Proliv Vil’kitskogo begins to thin and break.”