6 AUGUST 2005 - PORT LEOPOLD - SOMERSET ISLAND
click here for detailed map of
positions and progress
Present position 73 52 North 90 17 West
After almost one week in the area we have not gone very far. We are now
anchored in 10 meters in Port Leopold, a south facing bight at the northeast
corner of Somerset
Island.
We have discovered there are a staggering 8 sailing vessels in the Canadian
Arctic with hopes of completing the Northwest Passage and we are all engaged
in a waiting game.
Two boats have overwintered in Cambridge Bay , a major settlement, which is
more or less the halfway point. They are still beset. A Norwegian boat was frozen
in last fall near Antarctic Bay another community just to our east in
Admiralty Inlet. He is now released. Three of us are starting from the east
and two more from the west. We will no doubt run into them all at some point
(read on). I have records that date from Amundsen’s completion of the first
transit in 1906 up to 2001 and I can count ten vessels who I consider to be
yachts of some description that have made it (all within the last thirty
years). In the last four years there have been several more, so although it is
not yet a cruising ground as such, we can say “it has been discovered.”
When we left Resolute on July 31st we only made 20 miles before motoring into
a cul de sac of 8/10’s pack. We backtracked to Resolute, and before
re-entering the bay met a
polar bear on a floe who had just devoured a baby seal.
Polar Bear off Resolute
He swam away from us with alacrity looking over his shoulder from time to
time. Early the next morning, after studying the latest ice chart, we left
Resolute for the second time and struck southeast into the middle of Barrow
Strait where we found a gap in the pack not far from
Somerset Island. We rode the edge of the sea ice under sail with 15 knots of
wind under glorious sunshine, and anchored at Beechey Island in Erebus and
Terror Bay by mid
afternoon.
Franklin wintered his two ships Erebus and Terror here in 1845/6 when things
were still going well for him, but the death of three of his crew during that
first season, a high
mortality for the genre on year one, was an early indicator of worse things to
come. The graves are now part of the Franklin collection of memorial sites
that follow a trail
of tragedy along a part of the Northwest Passage.
Henk with Beechey Isthmus in the background
Here at Beechey, you can see not only the graves, but the ruins of a
supply depot and shelter which served as a base for the dozens of Franklin
relief expeditions that were deployed during the late 1840’s and throughout
the 1850’s. Taking turns we covered most of the high and low ground on Beechey
including a walk across the mile long isthmus (awash at high spring tides)
which connects this outlyer to Devon Island.
Pelagic Australis at Beechey Island
The next morning, low and behold, a Bowman 57 called Cloud Nine pulled into
the anchorage. I had met skipper Roger Swanson in the Antarctic in 1992. This
was his second try
at the NWP, having failed for the usual reasons (too much ice) 10 years ago.
He was on his way to Resolute to buy an Iridium phone as his HF communications
were down and he
had no way of gleaning any forward information on ice conditions which was the
key to getting through. His was a GRP hull, so they would need very ideal
conditions.
We left that afternoon for Gascoyne Bay, just around the corner to the east on
Devon. There was no movement in the ice in Peel Sound and Prince Regent Inlet
which is the
other possibility to access the southern archipelago via Bellot Strait that
separates Somerset Island from the mainland which was still choked with
various concentrations of
pack.
Caswell Tower Summit view
Next day we climbed up a promontory called Caswell Tower which
overlooked both Gascoyne Bay to the west and Radstock Bay to the east.
Michele on Caswell Tower
A Thule archeological site predating present Inuit culture believed to be 500
to 1000 years old is at its base with
dwelling foundations made from rock and whale bone. On top of this 300 meter
table top mountain with commanding views out over the vestigial sea ice in
both bays, was a refuge serving as a polar bear observatory, apparently
supported by helicopter.
In the distance I made out a ship back in Erebus and Terror Bay, who when
contacted by handheld VHF turned out to the Russian cruise ship, the Ioffe, a
perennial in Antarctic
waters. They were changing their guests at Resolute in two days time and also
told us that the Russian ice breaker Khlebnikov had just come through Peel
Sound and was now across on the other side of Barrow Strait. When contacted
the master of the Khlebnikov said conditions in Larsen Bay and Peel Sound with
multiyear sea ice was the worst he has seen since they made their first
tourist transit of the passage in 1992. Indeed, the ice charts showed Peel and
Larsen Bay to the south still fast to the shore, although a fracture was
predicted this week. The captain, however, had doubts it would clear this
season. This was not good news and a funk settled over the crew.
Then, for the first time since we boarded in Greenland almost two weeks ago,
the weather kicked in with a vengeance and we wound up sheltering back at
Beechey, this time on
the other side of the isthmus at Union Bay. It blew quite hard from the east
for two days and despite walks ashore (rocks, rocks and more rocks) the
reality set in that the Northwest Passage would not be a cakewalk. Patience is
the key. You need to have an innate ability to do nothing but bide your time.
Luckily our library is rich in the history of the area so many in our group
tried to better the others by lecturing themselves on the trials and
tribulations of Franklin, the Ross’s, Parry, Lyon, Beechey and Back and
others, all who had been deployed by the obsessive second secretary of the
British Admiralty Sir John Barrow between 1818 and 1845 (Franklin being his
swansong). “Barrows Boys” by Fergus Fleming is an excellent precis.
Ice charts on August 4th showed Cloud Nine firmly entrapped in Resolute Bay,
while we on the afternoon of the 5th decided to strike south for Port Leopold
in what appeared to
be a lull in the wind.
Mariacristina steers through the pack off Prince Leopold while skip keeps
ice watch.
Close reaching in some lumpy seas the 50 miles across Barrow Strait was run
down quickly but just before we hove into site of Prince Leopold Island off
Cape Clarence it piped up to 40 knots.
Barrow Strait Pack
We finished off with a staysail and three reefs, finally motorsailing through
2/10’s pack to Port Leopold arriving last night at 0100.
Mariacristina cooks pasta
The two Micheles prepare pizza
The polenta and sauce that was made on the way over was devoured immediately
after dropping the hook. At least we had changed location, but the geography
looked much the
same.
The high point this morning was finding a boulder on the beach with a neatly
carved “1849 E. I.” Back on board the Arctic chronology was consulted and sure
enough it was
James Clark Ross on a Franklin search expedition with HMS’s Enterprise and
Investigator.
Skip Novak
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