click here for detailed map of positions and progress
Present position 72 45 North 77 28 West

We have turned back from our attempt at the Northwest Passage and are now lying at the north of Baffin Island in a spectacular anchorage under high ground.

On August 12th another sat photo and ice chart showed little or no movement in Peel and Larsen Sounds and the ice guru’s predictions about a late August open water route or the possibility of these sounds not clearing at all seemed to be holding. The majority of our team on board had to fly back to Europe on the 20th, so a decision was made to retreat east into Lancaster Sound to be in Pond Inlet by the 19th. This seemed the only sensible way to spend the time in hand. Even if we managed to get them off in Resolute by the 20th, and then forced a route through Peel and Larsen (if at all possible) by the end of August it would be a very late scenario in getting away safely to Point Barrow and beyond by mid September (when my insurance for this passage runs out!). Any problem along the way such as ice moving in shore in the Beaufort Sea, heavy westerly winds or mechanical breakdown could raise the risk of an over-winter by an unacceptable amount. We had calculated that to do this passage safely in one season we would need to be in Cambridge Bay by August 15th.

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Skip and Giovanni check shallows in Hazard Inlet

After this difficult, but obvious decision was made (anyone want to buy a set of unused Alaskan charts??), we could then relax after dinner and enjoy a fine arctic sunset in the continuing calm conditions. Dozens of narwhal had been in Hazard Inlet during that day, milling about feeding in the shallow water, and as the afternoon wore on they came marginally closer to the boat, the males occasionally raising their two meter tusks in the air.

Early the next morning we left what had been a relaxed anchorage (which are few and far between), and motored through 1/10th pack and ‘bergy water’ up through Prince Regent Sound encountering three pairs of bowhead whales, the largest of the truly arctic species.

Skip pilots north in Prince Regent

The breeze filled fresh northeast so we were just able to lay the coast on the Brodeur Peninsula of Baffin Island with three reefs, staysail and engine.

Giovanni, Michilino, Chuck, Michele

 Late that night it went calm again as we swung east and later turned south into Admiralty Inlet. We were heading for Arctic Bay, another Inuit community where we hoped to take on water and fuel. Meanwhile, Roger Swanson on Cloud Nine called in to say they were still in Port Leopold and would hang in for a few more days before making a decision on whether to continue.

Inuit family cruising in Adams Sound

The next afternoon we steamed east into Adams Sound to Arctic Bay. This village of 650 people lies nested in a well protected south facing bowl backed by steep hills and has deep water throughout. We anchored in 14 meters ‘downtown’ not far away from the Jotun Arctic, a 13 meter steel sloop that had over-wintered here.

Knut and Camilla on Jotun Arctic

I had been corresponding with Knut and Camilla on email, but we caught them here by surprise. Friends had just joined them on board and they were preparing to try and complete the passage. Having spent the previous winter in Greenland, they were also not intending to spend a third winter so if things did not clear they would also retreat to Baffin Bay by the end of the season.

Knut had ‘gone bush’ while in the Arctic, hunting with locals in both Greenland and in Arctic Bay and this spring participating on a 12 day dog sled race to another community (an annual event) with an Inuit family where he described the diet along the way as one of ‘near starvation.’ He also brought his own dogs from Greenland and was proceeding with only four, and faced the dilemma of either turning the other 10 dogs he had (they had multiplied) over to the locals, who treated their dogs cruelly (to his standards) or putting them all to sleep with an injection.

Mariacristina and Michele Arctic Bay huskies

In only takes one or two days to come to initial grips with these small communities, but if you want to really get to know the people and their ways you have to sign up for the long haul, the over winter scenario, as Knut and Camilla had done. Some of us were envious on board, and others . . . . well . . .

Fuel and water can be had by tanker truck, so were able to put our bow virtually on the rock and landfill jetty the village had built as a small boat shelter. The hoses were just long enough after some precarious re-positioning of the fuel truck.

Arctic Bay children watch us fuel

Various Inuit and especially a crowd of children had gathered to see this streaming maneuver in the strong offshore wind, as well as the crew of Jotun who faced refueling by filling dozens of Jerry cans ashore and taking them out in the dinghy. Shopping was easy in the two general stores and within a few hours all the chores had been completed.

On the morning of the 14th we left Knut and Camilla and guests to their dog dilemma and waved them goodbye wishing them luck for a successful NWP.

Again, calm conditions prevailed (we must pay for this at some point) all the way back in to Lancaster Sound and then through Navy Board Inlet which is the western entrance to Eclipse Bay and Pond Inlet. Big, majestic Greenland ice bergs from Melville Bay and farther north drift around into Lancaster Sound. They are a welcome and familiar sight, and signalled the end of the sea ice regime that had been ours for the last four weeks.
 

Wing and Wing for vis

We passed by the community of Pond Inlet which is open roads (and wondered how we would get our crew off for their flight in a heavy onshore wind) and continued for another ten miles to Albert Harbour, the only shelter for many miles around which is really a channel formed by the ridge backed Beloeil Island and the Baffin mainland. An old whaling bay, the pilot says it affords ‘good shelter in all winds’ (it is wide open to the east) and the chart shows 16 meters near the western entrance channel (it is 25 in reality). We searched this dramatic cove for some shallower holding ground, but found none so we dropped our nylon anchor rode off the stern in 35 meters and put the bow near the beach with a line ashore to a substantial boulder – the first time we had done this on the voyage other than for the Arctic Bay fuelling operation! An attractive flat top glacier berg was drifting around inside Albert Harbour, bouncing on the 60 meter bottom and was not only photogenic, but served to break the moderate swell of Baffin Bay entering the cove from the east.

Today the team is off to climb Mt. Morin at 1200 meters and hopes for fine views of the ice caps on Baffin and Bylot Island.

Skip Novak

Augusto bakes our daily bread

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