Pat Hahn worked his way through college on big dredges (almost calls for a burst of Marvinspeak - btsoap and here I am dredging gravel. Who needs gold?) - he says that they are classified by their bucket size. Yesterday's pic of the burned out pile of metal was actually quite a small one, with 5 ft buckets, all driven by a belt from the engine to the gearbox - you can see part of the drive train in the pic. There are to others out in the boonies a bit further with 9 ft buckets. Real monsters - I'll go and try and find one if we are here for long enough. Pat, as a volunteer fireman, attended the dredge fire - nothing they could do except stop it spreading.
Our Spanish friends on Amodino left yesterday. Ambitious, in my humble opinion, but a 75 ft, 60 ton steel boat with huge engines, so a very different equation. I will call them in the morning to see how they are going. We are here for at at least a couple more days, I think. Weather up north not encouraging, but signs the ice is beginning to break up in Queen Maud. If you have google earth, you cal zoom in on Cambridge bay, look NE of the houses, across the bay, and you will find the remains of Amundsen's boat Maud. Sad end.
Our Spanish friends on Amodino left yesterday. Ambitious, in my humble opinion, but a 75 ft, 60 ton steel boat with huge engines, so a very different equation. I will call them in the morning to see how they are going. We are here for at at least a couple more days, I think. Weather up north not encouraging, but signs the ice is beginning to break up in Queen Maud. If you have google earth, you cal zoom in on Cambridge bay, look NE of the houses, across the bay, and you will find the remains of Amundsen's boat Maud. Sad end.
