10 06 99

Position: 66° 33' 52" N 44° 32' 36° W

Diane's note: Once again there were gaps in the transmission. Those have been noted by ...

Today we crossed the Arctic circle...a very big deal. Today was our very first day that you could call a gift from above. It's the first day where the surface conditions have been ideal, crisp but not rock hard, soft enough to give...your skis...but still hard so you could get a real drag on the sled...

We had a wind partially following us, partially to our side which meant that we were able to sail effectively most of the day and then the wind died down in the evening. We actually achieved 32.4 kms. today which is by far and away our best day and we did it in a shorter time than our normal travel time as well. We were able to stop an hour earlier once the wind died.

At this rate we're feeling very optimistic. We're definitely on the downhill side now. The surface is definitely way, way better. Even if we don't get good wind conditions we know we can sled-haul in these conditions much, much further than we were able to do on the other side. We're feeling very optimistic that we're going to finish right on schedule. I know that the people following us on the web site probably don't think so (chuckle). We've been optimistic about it...

...still heading for DYE II although today's course was a little off. We couldn't sail directly because of the angle of the wind but DYE II is only about ... kms. away now..

...in the last two days we've done 55 kms. The weather is nice this evening....flat calm at the present time....

End of transmission

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