SV Gjoa

Monday, 27 July 2015

Still Waiting

Yes, we are STILL WAITING here in Cambridge Bay. We have two issues preventing us from leaving. The first issue is an ice plug right at the entrance to the Bay. Today's ice chart isn't looking too bad though.

Canada Ice Service- Amundsen Gulf Ice Chart 2015/07/27

The little red blob on the far right is showing Dease Strait directly outside Cambridge Bay. Red signifies 9/10 - 10/10 ice cover i.e. impassable. This blockage is preventing us from leaving, but, it's been getting smaller every day and a few more days of melting and/or a good wind should break it up. Westwards, all the way to Tuktoyaktuk, it is looking very good with < 1/10 ice coverage (the light blue colour).

The second,bigger, issue is that we are not in the water, but, still high and dry on shore! The company that hauled us out last year subcontracted our relaunch to a 'professional' crane operator working on another job in town. Unfortunately, he's been delayed at his primary job and has been too busy to see to us. It's very frustrating and there's no resolution in sight. The ice plug means we can't leave anyway, but, it would be nice to at least be in the starting blocks.

Thursday, 16 July 2015

The Waiting Game

It was all going too well. We stored the van and got our 300 lbs. of luggage to the airport early for our flight from Yellowknife to Cambridge Bay. We had a lovely sendoff at the airport from two friends we had met in CamBay over the winter and boarded the plane on schedule only to learn that there were mechanical issues and we had to deplane. After milling about in the terminal for a few hours, it was announced our flight was cancelled and we had to collect our luggage (300 lbs. don't forget) and take it all with us to a hotel for the night. The better hotels were all booked-up due to a large conference, so, we ended up in a place that can only charitably be described as a 'dump', in a very seedy area of downtown Yellowknife. We were glad to leave the next morning and arrived back in Cambridge Bay on schedule.

What a change from when we had left five weeks earlier. In our absence, there had been an explosion of flowers, birds and wildlife across the tundra. There was a peregrine falcon nest just a short walk from Gjoa with two vigilant parents dive-bombing anybody who came too close. Right off our bow, there was a nest of snow buntings inside a large bollard. There were many eider ducks on the ice edge and a number of seals in the water behind us. A highlight was seeing a den of Arctic foxes with the kits popping their heads up to have a look around.

An Arctic Fox near her den of kits (photo courtesy: RG). She stood her ground and vocalized a warning to us.

Most of the snow had left the ground to be replaced by carpets of tiny Arctic flowers.

The Bay was still completely iced-over, but, the weather was a warm +10C, the bugs were at an acceptable level and it was good feeling to get back to Gjoa.

It took us a full two weeks to get the boat put back into some semblance of order. We had removed the batteries and electronics for the winter and it was quite a bit of work to get everything back together again. We have tested just about all the systems onboard and were thrilled that we have no apparent winter damage at all. One of the benefits of our keel-cooled boat is that we can run the engine while on the hard. It was our biggest worry as we thought we had lost coolant. It turned out to be just water in the bilge, probably from condensation and the engine started right up and ran beautifully.

The ice melted quickly and was just about all gone from the Bay two weeks after our return. Outside the entrance to Cambridge Bay, in Dease Strait, it is still 100% iced over, but, inside the Bay it is all open. We could go back into the water any time although we are unable to leave, heading west, just yet. Now, we are playing the waiting game. First, waiting for the crane to show up to launch us and then for enough ice melt in Dease to let us out. It's looking good now with an ice-free route all the way to Tuktoyaktuk, once we're out of Dease. There is still ice around Barrow, Alaska, but, by the time we get there it should all be opened up. The sun has been shining and the wind has been blowing gently from the east the last few days. Perfect sailing weather to head west, but, we are just waiting....and waiting....It's said patience is a virtue, right?

The shoreline by Gjoa. This is now all that remains of snow and ice in the Bay itself.

Saturday, 27 June 2015

Road Trip - Yellowknife Arrival

On Day 11 of our road trip, it was somewhat of a relief to hear the dulcet tones of the lovely British voice (we haven't changed the voice since we last used it in Europe) on our SatNav announce "You have arrived at your destination". Yes! After more than 5,000 kilometres, four provinces and one territory we met our deadline for our Cambridge Bay flight tomorrow. We even had a couple of days to spare to enjoy the local sights, clean the squashed bugs off the van and provision for Gjoa.

Welcome, yes!

A generous, free, checked baggage allowance of two x 70lb. bags each meant we could buy up to 280 lbs. of groceries and around $800 later we think we've maxed out our allowance. After feeling a little deprived during our Arctic winter, we went absolutely wild in the grocery store which was an excellent one, lots of lovely cheeses, President's Choice products and even Ace Bakery artisan bread. Lots of great junk food choices as well. We got a lot of basics at what seemed like, compared to Cambridge Bay, very reasonable prices. Tomorrow will be a bit of a logistics headache getting everything to the airport and the van to its secure storage yard. We'll pick the van up again in September sometime (hopefully) to continue the second phase of our road trip. We're anxious to get back to Gjoa now and the weather is looking very promising for tomorrow, about +10C for Cambridge Bay. It will still feel like a big change as we're leaving +24C here in Yellowknife, but, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was a little too fast, too much driving and now a bit of a blur, but, what a great two week trip. We took a more northern route than we have done before, seeing more of northern Manitoba and Alberta in the process. There were a few surprises along the way.

Starting from Ontario, it took the usual three days to drive out of the province. We could have taken the shortcut through the States, but, didn't want to miss the Sault Ste. Marie through Thunder Bay stretch which has spectacular scenery of the north shore of Lake Superior. It never disappoints. After leaving southern Ontario in full summer, the north shore took us back to late spring. In some areas the leaves were barely out and lilac bushes were in their prime.

Manitoba was a bit of a revelation. It's so flat around Winnipeg, but, if you head north a little, the landscape changes and is quite pretty. We stayed at Riding Mountain National Park and it also was a nice surprise. This is where Grey Owl, whose British origins (he was actually Archibald Belaney from Hastings) were only exposed after his death, to the detriment of his reputation, spent some time. There is a hike to the cabin where he lived during his tenure there. We also passed through Neepawa, Manitoba which has the Margaret Laurence home. We didn't stop, wish we had, but it was interesting to see the town where she came from nonetheless.

The visitor centre at Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba

Bison at Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba

Alberta had lovely parks and we especially enjoyed our stay at Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park. Northern Alberta was actually a very boring drive, hundreds and hundreds of kilometres with no sign of human habitation except the road under your wheels. The only settlements were transient camps for the oil and gas workers. Maybe if we'd taken the Peace River valley route, an established farming area, it would have been more interesting.

The view from our campsite at Lesser Slave Provincial Park, Alberta.

We had this beautiful beach all to ourselves at Lesser Slave Provincial Park, Alberta.

Alberta is Wild Rose Country

Vegreville, Alberta

Once we arrived in the NWT, the landscape changed again. There was a lot more evidence of recent forest fires. The road into Yellowknife is very long and seemed to go on forever. The number of bugs also became impressive! Yellowknife is geographically isolated with a year-round road link only becoming available in 2012 with the opening of the Deh Cho bridge over the Mackenzie at Fort Providence. Prior to that, it was ferry, or, ice road access only. We were impressed with the force of the downstream current on the Mackenzie, practically white water. We're not sure how long it's been since the ice went out. Interestingly, the bridge piers are constructed especially to allow ice to pass without damage.

Deh Cho bridge, opened 2012, Fort Providence NWT.

River gorge near Hay River, NWT

One of the things we enjoy most about the north is seeing wildlife. This trip was no exception. We saw at least four black bears, but, frankly, after seeing polar bears in the wild, black bears seem like rather scruffy lapdogs by comparison. We also saw a lot of white-tailed deer and bison. Unfortunately, the only moose we saw were two dead ones on the side of the road. We also spotted three families of sandhill cranes, a first for us, they have beautiful colouration and stand a metre tall.

Our next post will be from Cambridge Bay and this blog will turn back into a sailing blog again, for a while anyway. I'll leave you with this waterfall collage, there were so many incredible falls along the way it was hard to choose just three.

Left: Kakabeka Falls, Ontario. Middle: Louise Falls, NWT. Right: Alexandra Falls, NWT.

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

On the Road - Part I

Even though we'd given ourselves two weeks for our road trip from Toronto to Yellowknife, it still felt like too much driving and not enough sightseeing, but, we had to be in Yellowknife by a certain date and the miles had to get done. Another week would have been good. However, we did manage to sightsee in a few places. One area that caught our attention was in northern Alberta where the Ukrainian connection is incredibly strong. We visited Ukraine in 2013 and met newly-found family there. This post is dedicated to them.

World's largest Ukrainian Easter Egg (Pysanka) - Vegreville, Alberta

Vegreville Alberta

Vegreville, Alberta

Just outside Vegreville, we spent an interesting morning visiting the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, an open-air museum that uses costumed historical interpreters to recreate pioneer settlements in east central Alberta. We almost didn't go in when we learned it was the one day of the year when 2,000! schoolchildren and their minders would be visiting from Edmonton for their end-of-year jolly. Actually, it turned out for the best. Sure, there were kids all over the place, but, it meant that all buildings were open and each building had an activity demonstration: blacksmithing, threshing grain, free range chickens, horse harnessing etc....

Hands-on pierogi-making demonstration in the kitchen of an old hotel.

The finished product, delicious cheese-filled pierogies! (these weren't the ones the kids made though)

It was interesting to see the progression of the homes and buildings as the pioneers prospered.

Church on the far left is from the early settlement years 1904, the middle one from around 1920 and the far right is from 1932.

Interior of the 1920's church, note the robin's-egg blue wooden ceiling with painted gold stars.

Example of a railway station and grain elevator. It was fascinating to learn how grain elevators work.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Road Trip

Sailing often provides beautiful land and seascape views. However, in most places, there are jewels to be seen on land as well. We've driven across Canada before, many years ago, but due to life commitments we were forced to whiz by places that deserved more time. Also, we'd missed a few places in previous travels to Yukon and Alaska. So, as we're in the area, now seemed like a good time to fill in those gaps. Gjoa won't be arriving in Alaska until September. The weather in Alaska in September and October is not ideal for sailing, so,we'll save that spectacular cruising ground for spring and summer. Autumn however is a great time for fall landscape colours, wildlife migrations and being able to visit places not overrun with the summer hordes (both insect and human), so, we plan to do some road touring then.

We decided the best way to 'hit the road' was by buying our very own 'land yacht'. Thanks to the internet and all the market research we had done, we knew exactly what we wanted when we got to Ontario. We needed to buy in a hurry if we were to make it all the way back to Yellowknife to pick up our return flight to Cambridge Bay on June 28. We were successful in our search and very pleased with our purchase.

This is the road trip we are on now. We started in Toronto where we purchased our van and at the time of writing, are near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Once we arrive in Yellowknife, the van will remain in a secure storage yard until we return to pick it up sometime in September.

This picture is the route we will do in the autumn, after Gjoa gets to Alaska.

Here is the Pleasure-Way van we purchased to be our cruising home for our land adventures. Almost twenty years old, but, in very good shape with low mileage.

A week in Charleston

In the depths of the Arctic winter last January we were contemplating what summer 2015 would bring. Not being able to leave Cambridge Bay until around the first week of August and needing to be in Alaska the earlier in September the better, meant that our 2015 sailing season would be a very short five to eight weeks. Most of those weeks would be spent in cold weather. We decided we needed to purchase a week of summer if we were going to get any this year and booked a trip to Charleston, SC, a destination we'd long wanted to visit.

A Charleston street view

So, we flew off from Toronto for a much-anticipated visit. Flying, as in sailing, also has its weather problems. We only had six nights booked in Charleston. The first two nights were unfortunately spent not in Charleston, but in lovely Newark NJ, at the airport, due to rains, flooding and storms. I'll spare you all the gory details, but, it wasn't a good start. It wasn't helped by an errant airport escalator that grabbed my pant leg and wouldn't let go. I landed on my face and laid there as the escalator continued to undress me. Luckily, they were stretch pants and G. was able to disengage the now very elongated, and half-off leg with a strong yank. I wasn't hurt, except for escalator tracks on my leg and the shock of the fall, but, it was 2 a.m. and we'd been shuttling back and forth on the airport tram for two hours trying to rebook flights and get a hotel for the night etc. It wasn't funny at the time, but, good for a laugh now!

We did get to Charleston eventually and although it was a short visit we did enjoy it. The heat took a bit of getting used to.

Flowers at Magnolia Plantation.

Tomb at Magnolia Plantation

Nathaniel Russel House, Charleston

Toronto Arrival

We arrived in Toronto and felt like we had crash-landed onto another planet. It wasn't just the usual sixteen lane juggernaut known as Highway 401 (four-oh-one), Canada's busiest highway, that must be negotiated to get in or out of the airport, we had inadvertently landed ourselves in the midst of an "Anime" convention.

Sixteen lanes of joy...Highway 401

Don't know what "Anime" is? Neither did we, but, it was the height of coolness to be twenty-something and part of the 15,000 strong crowd that showed up for the three day convention. Our hotel and a few others around the airport were crammed full of attendees, most dressed in costume.

For the uninitiated, Anime (according to Wiki), "is a term used to refer to Japanese animated productions featuring hand-drawn or computer animation." Within this definition, there are all kinds of genres. Conventions have grown up around this industry where aficionados join together to dress up in costume, participate in masquerade balls and plays and attend workshops etc. The costumes are an important part of the appeal and the fashion is "Japanese Lolita". Lolita fashion (in case you didn't know ;-) ) includes such subgenres as: Gothic, Sweet, Classic, Punk, Sailor, Princess, Casual and others. Anime is a big industry, but, was totally new to us.

We spent a very enjoyable couple of weeks in Toronto attending to business and getting caught up with family and friends.

Saturday, 30 May 2015

A brief trip out

After ten months north of the Arctic Circle we are heading south for a few weeks prior to recomissioning Gjoa for this summer's completion of the North West Passage.

This plane looks big, but, only the rear third was for people, the rest was for freight.

Flying out of Cambridge Bay was flying like it used to be, guess they assume if you're in Cambridge Bay and the only way in/out is by airplane, except for the very few who arrive by water and ice ;-) you'd already passed scrutiny getting there, so, there's no point in doing it all again when you leave. After strolling about twenty steps into the terminal, we went directly to the checkin desk. There was no queue. There was no id required, no xray scanning, no laptops out of the bag, no shoes/belts off, no metal detectors, no toothpaste bagging and no bottled water/pen knife confiscation. The free, hot sandwich served was delicious as was the coffee. We knew it could only go downhill from here as we had a few more flights, airlines and airports to get through before reaching our final destination.

Total snow and ice cover leaving Cambridge Bay.

A little further south, lakes are starting to break up.

Yellowknife and open water. The ice in the background is Great Slave Lake (tenth largest lake in the world) and still frozen.

When we got to the arrivals area at Yellowknife, it was tiny and there were maybe twenty-five people standing around. For us, after a winter of isolation, it was sensory overload already and we couldn't
wait to get out of there. We stepped outside into +21C heat!

Even the baggage carousel at Yellowknife arrivals was interesting.

Of late, the jet stream has been making a clear diagonal slash between Nunavut and the NWT. The west side, covering all of the Mackenzie valley, including Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, has been basking in the high 20C's for a while now. Cam Bay hasn't had any of that. The average May high temperature was only -4C and the average low was -12C. The day we left, May 22, it was around -2C and when we got to Yellowknife, only five hundred miles south, it was full-blown summer, +21C, We were greeted with a big, bright, blue, summer sky, a few puffs of fluffy white cloud and a gentle, warm breeze. The open water in the surrounding lakes shimmered with sunpennies and there were trees! Real trees with spring's tender green leaves.What a sight for sore eyes. The pink granite shores and dark water made us feel like we were already home in Northern Ontario and it's no surprise because the Canadian Shield extends all the way from here to there, thousands of miles across the top of Canada.

Friday, 29 May 2015

Goodbye TP, Hello Gjoa

Winter is definitely turning to spring now. These pictures of the melodious, elusive snow bunting prove it.

Snow Buntings - first to arrive, last to leave (Photos: courtesy GP)

Spring also means our time living aboard and looking after Tandberg Polar has come to an end.We spent Victoria Day Monday shifting all our belongings from the tug back to Gjoa. There was a lot of 'stuff' to move and we were weren't sure how we were going to do it. Luckily, we were able to borrow a cube van and a willing helper, which was much appreciated. Thanks Gord.

Did we really take this much 'stuff'' off Gjoa?

We have to bring the van down here?

As close as we could get, meaning a trip across luckily still crusty-topped snow with gear.

The tarp we used to cover the cockpit really held the snow in well ;-)

After opening Gjoa, the initial inspection looked all good. There was only a very light sheen of moisture, a quick wipeover of the interior should be all it needs. The 'polar desert' climate did the trick as we'd hoped and there was absolutely no sign of mold or mildew. Books and charts left aboard were dry and not damp-damaged. We'd been warned to expect a lot of antifreeze in the bilge and there was a few inches of it, luckily confined just to the engine bilge. Due to our watertight bulkheads and hull tankage there are separate, isolated bilge areas throughout the boat. There was also a light film of diesel on top of the antifreeze. Apparently, the extreme cold over the winter causes the seals in the engine to contract and all the antifreeze leaks out. Let's hope the seals will have expanded themselves when we go to top up and that we don't now have a sieve for an engine.

We'd hoped to be able to do some preparatory work prior to flying out for a few weeks, but, it was still too cold to work outside so we just dumped our 'stuff' and ran. Also, June temperatures can easily still be in the -10C range, so, we didn't want to install our batteries etc. and leave them untended with the possibility of still cold temperatures to come. We have a huge job when we get back at the end of June to unpack, clean, repair and recommission Gjoa to get ready for departure, but, barring any unforeseen issues, four-five weeks should be enough time.

Stig, first mate extraordinaire, has arrived from Norway to relieve us of our duties on Tandberg Polar. After eight! long months, we can't say we were sorry to leave the tug and our stewardship duties, but, somehow it had almost begun to feel like home, even with all its faults.

Tandberg Polar galley

Engine room view

Although we're no longer physically onboard Tandberg Polar, it doesn't mean we no longer have interest in the Maud Returns Home project and Norway itself. We hope to see Maud out of the water and onto Jensen (barge) before we leave. Someday, we'll revisit Norway and see Maud in her final resting place near Oslo.

Since we lived and overwintered in Norway at 69N for a year we've become interested in Norway and its people. There are so few of them, just five million with a unique culture, characteristics and mindset that sets them apart from the rest of the Scandinavian countries. Somebody brought our attention to a quite funny Ted talk about Norway's creation of and passion for, 'slow tv'. It was nostalgic for us to view it as there are some great shots of the Hurtigruten (coastal cruiser) route up the entire western coast, a route we cruised in Black Sheep II in our first year of liveaboard cruising in 2010 (can't believe it's been five years since we cast off the dock lines for good). The talk is only eighteen minutes long and you can view it at:

http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_hellum_the_world_s_most_boring_television_and_why_it_s_hilariously_addictive?language=en

I am also currently immersed in reading Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard's six-volume masterwork known as 'Min Kamp' (My Struggle). I'm just starting the third volume now. The final three haven't been translated yet. It's hard to categorize, it's not a novel, it's not a memoir, it's not a diary, it's not chronological, it jumps back and forth between time and place, it's supposed to be factual and involves the most indepth examination of his life, the people and formative events in it, all viewed through his characteristic Norwegian angst . He really puts all of himself out there with what seems like great honesty and humility. It's probably not a read for everybody. The minutiae of daily life is often examined in excruciating detail. After the first volume I wasn't sure I wanted to continue, but, it is very engrossing, weirdly addictive and hard to put down. Anyway, try it if you dare, the first volume is called 'A Death in the Family' and it's on Amazon/Kindle.