On our way

Sunday, August 16, 2015
Amundsen Gulf
69° 23.03N 118° 51.1W

What a difference a year makes. On this date last year we were holed up in Arctic Bay, waiting for the ice to clear so we could continue our journey westwards. As you'll recall, 2014 was a difficult ice year. Peel Sound and Victoria Strait didn't open at all and there was only about a three day window when boats could pass through via Prince Regent/Bellot Strait and to points further west, via Gjoa Haven. By contrast, the last ice chart we looked at this year showed Peel opening nicely and Prince Regent open to Bellot a full three weeks earlier! This year's flotilla of boats should have an easier time of it.

In prior years, boats have been able to leave Cambridge Bay the first week of August and we were hoping to do the same, if not a little earlier. As it turned out, due to problems documented in previous posts, we didn't leave until the second week. Our passage so far has been slow, but, steady. We just passed Clifton Point, in Amundsen Gulf, now having left Nunavut and entered the NWT (Northwest Territories). The 'sailing' has been so-so, winds have not been favourable, either no wind at all, or, continuously in the NW (i.e. 'on the nose'). We're trying to make the best of it, the motor is getting a workout and we anchored two nights in Byron Bay to let the worst of the headwinds pass by. The wind is finally supposed to go East on Tuesday and this should give us the final push we will need to make landfall for a brief stopover in Tuktoyaktuk.

This western half of the NWP is like a different world to the eastern half. The land is mostly low and featureless and with the rain, grey skies and fog we've been experiencing, mostly invisible. Temperatures are usually around +7C during the day, dipping to +2C overnight. We did have one glorious, clear, sunny and still day while inching our way through the difficult currents we experienced in Dolphin and Union Strait.

It didn't always look like this!

We dined al fresco in the cockpit, first time ever in this boat and it almost made the not-so-nice days worth it. We haven't seen a speck of ice although there are still a few isolated patches of snow on the hills. Boat traffic is almost non-existent. We have encountered just two tugs, both towing multiple barges to Cambridge Bay. One of them was coming all the way from Vancouver and the captain sounded very tired when we spoke to him at 3 a.m. Our watches are fairly relaxed as we don't need to look for ice every single second and that has been quite a relief.

We were determined not to rush through this western half of the NWP and had planned a proper cruise with a few stops along the way. However, our late start, slow progress and feeling like another winter is already beginning to nip at our keel with +2C temperatures and recent snow experienced in Sachs Harbour already, we will now be trying to just get through as fast as possible.

Will post some pictures when we have broadband again.

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