Northwest passage 10: Powell Inlet, Monday, September 8, 2025

20:57

Fog = no zodiac cruise in the ice

We’ll, I guess I can’t complain since we finally got to Beechey but the ‘can’t get there’ part of the trip has started. We were supposed to do a zodiac cruise in Croker Bay in the ice from the glacier. The Devon Island ice cap is the third largest in the world behind Antarctica and Greenland. We’ve been there before and it is really cool. The fog started rolling in about half way through our sail to Croker Bay and as Chris noted in his briefing, there’s not a lot of point in going to Croker Bay if, in order to see the glacier, you’d have to go so close the the face of the ice that it wouldn’t be safe.

I’ve been on enough of these expeditions to know that when they start to show slides of the ice charts it’s never a good thing. We’re not going to be able to get into Grise Fjord this trip. I think Chris did a better job of explaining the significance of ice than either of the others guys have. He went through the colours on the ice charts which correspond to how much of the surface is covered. That’s noted in tenths. Blue is great, no ice or about 1% so the captain had lots of chance to get around whatever ice is there.

We aren’t an ice breaker which rides up onto the ice and then the weight of the ship breaks up the ice. The coast guard ice breakers also release carbon dioxide bubbles that help to move the ice chunks out of the way. We are an ice pusher, not an official term but an accurately descriptive one. We have to rely on brute force and ignorance to push the ice out of the way so we can get past. The higher the concentration of ice, the more difficult it is to find somewhere to push the ice to. It’s like trying to shovel the driveway and the load on the shovel just gets heavier and heavier until you bog down unless you can shovel some of the snow off the the side before you tackle any more. Then there’s the thickness of the ice. According to the latest ice chart, there is 3/10 coverage going into Grise Fjord, but all it would take is one large chunk of ice, say 500 meters across to completely stop the ship.

Another consideration is wind. The wind is blowing from the north which will blow the ice into our path. I’m pretty sure since the famous round and round Baffin Bay expedition when we spent an extra day on the ship, they’ve established more stringent go / no go guidelines and we’re not going to Grise. Too bad I was hoping I could say that I’d been to the most northerly settlement in Canada. Knowing how many seasons it has taken to get to Beechey Island, I don’t think I’ll be adding Grise Fjord to my bucket list.

So what did we do today? We’ll, we landed in Powell Bay which is a new site for Adventure Canada. I was seriously dragging my butt today and I considered not doing the landing so I could sleep. I decided that I’d go and if I only wanted to spend half an hour that was fine. It was a bit wavy getting into the zodiacs and a bit splashy on the ride over. All the zodiac drivers do their best to keep us dry. I figure it’s all part of the adventure and there’s a reason I wear an expedition jacket, rain pants, and rubber boots. Speaking of boots, it’s interesting how many people tuck their rain pants into their boots even though they’ve been advised not to. It’s kind of like people who spread their ground sheets way out beyond the sides of their tents so they can be sure all the water will collect and run under the floor of the tent.

Back to the subject at hand: It was quite rocky where we landed and the rocks provided a good wind break so that it was quite warm. Pierre, one of the naturalists, had a spotting scope set up focused on a bunch of walruses sitting on a series of rocks sticking out the the sea. I’ve never seen walruses before so that was cool. [While I did get photos of the walruses, Michael's are way, way better. Michael was the official, professional photographer on the trip and he shared some of his photos in our post trip package. He was quiet and helpful and he takes amazing photographs! I don't think he'll read this but I want to let everyone know what a privilege it was to travel with him and how much I appreciate the photos he shared.]

Photo by Michael Winsor

It was really interesting to hear them bark. I can’t really describe the sound. Pierre said that when you hear them under water it sounds like someone hammering so they are called the carpenters of the sea. I had heard that walruses are quite stinky and you can sometimes smell them before you see them. Either these ones had put on their deodorant or we weren’t close enough to smell them and that was just fine with me.

I wandered around a bit and took some photos. There were lots of interesting shapes and textures in the rocks and on the tundra. Today’s good-luck feather was between my feet when I went to change into my hiking boots so I took a photo of that.

Good luck feather blends in with the rocks

With this many smurfs running all over the place, it’s nearly impossible to get landscape shots without people in them so I’ve decided to go with it and try to wait until a person or a group is in a position that helps to show the scale of the place. I got a few photos that I quite like.

I decided that I was going to have a bit of a walk because I wasn’t really getting a lot of exercise. Richard found a nice rock in the sun where he could sit and watch the world go by, and I headed off to see how far I could go in ten minutes. Then I was going to turn around and come back.

At about six minutes I was part way across a flat spot leading to a climb up some rocks to where the geologist was. I thought I’d see how far I could get, and, of course, when I was part way up I couldn’t simply turn around and come back down. I didn’t get up to the geologist but I got within a few meters of him before I turned back. I also got a different perspective on the landscape from a higher point.

It was colder today and all the little puddles were frozen over and there was frost not he ship’s rail first thing this morning when there was a beluga sighting. By the time I got up there I couldn’t see it. The sun was out for our landing and the rocks were dry. I always think of Richard’s dad when I’m moving in terrain such as we were in today. He taught me to point my feet downhill instead of going sideways because if you topple sideways you have a good chance of breaking your ankle whereas if you slip when your feet are pointed downhill you hope to end up on your butt.

Actually climbing on the rocks was my favourite part of the day. I did so much of that last year, finding my own route, checking behind me to make sure I could find a route down. Whenever I have a chance I will walk on the rocks rather than the vegetation between them. Again, that’s thanks to Richard’s dad who taught me to trust my boots the soles of which are meant to be sticky on rocks. When there are pebbles on top of rock slabs, or when the rocks are wet, that’s when you have to worry.

As I was descending I came to a spot where there was a good sized height difference to get over a rock and down to the next one. There was a very nice man in front of me and he asked if I needed help. I told him I was just picking my spot. One of the Adventure Canada team members was standing just a little way farther down. I chose the opposite side of the rock to the one taken by the man in front of me. I often talk to myself and I said, “Okay, first foot there, pole there, other foot there. Just like that.” Then I looked at the team member and said, rather smugly I admit, “This isn’t my first rodeo.” Her response was, “Clearly!” That felt really good considering the graceless landing I performed the other day. I haven’t taken the bandaid off my knee and most of the time I’m unaware that there is anything out of the ordinary going on with it. I know, I know 1. I’m incredibly lucky and 2. Don’t get cocky!

There’s a common denominator to most the falls I’ve taken in last few years: I catch the toe of my trailing foot and that sends me down. Today I had a few instances where I kicked the rock when I brought me trailing foot through. Instead of telling myself to pick up me feet, I found it more useful to tell myself to raise my toes so that I land with a very pronounced heel strike. When I remembered to do that, it seemed to help. So I’m going to try to be more mindful of my foot strikes in the hopes of remaining vertical for the rest of the trip.

I noticed just now as I checked the schedule on the TV in the room that the plan has changed from what it was a few hours ago. They had a specific landing site picked out and now it just says ‘Devon Island.’ I think we will be booting it for Greenland to stay out of the worst of the winds that are supposed to come in the next few days. As Chris, our expedition leader said at the briefing tonight, “This is not a bus tour.” We were finally able to set foot on Beechey and that’s a major win.

One last thing of note: Marc St. Onge, the geologist, is involved in a project that is trying to narrow down the route Franklin took in the north by matching samples of rocks retrieved from the collection on the Erebus, with rocks from various locations on our route. The partners in this work are The Geological Survey of Canada, Parks Canada, and Adventure Canada. He couldn’t tell us locations because he has signed a non-disclosure agreement that’s binding until the research has been published and peer reviewed, but he did say that as a result of the work last year and this year, there are four new data points on Franklin’s route. A few times this trip two zodiacs have been launched with the purpose of getting to a specific place to collect rock samples. This really is not a bus tour!

Northwest passage 9, Beechey Island, Sunday September 7, 2025

11:37

We’ll it looks like we are going to be able to make it to Beechy. Chris in his morning remarks said, “I will get your boots on Beechey.” It’s sunny. The wind isn’t too strong and we’re making good time. We did have to make a detour around some ice over night so we will be doing an afternoon landing on Beechey instead of a morning one.

My knee is doing fine. I’m going on the assumption that if I don’t bother it, it won’t bother me. I’ll leave the bandaids on for a few days or until they start to peel off of their own accord. My knee isn’t stiff and I don’t notice it most of the time. Now that was lucky!

There were two talks this morning, one by John Huston about how his father received the first Inuit carving and had the idea that it was of as much value as some of the famous small bronzes in Paris. Sorry, I didn’t take notes and I can’t remember which famous artist did the bronzes. The story goes that James Huston hitched a ride on a plane taking a doctor north. The ride was free if he helped the doctor and pumped gas into the plane at the other end. He did both and when the doctor didn’t need him, he walked down to the beach and began to sketch. It was windy and suddenly he realized that the wind had died down. After a while he became aware that there was someone behind him. He turned around and there were several Inuit blocking the wind and watching him while he drew.

One man extended his hand for the sketch book. James gave it to him and the Inuit looked at the drawing. Then one of the onlookers held out his hand for the pencil. James turned to a fresh page and gave it to the man.I don’t think John told us what kind of a drawing the man made, just that it was unprecedented that someone would ask for the sketchbook and pencil.

Later on in the visit James drew a portrait of one of the woman in the village. She took it home to show her husband whose first reaction was jealousy. He pointing out that they had no frame to put it in and no walls[ they were living in a tent] so he tore it up and started the fire with it. His wife wasn’t impressed and he had second thoughts. That night he began carving and in the morning had a delicate little caribou. He found James the next day and gave him the carving. Since they had no language in common, James didn’t realize that the carving was new. He took it to the guy at the Hudson’s Bay post and asked him how old he thought it was. When the guy told him it had just been carved he realized what kind of skill there was among the Inuit people and that was the beginning of his promotion of Inuit carving.

Aleqa Hammond was the other speaker this morning. I didn’t get in on the beginning of her talk because I was out on deck taking photos of a polar bear on an ice floe. She told the story of being out on the sea ice with 7 men for 7 weeks. They didn’t want to let her come but she promised she would go as fast as they did and pull her weight when it came to chores. Through sheer pestering she got to go out on the sea ice with them. She is a very entertaining speaker and had us laughing at many points during her talk.The guy with whom she was going to travel showed up without any food and Aleqa thought he would be eating all of her food. He turned out to be an expert hunter and fed the whole group and their dogs with what he managed to hunt.

Polar bear on an ice flow

Polar bear walking away

There was a life-changing moment for Aleqa when they told her there was a crack in the ice and the narwhals were coming so she should go and watch. She lay down on her stomach and watched as a hundred or so narwhals swam past her, each one making eye contact. She said she had never experienced anything so profound. It was as if each of the narwhals smiled at her and said, “We see you,” as they passed. As she watched she found herself sobbing with the emotion of the connection.

The routine at night was for her to tell stories but when they asked her that night to tell as story she said she was thinking back on the day and she wanted to keep her thoughts to herself. Her mentor told her that every one of the men understood what she had experienced.

She experienced two polar bear encounters. When the people went to sleep they placed the dogs in a circle around the sledges so if a polar bear came close the dogs would alert the people. One night a bear did wander into the camp and killed one of the dogs. The second time they were traveling over the ice and the dogs were behaving differently. They were raising their noses and sniffing the air as they ran. Her mentor told Aleqa that there was either a bear of a bearded seal in the area. He let five dogs off the leash and they ran away in the direction of the scent. After a few more minutes Her mentor let five more dogs loose and they followed the first batch.

As they continued on, the dog’s barking became louder until they came upon the polar bear surrounded by dogs all barking and dodging it’s great paws as it swung at them again and again but the dogs were too fast. The bear was so distracted by the dogs that it didn’t notice the humans. The mentor took out his gun and took careful aim so as to be able to drop the bear in a single shot. When the bear fell to the ground, the dogs stopped barking, trotted back to the sledges and lay down. They had done exactly what they were trained to do.

She told another story about her mentor finding and killing a walrus in the absolute darkness. She stressed that every part of the animal is used and that if they had enough meat for themselves and the dogs they left the animals alone.

Aleqa returned from the trip with a new appreciation of what the men of her culture could do. She had travelled widely up to that point but it had all been what she wanted to do for herself. After that trip she decided to run for the Greenland parliament. She was elected and sometime thereafter became the first female prime minister of Greenland.

It was a great morning with great stories and a polar bear sighting. My lens was extended to its fullest so the photos may be a bit grainy but I have evidence of having seen a polar bear on an ice floe as we passed. Now it’s time for lunch and to prepare for the landing on Beechey Island.

21:52

Franklin graves, Beechey Island

We made it! We have now put our boots on Beechey Island, on the fifth try. It is just a gravel beach and yet it is so much more. In some ways it’s a memorial to hubris. In others it’s an ongoing mystery. For me it is a link the my 12 or 13 year old self and the desire to see places I could only imagine. The graves are simple, grey wood against grey rocks on the shingle beach, a respectful perimeter marked with the yellow flags our onboard archeologists use to designate a protected site. The wind was biting and we had only a few moments to spend with the graves. I would like to have spent longer there. The sky was first blue and then grey with clouds. Gulls flew close to the zodiac as we neared the shore. It was the light that attracted me. All the time we were on shore it was changing. The graves were in shadow but the ship waiting at anchor glowed in the sun. Then the sun lit up the cliffs at the far end of the island before shifting to cliffs on Devon Island across the water. Then the clouds closed in and everything was flat. Then there was the wind, a constant against the changing sky and sea. The wind, the reminder that in the 21 century with all our technology we, like Franklin and his men, are not in charge.

It was the kind of atmosphere I love. I was warm and safe cocooned in my multiple layers, but my nose was cold and I couldn’t leave my hands out of my mitts for very long without them beginning to sting from the cold. What must it have been like fore these English gentlemen who had all the latest inventions of their time to face down the wind and the snow for two winters? We were small specks on the beach today. We are small specks on the planet and the wind and the waves rule here.

After a couple of hours we were able to climb aboard the zodiacs and return to our ship with its central heating, good food and electricity. I have set my boots on Beechey Island. Has it changed me? Probably not in any important way. I do, however, feel satisfied now. I have memories of sensations, and impressions of a place that has for so long occupied my thoughts. I’m glad we could come. I’m glad we could land so that the loose threads of wondering could be woven into a swatch of memories. The weaving of possibilities, and imaginings, and hopes is now complete.

As we loaded the zodiacs back on board, and raised the anchor to leave the island to the wind, waves and gulls, the sun once again broke through the clouds. So many changes in just a few hours. So few changes in centuries.

Northumberland House a staging spot for ships looking for Franklin

Northwest passage 8, Aston Bay, Saturday September 6, 2025

20:02

Ice sculpture by nature

That was quite the day. We were on the ship for most of it, only landing at 16:00. One of the things Adventure Canada tries to do is to go to locations they haven’t been to before and today was one of those days. We parked the ship at the opening to Aston Bay and then took the zodiacs into the bay. It turns out it was a very interesting site.

Getting into the ice

We are beginning to see ice bergs and bergie bits now and there was an interesting bit with a hole through it right were we landed in the zodiacs.

Bergie bit near the landing site

It was a gravel beach with the benches much like what we saw yesterday.

Gravel benches

It was around 1C but there was quite a breeze which made it feel colder. I’ve got my cold weather gear absolutely dialed in now. I had my long sleeved merino t-shirt as a base layer and over that I have my merino button down shirt. I decided to try that instead of my turtle neck and it worked well. Sometimes, despite the fact that merino is pretty soft, it gets a bit itchy. Then I put on my vest with all the patches, and over that was my down pullover. The second to last layer was my favourite grey sweater and then my expedition jacket. I didn’t wear an ear band or a toque. The sun was getting low in the sky so I wore my old faithful Tilley hat. It may look really dumb but I can put the jacket hood over it, bend the brim around my ears and have the advantage of keeping the sun out of my eyes, and the hood from sliding down onto my face. I didn’t need any extra layers on the bottom since we weren’t going to be sitting the the zodiac for long. I do need those on a zodiac cruise that’s an hour or longer.

They really hit the jackpot at this site, unless your main interest is in plants, then not so much. There was a meat cache, and a polar bear skeleton.

Meat cache

There were also polar bear tracks, goose tracks, fox tracks, and lemming tracks in the snow. There wasn’t a ton of snow but it had settled in the little depressions between the benches and they asked us to avoid walking in it if we could so we wouldn’t disturb the tracks. We could manage that most of the time and when we couldn’t, we walked where the others of our group had walked before so as to mess things up as little as possible.

Before we got out of the zodiac they warned us that the rocks near the top of the perimeter were quite sharp and to be very careful if we were going to sit down to take in the scenery. One of the guys helping with the loading and unloading of the zodiacs sliced his rubber boot on one of the rocks when they were scouting earlier in the day.

Richard and I split up fairly early. I stopped for some photos and he continued on. We find this works quite well because he’s not waiting for me when I want to take 10 shots of a feather from different angles, and I’m not waiting for him when he wants to examine a chunk of rock with a hand lens. We generally meet up and take the same zodiac back having had different experiences. It’s interesting, though, how many times we come back with very similar photos of the landscape.

After I took my photos I continued up and past where the folks were learning about geology. It was pretty easy walking up the beaches and I stopped a few times for photos. Of course, I had to get one of the feather I saw on the ground. On one of the first Adventure Canada trips Niap, the artist, told me that if I came across a feather it meant I would have good luck. I always think of that whenever I see a feather on the ground even at home when it’s only a magpie, crow, or northern flicker feather. This feather was fairly small, beautifully white, and the light was hitting it from the side. It was also blowing in the wind. I tried several different angles and probably got one of two shots that are useable.

Lucky feather

As I climbed up towards the saddle between two lakes, I took several more shots of the lines made by gravel and snow. There were some really interesting curves and the appearance of the lines in relation to each other seemed to change as I got higher. The low sun was both a help and a hindrance for photos. It gave some interesting backlighting to the ship and it also cast long shadows. In addition to trying to keep people out of landscape shots I had to watch for their shadows. In one photo I deliberately used the shadows that seemed to be coming together into a circle.

Using the shadows

I pretty happy with the choices the camera in my phone makes. As I’ve said before, I don’t have a lot of patience with post processing and most of the time I can get what i want out of the phone with no muss, no fuss. After all, I’m not trying to create great art or sell large prints. I do need to adjust the exposure when there is a great expanse of white, as when I was looking at fox tracks and wanting the snow to appear white instead of grey.

Polar bear

I got a few shots of polar bear tracks right near the beach and up farther there was a place where there were fox tracks and, what I took to be lemming tracks.

Fox and lemming I think

I haven’t checked that out with any of the naturalists on board so I don’t know that for sure.

I even saw a couple of birds. Carolyn who is a plant person married to a bird biologist told me that they were probably fulmars in their dark phase. I’ve only seen white fulmars and didn’t know they had a dark phase. Cool!

I like to get up as high as I can to get more of a sense of the scale of the place.

View from the height of land

I walked up the sharp rocks without any trouble and took some photos from the highest point of the perimeter. The polar bear skeleton was nearer the landing spot so i started heading down towards it. Everything was going fine until it wasn’t. I’m not exactly sure what happened but one moment I was making my way down and the next moment time slowed as I realized that I was going down and I wasn’t going to be able to catch myself. I can attest to the fact that the rocks were plenty sharp. I landed on my side and a couple of people came over right away to see if I was alright.

One man offered me a hand but I told him I would rather take my time and get up slowly which I did. My knee hurt but I was more concerned about my camera which was in the pocket of my jacket. Once I got to me feet and determined that everything bent the way it should, I checked out the camera and it seemed to be just fine. I hope I thanked the people who were there to help, although I can’t actually remember doing so. As I got down off the sharp stuff I saw Richard coming up towards me. He had missed the show. We agreed to head down to where the bear carcass was. I moved a bit more slowly than usual but I got there, saw the remains of the bear which were quite interesting rather than really gross, and then headed for the zodiacs. By that point I was sulking and didn’t feel like hanging around.

Young polar bear skeleton

I got almost to the zodiac and realized I didn’t have a life jacket on so I went back to the pile and grabbed the first one that came to hand. There are two kinds of lifejackets. One has a clip similar to what you find on a backpack. You slip one part into the other and it locks into place. To take it off, you squeeze the two tabs toward each other and pull it apart. Easy peasy. The newer models have two metal rectangular pieces, one of each side of the jacket. To fasten them you have to put one through the other by turning it on its side, then once through you turn it so it’s vertical again and the PFD is secure. This one also had either a very, very, long waist strap or a crotch strap. I’m not sure which. I was rushing to try to get into this apparatus because I was the last person on the zodiac.

Well, my mum used to say, “Less haste, more speed.” I ended up trussed up like a chicken and one of the staff had to come and extract me, which wasn’t exactly a speedy operation. Then had to untangle the life jacket from itself while the others in the zodiac waited. Finally he and Richard were able to get me into the life jacket so I cold join the others in the boat and we could take off. I was in the bow and the waves had picked up so I got splashed a bit, which I thought was rather fun. The driver was taking it easy so as not to get us really wet.

When we got back onto the ship we swished our rubber boots in the cleaning solution and when we got to the mud room we also treated our hiking boots to prevent and cross contamination of sites.

I was anxious to see what the damage was on my knee. When I took my pants off there was quite a cut across my knee cap and my knee was turning a bit purple. Not much blood had soaked into my pants and the cut didn’t seem all that wide. I hopped in the shower and after a few yelps, it got used to the warm water and I made sure to give it a good cleaning with soap and water. [I'm not going to include a photo of the bloody knee. You just have to trust me.]

There is a doctor onboard but you pay for each individual service so we were debating as to whether or not it was worth a visit. Our friend Christine was an ER nurse before her retirement so Richard phoned her and asked if she would stop by for a consultation. She did and determined that my leg was not about to fall off and that we could probably patch it up ourselves. The cut was a bit too wide for a single bandaid so she stuck the sticky bits at the sides of the two bandaids together and then put it on my knee. When I said I never would have thought of that she graciously pointed out that it wasn’t her first rodeo. We had a good laugh and then went in search of a cup of tea.

Before the landing today we got a briefing about tomorrow. The plan was to visit Caswell Tower a site on Devon Island where there are well preserved examples of whale bone houses, and then to sail to Beechey Island to visit the Franklin graves. Before we went for supper tonight there was an announcement saying that the ice was moving in and there was a way we could get to Beechey but it would take us longer.

As you know if you follow this blog, Beechey Island is the one place I was really hoping to land on this trip. We have passed it four times and never been able to land. I heard about the Franklin graves on Beechey Island when I was in my teens listening to a CBC radio program and from that time on I’ve been fascinated by the place. At dinner we were talking about it and the others at the table said they had both landed on Beechey. The staff member who was with us said that she had landed on Beechey every time she has done this trip. They assured me that we would make it this time, that their good luck would counter our bad luck.

We’ll have to see tomorrow. I think this is my last kick at the cat. If we don’t land this time I’ll just have to shrug and figure that it wasn’t meant to be. By the time you read this we’ll either have made it or we won’t. We just had a look out the window and there certainly are chunks of ice floating by. Here’s hoping that as we sleep the wind, the waves, and the ice will be in our favour. I guess either way it will make a good story.

A last thought: I guess the feather was lucky in the sense that I didn't break my camera and didn't break my neck.

Stay tuned.

Northwest passage 7 Bellot Strait, Friday September 5, 2025

9:41

The agenda for the day on the ship's CCTV

I just heard them drop the anchor. We are closer to the bow than to the stern and after a while you get to know some of the routine ship sounds. I was wondering this morning what will happen to this ship next season since neither of the companies who routinely charter her will be doing so. Will she get a refit and be chartered by different companies of will she be scrapped? Whichever she has had a good run as a ferry and then as an expedition ship. She’s been comfortable enough for us. There are a couple of minor irritations this year. There is a chemical smell in my bathroom and there seems to be a colony of small flies living there so, even though I’m far away from the box elder bugs and the Manitoba maple, I’m still hunting insects each day. I haven’t bothered to report it to housekeeping. Maybe I will and maybe I’ll just continue the hunt. Each day I seem to be stalking fewer of the creatures.

Today just as I was getting ready to go to breakfast, there was an announcement that narwhals had been spotted so, of course, most people ran up to the bow on the top deck to try to get photos. I didn’t feel like rushing to get my outdoor gear on in 5 seconds only to get another ‘find the animal’ photo so I stayed put.

Richard had gone for breakfast before me and he said he saw the narwhals from the window in the restaurant. As we finished he said, “I think they’re still there.” We went closer to the window and saw a couple of dark shapes in the water moving toward the starboard side of the boat. We moved to one of the side windows and, sure enough, there were the narwhals. I’d be lying if I said I got a really good look at them but I could see that they were certainly large and it’s the closest I’ve ever been to one. 

Narwhals! Photo by Michael Winsor

I don’t suppose it’s possible with narwhals but with most creatures, I’ve decided if your goal is to see them in the wild then go on a cruise. If your goal is to see them up close than choose a wildlife park. The guys from National Geographic spend days waiting for wildlife, following wildlife, and hoping for the right conditions. On a trip like this we might be lucky and get close enough to capture something resembling an animal if we have a long enough lens. I’ll get the shots if I can and if I can’t I’ll enjoy the privilege of sharing space for a brief moment with these northern animals.

Our landing today is in Willis Bay, a location Adventure Canada hasn’t been to before. The mouth of the Bay is about 600 meters wide and it was interesting to watch as the captain, slowly and carefully, slid the ship through the narrow opening. The winds are calm which helped. We are scheduled to start disembarking on the zodiacs in about 20 minutes so I’ll leave this here. Today is the day we go through Bellot Strait and from there on I will have travelled in the waters even if I haven’t been as far north as we are planning to go. Keep crossing your fingers for a landing on Beechey Island. So far we have been incredibly lucky with the wind and the waves. Here’s hoping it continues so we can visit both Beechey and Grise Fjord.

12:12

Zodiac cruising

We’ve just returned from our zodiac cruise. They decided not to land because there was a polar bear sighting and also there is fresh snow. White snow, white polar bear, and a bunch of smurfs? Not so much. I like the zodiac cruises in some ways and not in others. It’s nice not to have to worry about a backpack and we can see animals from a different perspective than on the ship. We saw eider ducks, some sort of gulls, and a polar bear. I was sitting on the wrong side of the zodiac but Richard who was in the bow was kneeling down so I asked him to take a photo. I had taken one but it wasn’t in focus. He got a really good one and I’ll be transferring it from the camera to my iPad when the camera finishes charging. [I can't find that photo.]

I’m not so fond of zodiac cruises because if you want to take a photo you are always dodging heads. Sometimes I just incorporate the people and other times I try to get an angle or use a zoom so that I can avoid them. Some of the shots I may have to crop but that’s not the best when you’re dealing with a camera that has a small sensor. Oh well, you make a compromise with the equipment you take and then you make the best of it.

I confirmed today that I can get all my insulation clothing under my jacket. I had a long sleeved merino t-shirt, a merino turtleneck, my down pullover jacket, and my favourite Iceland sweater under my wind jacket. On the bottom I had my fleece pants, my regular nylon pants, and my wind pants. I wore two pair of socks in my hiking boots. I don’t have room for thick socks in them and I think they give me better weather protection than the rubber boots with thick socks would have done. The only body part that got cold was my hands because they were in and out of my gloves so I could take pictures. I’m not sure a lighter pair of gloves would have been any better. With the really thick ones I could stuff my hands into the wrist part and get my fingers sort of warm.

Almost time for lunch and I think I’ll get a. cup of tea.

21:24

Not much to add now. We did get through Bellot Strait - twice! I’m not exactly sure how it all worked or what was going on but on the way through the first time we dropped off some of the expedition crew in two zodiacs and we continued on through the strait. Then we turned around and went back to pick them up. I think they were scouting for new landing possibilities.

We had afternoon tea on the back deck today and had a toast as we passed Zenith Point.

Another version of tea on the deck

It is the most northerly point in North America. It is 64km farther north than Point Barrow in Alaska which is the most northerly point in the US. Of course all the Canadians on board liked that. We toasted Bellot for whom the strait is named.

Toasting Bellot

He was a sailor on an expedition and his captain told him and a few other sailors to take a message to another ship that was over wintering in the ice. Bellot and company pitched their tent one night on an ice pan and when Bellot got up in the morning in the dark to pee he took two steps away from the tent and landed in the water. That was the end of him. When the others got back from their errand, they told the commander and he decided to call the strait where Bellot drowned after him. It’s just a bit weird to me to be toasting a guy who died because he had to pee. Oh well.

I was out on the deck for the first transit of the strait. The weather was so weird. When I went outside it was a bit cloudy and there was a little snow coming down. As we moved into the strait, the cloud cleared up and the snow stopped. Then there was some time when there was no wind at all and I got a picture of the Adventure Canada flag lying motionless against the flag pole. Then the wind began picking up and the sea, which had been glass smooth, developed some waves.

The captain opened the bow to us which was really cool.

Standing on the bow looking toward the stern

I went down and got some interesting shots. I didn’t have my gloves with me because they are lovely and warm but they are also lovely and thick and I can’t manipulate a camera or a phone with them on. I put my hands in my pockets periodically to try to warm them up but they got pretty cold after an hour and a half. It felt really good to put my hands in warm water for a minute or two when I got back to the cabin.

We had supper and after supper Ethan was in the lounge playing some of his own songs. I didn’t stay until the end. I needed to finish up here and we have to move our clocks ahead an hour tomorrow. We are actually going into a time zone two hours ahead but they’ve decided to give us a break and only do it one hour at a time. So, I’m off to reset my phone and try to reset my Fitbit.

Tomorrow we are heading for Aston Bay (Kangiqturuluk) I don’t know anything about the place but there will be a briefing in the morning. The first talk of the day will be on Arctic whales, porpoises, and dolphins. That’s it for now.

Map with our progress 

Northwest passage 6, Pasley Bay, Thursday September 4, 2025

14:36

Riding in the zodiac

I don’t know that I have that much to say at this point in the day but I have a few minutes before we land so I figured if I wrote down something about the morning I’d have fewer things to remember. We got to sleep in again, YEA! We went down to breakfast just before the buffet closed which was fine since we didn’t want that much anyway. The first talk of the morning was on archeology in the north. I took notes in the little notebook that Craig gave me for my birthday. I wasn’t going to bring it with me because I have my other notebook that I always write in and I knew I’d have lots of space in that one. I’m glad I did because it fits in nicely in my thigh pocket of both pairs of pants and it lives there along with a pen. Lots of times I wouldn’t likely have a notebook with me and now I always have one. I’m not comfortable taking notes on my phone. The only down side is that we’ve been on the ship since Monday and I only have a few more pages left. What I’ll do if we come on future expeditions like this is to make sure I have replacements for the notebook part so I can just swap them out when one gets full.

The talks were really interesting and I may insert some of the information I gleaned from them here at a later point. Right now I don’t have time to do that before we go to shore. The second talk I accessed via the TV in our room. It dealt with Research in the Canadian Arctic and it was clear by the end of it that there is a delicate balance between the governmental institutions that provide funding for the science, the scientists who do the work and the Inuit communities on whose land, and in whose waters the research takes place. That led into the third talk about the Franklin Expedition. Turns out we sailed almost directly over the location where Franklin’s ships were stuck in the ice for two winters and where they ultimately abandoned the ships and set out across the ice.

The ships weren’t found near the place they had overwintered and the question came up of how the ships got from the overwintering spot to the places they were found. David Pelly provided two possible explanations: first that some of the crew returned to the ships and sailed southward when the ice eventually gave up its grip on them. There is no evidence of that in the oral history but John pointed out that in order for the Erebus  to end up where it is it had to go down a very narrow channel and do a fish hook manoeuvre. It is possible that winds and waves carried it down there but it would require all the elements to line up perfectly.

That brings up the second possibility: that the ships were abandoned and wind and waves carried them to their final resting places. John collected oral histories in the 70”s and 80’s and it is clear that the Inuit knew exactly where the ships were. They got wood from the ships and one man’s ancestor told him that there was a hole in one of the ships through which he crawled and he saw dead bodies. At the present time no bodies have been discovered aboard the wrecks, although they continue to be explored. In an agreement among Canada Britain and the Inuit, Britain received 60 of the first artifacts that were recovered by the divers. Canada and the Inuit get the rest unless there is gold or something of extreme value which goes to the UK. Apparently in maritime law, Britain continued to search for the ships and never officially abandoned them even though all the crew walked away from them. The Inuit could lay claim to the artifacts that are in British hands but that path would be costly for not much of a gain. They have chosen not to press their case in favour of shared control, with the Canadian government, of the site and joint claim whatever is brought up from the ships.

The Erebus lies in water about thirty feet deep and the effect of waves and storms has already caused the ship to degrade in the ten years since it was found. Because of this, Parks Canada is putting its resources into salvaging The Erebus before it collapses in upon itself making all items inside the ship unreachable. The Terror lies in deeper water so there isn’t the urgency to investigate that.

David also mentioned that there are hints that the Inuit of Goa Haven knew more about the Franklin expedition than they were willing to share. There may have been certain taboos that the descendants of those alive at the time were not willing to break. Louis K who collected filing cabinets full of oral histories in Inutituit got as much as he could from those he spoke to and certainly more information that would have been given to a white person. It’s one of those things that is tantalizingly close and which we will never be sure of since all of that generation of elders has since died.

22:40

Not sure how complete this will be. I’m tired tonight. We had a great landing. The clouds lifted and we were treated to a blue sky and sunshine.

Nice weather

It was quite chilly on shore. We didn’t have a temperature reading but I’m guessing it was a bit below freezing. There wasn’t much wind and it died down after we had been on shore for a while. Carolyn Mallory was standing at what she called ‘my little oasis.’ Although her thing is plants she knows a lot of stuff about critters too.

Orange lichen = bird poop

She pointed out that there was bright orange lichen on a couple of the bigger rocks near the outside of the circle of vegetation. Those are owl perches. This particular lichen feeds on bird poop so whenever she sees it she knows to look more closely. Within a circle of slightly less than two feet in diameter she pointed out four owl pellets, one of which contained the bones of a lemming; a lemming skull, musk ox poop, and ptarmigan poop. She picked up the lemming skull and allowed us to take photos of it. What small and delicate bones.

Lemming skull

A little farther up the benches there was a spotting scope set up, trained on a group of musk oxen. It was cool to see them, even though I couldn’t make them out with my naked eyes. On all these hikes I think of Niap and the day she told me that if I came across a feather it would mean good luck. There was a white feather lying on the beach just where we took off our life jackets so I took a picture of that.

Lucky feather

Then part way up, there was a small feather standing vertically between a couple of stones. The wind was ruffling it and I thought it was so cool I wanted to get a photo. I got down on my knees, tried various angles, took a few shots, and it was only when I got up that I noticed the feather was surrounded by goose poop. Great! Note to self: pay attention to everything in the frame, not just what interests you.

Feather blowing in the wind + goose poop

On the way back to the beach Aleqa was standing beside a bowhead bone. She said it was probably about 500 years old and showed us how the moss had grown over some of it. Her thinking was that the sea level had been higher and the spot where the bone rested was in fact, near the water line at one time. That makes sense considering where it was in the series of benches. People probably harvested the whale at this spot and had a camp nearby.

Aleqa Hammond, fromer prime minister of Greenland

As I got closer to the landing spot, I noticed a couple of pieces of jawbone. By looking at the teeth my guess is either musk ox or caribou. The teeth were flat for chewing on plants. I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone about it yet. [I didn't get around to checking with anyone.]

Pieces of jaw

Tomorrow we make our last landing on the mainland. From then on we will be on islands in the archipelago. Also tomorrow we will go through Bellot Strait. That was where we got stuck and had to turn back on the previous trip. They suggested at the briefing that we go out on deck for the transit of the strait. Apparently we have to time our entry into it just right because the tides there are pretty strong and If we miss the window we’ll either be going through it like a rocket ship or we’ll be sitting there for hours and hours hardly moving. It’s a pretty good place to see wildlife, including polar bears.

If there are no bears, we’ll do a hike and if there are bears we may pull out all the stops and get everyone into zodiacs to take a look. There’s also some talk about going back into the strait to see if we can find some rocks to match those that came from a drawer in the HMS Erebus. If we manage to get a match, Marc the geologist will take samples and bring them aboard for further analysis. If they are, in fact, a match, it will provide more information about where the men of the Erebus were.

It looks like another full day and I think it’s time to call it quits on this one and get some sleep.

Northwest passage 5, Cambridge Bay, Wednesday September 3, 2025

22:37

Landing in Cambridge Bay

Wow, not sure where that day went! We got to sleep in until 7:30. Woo hoo! Some of you will be laughing like crazy at that last statement because you know how late I usually sleep. On these cruises it’s all relative.

We are moving up in the colour group line so we didn’t have quite as much time to lollygag as we had yesterday. Peter Porter, one of our Inuit guides and the guy who patiently stood with me until I could see the Arctic ground squirrel yesterday, talked about the Inuit communities. It was interesting to see the divisions of the Inuit lands and where the various communities were located. I’d like to have a map of that, an old fashioned paper map. Google Earth is helpful but I haven’t dragged my brain into the 21 century when it comes to representing political and geographical features of a landscape.

From where we were anchored in Cambridge Bay, we could see a Canadian coast guard ship, The Sir Wilfred Laurier, and one of the sealift ships. I didn’t see the name on it. There was a helicopter on the rear deck of the Laurier and while we were going to shore in the zodiac we saw it lift off the deck and fly off. That was cool!

Sir Wilfred Laurier

It was a very short transfer into shore where we dumped our life jackets and our rubber boots. In hindsight, today would have been a good day to keep the rubber boots on. We had to take off out boots when we went into buildings and it wasn’t hard to see why. The roads were pretty muddy and it did rain a bit while we were there. It would have been much easier to simply step out of and into the rubber boots than having to undo and then do up laces each time. Not a huge deal really, and we did get our bending over exercise to keep us flexible.

Kind of muddy underfoot and a road sign

We visited the high school, the library,

The library

the visitor’s centre, the Anglican church, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, and the Red Fish art studio where we got to sample some traditional food. There were people selling crafts at every venue. At the library I bought some coffee beans for friends.

KAAPITTIAQ means 'good coffee'

Adventure Canada had given us some of that brand of coffee on one of the trips and it was a big hit so, now that we were in the community where it was roasted, I thought I’d pick up some more.

In every place we went Inuit art was on display. There was a series of water colour paintings illustrating the creation myth of the landforms around Cambridge Bay.  In another spot there was a mural painted close to the ceiling so you could see it from the second floor. I think it was the visitors centre that had a sculpture made from the skull of a whale.

Explanation of the carving

Fabric wall-hanging in quviut by Agnes Iqqugaqtug

In the CHARS building art was part of the floor and the whole design of the building was heavily influenced by the elders and by what would be good for the community as a whole.

Canadian High Arctic Research Station

Information pamphlet about a polar speaker series

Information on Arctic goose population monitoring

Sustainable community design and Inuit self-determination

The church has some very nice stained glass depicting scenes from Inuit life

View from the aisle

We had a couple of grade 8 boys from the basketball team as our guides for the town tour. In reality their job was to get us from point A to point B and to answer our questions if they could. We had been briefed beforehand to ask them open ended questions that might prompt a longer answer. I don’t think we were very successful on that score. Each of the boys wore a mic and speaker so we could better hear what they had to say. I don’t think they used the mic’s for their intended purpose, but they used them to greet other tour guides as we passed them and to call to each other, one from the head, and tail of the line.  They were very good about keeping us on schedule and shepherding us when one of us straggled and had to be guided to the next presentation.

There is an interesting set of sculptures just across the the road from where we landed. There are two wolves, teeth bared, facing away from the beach and toward a musk ox.

The story of how these sculptures came to be is an interesting one. The elders were concerned that it was getting hard to get the youth out of bed to engage in some meaningful activity. I’m not sure how the idea came about but a plan was hatched that saw the youth go to the dump and pick out a piece of metal that wouldn’t be useful for anything. They brought it back and with assistance transformed the junk into the sculptures of the wolves and the musk ox. The wolves symbolize the settlers nipping at the heels of the people to get them to change their ways. The musk ox is a solid creature that hasn’t changed for centuries: two realities of the youth in Cambridge Bay today.

When it came to ‘A Taste of Place’ which is what the tastings of traditional Inuit food is called, I decided to try everything. There was raw Arctic char on a cracker, smoked Arctic char, a meatball of cooked musk ox, bannock, and a small cube of beluga skin. I have tried the beluga skin once before and didn’t like it but this piece had a milder flavour and I didn’t mind it. Both types of Arctic char were good. I was surprised that the raw char didn’t taste fishy.

We came back to the ship for lunch and in the afternoon there were presentations as we raised the anchor and sailed east from Cambridge Bay. It was another good day with a little bit of rain and cloudy skies.

Large sign in front of the RCMP detachment