Christmas Games

 Wednesday, December 24, 2014. Merry Christmas from Cambridge Bay! Unlike the rest of Canada, we are guaranteed to have a white Christmas here in Cambridge Bay. There isn't that much snow on the ground, but, it is very dry and blows around a lot. We have blizzards even when it's not snowing....

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Local Talent

Every community has talented individuals in their midst. Cambridge Bay is no exception. We came across the work of Denise LeBleu, local photographer, at the Christmas bazaar last weekend and purchased one of her lovely 2015 calendars with great shots taken around Cambridge Bay. If you're looking for...

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Parade and Bazaar

Wednesday, December 3, 2014. The sun left a couple of days ago and won't appear above the horizon again until January 11. We have a few hours of twilight around midday now and this serves to give some structure to the day. Temperatures are continuing to drop and are currently averaging around -28C....

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Cam Bay Life

Monday, November 17, 2014. We're overwintering in Cambridge Bay because we wanted to find out what it's really like to live here in temperatures and conditions that many would find uninhabitable. So far, not surprisingly, the dominant theme is that the weather controls everything. During our first...

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Mechanical Woes

Friday, November 7, 2014. Today's weather forecast for Cambridge Bay: Blizzard ending late in the afternoon then clearing. Blowing snow with near zero visibility at times in the morning and afternoon. Wind north 70 km/h gusting to 90 diminishing to 40 gusting to 60 late in the afternoon. Temperature...

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Settling In

October 7, 2014. After what seemed an interminable, three week wait, Gjoa was finally lifted out of the water on Sunday, September 28 and placed onto her winter cradle. It wasn't a moment too soon as we had to break ice to get to the lift-out site in West Arm. The ice grew so fast overnight that the...

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Winter Plans

It was very calm here in Cambridge Bay overnight with the exception of a few strange noises against the hull. We awoke to find that the whole Bay had flash-frozen in the night and was completely covered in ice! Frozen solid One local told us this was the earliest he’d seen it in his fourteen years...

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Canadian Geographic

It has just come to our attention that our tow has been written up on the Canadian Geographic blog, complete with photo slideshow. Interesting to note that there was a second polar bear on the prowl, we only saw one! http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/blog/posting.asp?ID=1290 Gjoa in the ice at west...

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Recent Pics

Finally have internet access again. Here are a few pictures to go with recent postings: Lancaster Sound Ice Field G. at helm in Lancaster Sound ice A beauty at entrance to Graham Harbour Graham Harbour - water is actually glacial aquamarine blue Devon Island Port Leopold desolation...

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Cambridge Bay Arrival

Thursday, September 4 We have arrived at our winter destination! After a final night at sea again fighting headwinds we were greatly relieved to pull into Cambridge Bay where we plan to overwinter. Cambridge Bay is in the high Arctic, on the south shore of Victoria Island, directly north of Saskatchewan....

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Gjoa Haven

Monday, September 1 Heading south from Bellot Strait there are two potential routes to Cambridge Bay. Both go through Franklin Strait and Larsen Sound. Then, depending on ice conditions the choice is either through Victoria Strait, or, around the east side of King William Island. The King William Island...

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Bellot Strait

Friday, August 29 What a difference a day makes. Just hours after posting yesterday about the anxious wait for ice movement, we got the latest ice chart and it showed a tiny, clear lead all the way from Bellot Strait to the top of King William Island! The three sailboats at Fort Ross sprung into immediate...

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Fort Ross

Thursday, August 28 We sailed from Port Leopold to Fort Ross overnight Monday keeping close to the west side of Prince Regent Inlet where there was supposed to be a clear lead. The ice conditions were good, with minimal ice, until we got about twelve miles out of Fort Ross where we got into a band...

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And now we are six...

Of the thirteen starters, we are now down to six yachts (and a tug/barge) trying to go east-to-west. The rest have gone back, fed up with the wait and worried about meeting the Alaska passage deadline (past Point Barrow by September 10). Four of us are together at Port Leopold, at the top of Prince...

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On the Beach

We ended up on the beach in Arctic Bay. Not a pretty picture, but, relax, it was intentional! As we've mentioned we've been having performance problems under motor and the general consensus amongst those we'd talked to was it must be the prop, or, a dirty bottom. We then met Les, Ali and Randall...

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Joining the Circus

This year, thirteen yachts (that we know of), are attempting the North West Passage east to west. There are also a couple of boats doing the west to east route. Two dropped out before getting to the Arctic, three others have decided to return to either Newfoundland or Greenland in the last couple of...

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A few pics

Internet is up in Arctic Bay, here are a few miscellaneous pics for the last few posts: A sunny day in Baffin Bay A big one! Typical view from the boat.... Our five minute glimpse of Bylot Island Gale in Dundas Harbour Two adjacent boats in gal...

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Arctic Bay

We had hoped that there would be internet access here in Arctic Bay, Nunavut so we could post some pictures, but, unfortunately it has been down since we got here very early Tuesday morning. It took forever to get here, the forecast NW winds turned to SW enroute and this impeded our progress significantly....

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Dundas Harbour Force 9

Did I really say 'As long as our anchor holds, we'll be safe and there's no better feeling than enjoying a gale in a safe anchorage.' in my last post? We arrived at Dundas Harbour Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday morning at 6 a.m. we were in the middle of a full-blown Force 9, sustained winds of 41-47...

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Dundas Harbour, Nunavut

Sailing can be a very cruel sport. Just when a long-anticipated landfall, or, anchorage, is within reach it can be wrenched from your grasp by events totally out of your control. So it was with our landfall in Canada. The last 1/2 of our passage from Greenland remained shrouded in fog, some days more...

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