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. 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