26 AUGUST 2005 - DAVIS STRAIT
click here for detailed map of
positions and progress
Position at 0300 UTC 57 45 North 57 00 West
Back In Baffin Bay
Temperatures are getting warmer as we move south only two days away from the
Straits of Belle Isle that separate Newfoundland from the Canadian mainland –
and we haven’t seen a piece of ice for the last 24 hours. We have seven hours
of darkness now – a novelty - the aurora borealis and a waning half moon have
taken advantage of it to entertain us tonight.
Our group of Italians left us in Pond Inlet on the 20th and flew back to Milan
leaving Chuck and Henk and I to push the boat south to Maine, with the
addition of Mohrgan, a Canadian kayaker who we 'pressed' off the beach.
Henk and Augusto mooring up Albert Harbour
Our
last two days were spent in Albert Harbour near Pond and on the last day the
group climbed up Mt. Morin, a 1200 meter scree and glacier trek that
culminated with impressive views over the ice cap on Baffin Island to the
south and across the inlet to Bylot Island to the north.
Giovanni, Henk, Mariacristina, Augusto, Michele off to climb
Mariacristina near summit Mt. Morin PA in Albert Harbour
Team on summit of Mt Morin
This was a fitting and strenuous end to our more or less ship bound 30 day
expedition cruise focused on a transit of the Northwest Passage.
On the evening of the 19th we anchored in 15 meters off an open beach at Pond
Inlet and took a walk ashore in what is a fairly cosmopolitan Inuit community,
at least compared to the feel of Antarctic Bay.
Pond Inlet
They boasted not one, but two
hotels, two supermarkets (I stretch the use of the word ‘super’) and along the
dusty summer streets we met many southlanders beginning and ending adventure
activities which use Pond as a base. Pond boasts a population of 1500, again
almost all Inuit and they enjoy a daily flight from the Inuit capital Iqualuit
that links up with Ottawa. Bylot Island is a national park and other
designated parkland lies within the area of Eclipse Bay so tourism is not only
the main, but also the only industry apparent.
Inuit children Pond Inlet
Just to torture ourselves I checked the ice chart today and luckily (it must
be admitted) the conditions in Peel and Larsen Sounds are much the same,
choked with 9 to 10/10’s pack ice.
Click for full screen version
If this critical passage does not clear this season it will be two years
running which I’m told is rare. Never-the less the Northwest Passage will
always be there, global warming notwithstanding and frankly global warming is
a factor which has very little to do with multi year ice either persisting or
flying around at random.
Armed with our limited experience of over one month in the area, looking back
I am not sure I would attempt this again with a view to making it through in a
single season and the reasons for this are many. To engage the NWP on its own
terms, you must accept the possibility of an over winter. And frankly an over
winter is a necessity to experience the Canadian Arctic. To complete a transit
of the Northwest Passage is an accomplishment (a test of nerve more to the
point), but to do so in a single summer is not really interesting for its own
sake. Other than the kudos of getting through, the rewards are not high on the
ground. In the short window of opportunity your whole focus is moving on.
There is no time to meet people along the way to appreciate their
extraordinary lifestyle, and like all these particular places this needs time
measured in weeks and months not hours and days. When the channels are clear
you would
think twice about stopping along the way for a look see, and with good reason,
as an unplanned is winter is continually staring you in the face.
Unfortunately Pelagic Australis’ main area of activity is in the far south and
it would not be feasible from a financial point of view (there is always that
question of sustenance) to winter her in here. However, there is always the
original Pelagic biding her time and it is not without possibility that
another attempt can be considered. Wintering her in halfway would make sense –
maybe not with crew on board, but certainly you would want to rejoin the boat
in the spring and participate in the lives of the Inuit – dog sledding
overland and on the sea ice hunting along the way. To do this not as a tourist
(more or less) implies time on the ground to get to know people. Waiting for
the summer break-up would be a respite, a period to relax and wait for nature
to call the shots instead of forcing the route.
The fact of the matter is that for a cruising ground, once up and around the
corner of Baffin Island the landscape is much the same; rocky, barren and at
short glance pretty lifeless, at least in comparison to what we are used to in
the south. Wildlife is there, but you need specialist knowledge and again –
time – to seek it out. This is quite impossible when you are obsessed with the
ice charts and moving on as far as possible to the next obstacle.
Another difference of note is the style of expedition cruising. The distances
between shelters are sometimes measured not in the tens but in the hundreds of
miles, so you spend most of the time on board. Unlike the south where we can
get in close, tie to shore and hunker down safely, in the high Arctic these
anchorages are almost non existent. Instead it’s big bays, or open roadsteads
and either the bottom is extremely shallow very far offshore or there is no
bottom at all to anchor in. And the shoreline has nothing at all to tie to
unless you took the time to dig with pick and shovel and bury your second
anchor.
But these are mere bagatelles that we will soon forget. What we will remember
are those dead calm midnight runs threading our way through the sea ice, while
a cold arctic sun slides along the northern horizon.
Skip Novak
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