Wednesday 17 September 2014

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 of residency. Hope this isn’t an indicator of the type of winter we will be experiencing soon. The ice has turned to slush now, but, will be returning.

It’s just as well then that we think we have our plans made for the winter now. We’ll be hauling Gjoa onto the shore early next week after the annual barge visit and unloading occurs. We will still be freezing-in aboard a boat though, just not Gjoa. We’ve agreed to be winter caretakers aboard the tug Tandberg Polar.
Tandberg Polar
It’s quite a responsibility but a win/win situation for both of us. We will have more space and heated accommodation (we’re not sure what the temperatures will be aboard, but, hopefully they’ll be plus temperatures) and they will have a presence on the boat for both security and to ensure that the heat stays on.

The Tandberg Polar is the tug that brought the submersible barge, Jensen, here to Cambridge Bay to lift the wreck of Roald Amundsen’s boat, Maud. We were following the project prior to actually meeting the tug and crew in Aasiat, Greenland. We continued to follow their progress and our paths crossed again in the North West Passage at both Lancaster Sound and again at Fort Ross. They transited Bellot Strait and arrived in Cambridge Bay a few days after we did.

We’re quite honoured to be able to play even a small part in the project.

Since 2010/11 when we we cruised and overwintered in Norway, we’ve had a lasting interest in the country, its people and both our countries’ history of Arctic exploration. The project’s website is:

It’s a very exciting time to be here in the North. I’m sure you’re all tired of the Franklin ship story by now, but, it was thrilling news for us as we had met quite a few of the boats and people involved in the search. We also sailed in the very same waters where the ship was eventually found and thought often of all those that had gone before us.
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Cambridge Bay 17/9/2014 12:00 69°06.7'N 105°04.1'W
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Monday 8 September 2014

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 end of Bellot Strait with two polar bears for company

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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 - harbour soon filled with ice

Fort Ross

Bellot Strait - polar bear


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Friday 5 September 2014

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. It is the halfway point in the North West Passage and for us, the end of a 5200 mile, 3-1/2 month long passage to get here.

We left Gjoa Haven in thick fog, not without trepidation about our passage through Simpson Strait. Reading the Pilot made us very nervous. They described it as '...the greatest navigational hazard in the whole mainland passage' and heavily emphasized the potential for 4-9 knot tidal flows 'with marked changes of direction, tide-rips and eddies around the islets and shoals'. As it turned out, the fog lifted just as we approached the beginning of the Strait and we didn't see any tide-rips, or, eddies whatsoever. We had sunshine and a fair current of maybe around 1-2 knots the whole way through. It did require constant attention as there were many twists and turns, but, other than a single buoy that was off station there were no other problems.

Overnight, as we continued into Queen Maud Gulf through Storis Passage and Requisite Channel, we were surprised to see the lights of another ship way off to the south in uncharted waters and couldn't figure out what they were doing as they seemed to be going in circles. A few hours later, we heard on the radio that there'd been a grounding and that a tow might be needed. After we got to Cambridge Bay the local news reported that it was a ship involved in this summer's renewed search for the lost Franklin ships that had gone aground. They were able to get themselves off with no damage. The circling about was them doing a search pattern of the sea floor. In the news report, it was reiterated that only 5% of the waters in this area are properly surveyed. Some of the other 95% have been randomly sounded, but, there are large areas which are just not surveyed at all.

[Postscript]: the boat was the Martin Bergmann and you can read more about the grounding here:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/dec14/night-the-martin-bergmann-struck-shoal.asp

We were expecting to pass one last area of ice streaming off Jenny Lind Island in Queen Maud Gulf. Right on schedule, as per the ice chart, it loomed up and we easily skirted it. We congratulated ourselves that we'd no longer have to worry about ice this year. That is, until we were surprised when another streamer loomed up in front of us. We couldn't see any end to it. It looked like we were in for another hours-long detour. Luckily, when we got closer, there was a break big enough for us to get through. We congratulated ourselves again and looked forward to an ice-free night. We were about forty miles out from Cambridge Bay, it was just getting dark and we found ourselves in a field of large bergy bits. It was very dark, the wind started to pick up, on the nose of course and then it became wind over tide. We were on a constant ice watch again.

We got into Cambridge Bay around noon, once again just in time to pass Arctic Tern on their way out. Drina and Novara were still there. Even though this area is classed as a polar desert with very little precipitation, we must have arrived on the one day of the year when it absolutely poured rain all day. It later changed to snow. Weather forecast for the next few days are W/NW gales all the way to Alaska. We are so glad we are not heading out into that. There is still a lot of uncertainty about where and how we'll be overwintering. We're still exploring all the options. We thought maybe we'd try to get some accommodation until we heard that the local construction crew is renting a house for $12,000 a month! The town has about 1,500 residents, two grocery stores, post office and a bank. The houses are quite a bit better than most we've seen in the Arctic and there is a mini building boom going on. So, we're pleased to be here and looking forward to the winter, but, also looking forward to getting settled in.

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Cambridge Bay 4/9/2014 12:00 69°06.7'N 105°04.1'W
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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 route is quite a bit longer and goes via the hamlet of Gjoa Haven. Unfortunately, this year, Victoria Strait hadn't opened yet (it's still not open) and we were forced to take the longer route. We got through the lead that came down from Bellot to King William by the skin of our teeth. Looking back now, the lead was only open for three days. Three boats, including us, went through on day two, Drina followed on day three. Shortly thereafter, the ice moved back to the shore and the lead slammed shut with two solid plugs of 'orange' (7-8/10) ice.

On the trip south we encountered four large bands of ice. The first two were easy and we passed them close inshore. We wasted quite a few hours trying to figure out how to get into the inshore lead of bands three and four which ended up being interconnected. Once we figured out the way in, it was easy, but, we'd lost our daylight. We'd heard there was drift ice in James Ross Strait and we were leery of going through in the dark. We thought we'd poke our bow in and see what happened. Quickly we encountered three sheets of ice heading our way and we quickly turned around, banging into a small berg in the process. It was too late to anchor so we stood off all night motoring up/down a safe patch of water. We left the ice behind us as we entered St. Roch Basin. What a relief to no longer have to do a constant ice watch! The sun came out and the temperature soared to 5C. It felt positively tropical after a week of temperatures hovering around 0C with snow and sleet. We sat outside for the first time since leaving Ireland.

We arrived at Gjoa Haven very early, just in time to see Arctic Tern and Novara leaving (they are much faster than us). Drina had caught us and pulled in just a couple of hours after we did. Unfortunately, it was a holiday Monday, so, the hoped-for visit to the grocery store didn't happen as it was closed.

Gjoa at anchor in Gjoa Haven
Gjoa Haven has great historical significance as it was the place where Amundsen and his Gjøa spent two winters during the very first transit of the North West Passage by boat in 1903-1906. He spent his time there learning the Inuit way to survive Arctic conditions which stood him in good stead later during his Antarctica adventures. It was also close to Gjoa Haven where a number of skeletons belonging to members of the lost Franklin expedition have been found. This was reflected in local place names like Starvation Cove.

We left very early Tuesday morning, in thick fog, bound for Cambridge Bay.

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Gjoa Haven 1/9/2014 12:00 68°37.6'N 095°52.6'W
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