March Musings

Norway and Nunavut flags together on Tandberg Polar.

As I write this at noon in Cambridge Bay, March 11, it's -33C with ice crystals. Sunrise: 0741 Sunset: 1839. It's amazing how fast the hours of daylight have increased since the sun reappeared over the horizon on January 11. The sun shines brilliantly almost every day now, but, there's absolutely no heat in it yet. The temperature is stubbornly refusing to move out of the -30Cs, day or night. Looking from the inside out, it's spring, but, the reality outside is still very much winter. The snow is still as dry as dust without a hint of melt in it. We were heartened a few days ago though to discover an unusual harbinger of spring when we heard dripping in the engine room. Most of the interior of Tandberg Polar is uninsulated and a permanent film of ice, maybe 1/2 inch thick, has coated the steel walls throughout the winter. The sun shining on the deck had caused some of the interior ceiling ice to start to melt and there was quite a bit of dripping and even ice pieces dropping off and noisily falling to the bilges. It was a delightful sound.

In a book I'm currently reading the author says that the Inuit only define three seasons based on the conditions of the ice and snow:

"Opingan, spring (June and July), the season when the snow disappears from the ice, and the ice breaks up. 

Avra, summer, the season when there is no ice, August and September. 

Okeo, winter, the remaining eight months."

We are finding these definitions to be an accurate summary and are not expecting any significant change in the temperature for about another month. It will be May/June before we can consider starting preparations aboard Gjoa, July before we can get back into the water and August before we can think about leaving. Now that the winter projects have been mostly completed we are contemplating all the spring preparations that await us, but, find that we must wait out this tiresome weather limbo we're in before we can get started. G is keeping busy going out every day to his various part-time jobs, I am still generally hibernating, but, as usual, am not having any difficulty finding projects to keep myself interested and occupied.

The quote above is from Roald Amundsen's: "The North-West Passage" Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship Gjøa 1903-1907. For all the references to Amundsen that I've made, I realized that I had never actually read anything written by the man himself. What a delight then to find that there is a Kindle edition, in two volumes, of his 1908 book describing the first transit of the NWP. Although I haven't finished it yet, it has been an eye-opener. Unlike many of the expedition journals written by his contemporaries, his prose is neither dry, stilted, or, pompous. His personality jumps off the page, he has a keen, intelligent eye, the descriptions are colourful and in places, he is even very humorous. Apart from a bit of misogyny and patronizing remarks about the Inuit (common for the time) it has been a very enjoyable, fast read and provided more insight into the Passage and its peoples.

This coming August, our Gjoa will be following the same route from here as the original Gjøa, so, it was interesting to note the descriptions of the various places that we will also be passing by and read about the weather and ice descriptions of 110 years ago. After the two winters spent in Gjoa Haven doing scientific work, the ice only allowed Gjøa to leave and head west on August 13, 1905. By August 30, they were in the area of Cape Bathurst and had some difficulty getting through (this area could also be a 'sticking-point' for us as the ice tends to get packed in there). Shortly thereafter, about September 3rd they found they could get no further than King Point (near Herschel Island) and were stuck there for the next ten months through another winter. It was a very short sailing season in 1905 Hopefully 2015 won't be a repeat!

There's been quite a bit of activity around town recently. We attended the Elk's "Land and Sea Kitchen Party" $75 a plate fundraiser and had a lovely, retro, dinner of what used to be called Surf & Turf (prime rib and lobster). It was all the more memorable because it was the first "restaurant" meal we've had since our $28 hamburger and fries at the hotel to celebrate our arrival last September (we're not counting our only other dinner out, the Christmas feast eaten on the floor of the community centre).

A few days ago a large military plane flew in and there were many military types around town for a few days. This was a staging delivery for the annual Arctic military exercises. This year is a little different because Parks Canada has teamed up with the Navy to do some exploratory ice diving on Franklin's Erebus. The ice makes a good, stable platform which will help with equipment setup etc. It's very exciting to think about what they could possibly find. From all accounts, the preservation of the ship is remarkable. Also interesting to note that Amundsen mentions in his book that he spoke with the Inuit about the Franklin expedition. He was told that they only saw one ship and it definitely sank just off Cape Crozier (the southwestern point of King William Island). This must have been Terror as Erebus was found quite a bit further to the southeast near O'Reilly Island. Look for news about any discoveries sometime in the next month.