When we came to terms that we had lost the anchor and saw the latest weather forecast witch contained symbols that we had never seen because they represented 60 knots and above, coming up from the North Pacific in a few days. We decided to leave as soon as possible for Dutch despite the 30 and 40 knot winds predicted. We spent the next couple of hours refuelling the engine and stove as well as cooking heavy weather food and set sail South for Dutch Harbour.
Belzebub sailed beautifully through the 3-4 meter breaking waves but what we had failed to understand is that the Bearing sea usually has two wave directions one from the prevailing winds and one from either old seas or rebound from close by land masses. This meant that while we sailed with the wind we had 3-4 meter waves on our stern stacking with 2-3 meter beam waves which slammed over the deck of the boat or poured in over the stern of the boat occasionally filling the cockpit. Add to this that now we were encountering 12 hour nights and it made for long watches.
The winds continued to increase and soon the sails were reduced so much we had to change them to the storm sails. For three days we rolled with the waves and wind and everything on board was wet with spray. We soon encountered the Bearing fishing fleet and the AIS was alive with activity which made us feel more comfortable about our surroundings. That being said despite the difficult conditions the boat handled every situation beautiful and we were never concerned about our safety.
Soon we were approaching Dutch Harbour in the darkness of night, the harbour was surrounded by impressive mountains and the lights of the fishing and crabbing fleet that lined its shores. We tied up in the small boat harbour which proudly stated its location on a carved wooden pilar “Unalaska, Alaska” we had a short look around and slept late into the next day.
On our return to Resolute we experienced some equipment failure that we needed to deal with before heading back out into Arctic waters. So while we sailed through the stiff winds of Parry Channel we began to organize the complicated task of having a package shipped up to the Arctic in any reasonable sort of time. A solid logistics chain would be paramount in making sure we would not be delayed in our time sensitive expedition.
Even with the advent of satellite phone and email onboard we found that organizing a complicated parts order and shipping to this remote part of the world just wasn’t possible, but after a few calls we had the most amazing team working tirelessly to research and bring us the needed equipment.
After localising the part Edvin’s father, Lars, drove across Sweden to pick up and deliver the parts to FedEx’s international terminal who would send it to Nicks father in Montreal, Bernard, who would then drive to Ottawa where a good Pilot friend of ours would ensure the shipment to Resolute via his airline. It was a solid three day plan which in it self is amazing regarding that the normal shipping alternatives would take over 1 week. We where thrilled over the generosity of our friends and family as well as the beautiful logistics chain they had put together.
In spite of all this effort we where saddened when we learned that the package did not arrive this morning because FedEx had lost it and had no record of it. So the wheels where set in motion again and this time the parts were localized in Canada and it is now on its way to Montreal again. While we intended on staying here for several days to wait for the ice conditions to change these added shipment days are concerning. We need to be able to make it out of Resolute at any time and are worried about the consequences if we can not.
Having chosen to attempt the larger and more technical McClure route rather than North of Devon route we left Grise Fjord to sail the 400 nautical miles to the next staging point in Resolute. If the route is still partially open when we arrive we will attempt to squeeze into the small channel we saw appear on the satellite images and hope that while we are pushing through the rest of the passage will clear before the ice closes in once again for the long Arctic winter.
Plying through the Northern waters of Jones sound, surrounded by the glaciers and fjords that lined the coasts of Ellesmere and Devon one could not help but think of the major expeditions that passed through here, and which once marked the furthest navigable point by sea. Baffin first saw Jones sound from afar in 1616 but it wasn’t until three hundred years later at the turn of the twentieth century that Jones sound would be explored.
Its exporation was led by Norwegian Otto Svendrup and it led to the discovery of so many islands, that it surmounted the total amount that the Franklin expedition and its subsequent search parties would discover. So thoroughly did he survey the area under the Norwegian flag that the Dominion of Canada paid him 67,000$ for all his maps, notes, diaries and other related documents and coincidentally, at the same time Norway formally confirmed Canada’s title to the islands.
From Jones sound we rounded Devon island and tracked the Southern coast spotting seals and Walrus until we reached Beechey island and dropped Anchor in Terror and Erebus Bay where Franklin’s mysterious expedition wintered before disappearing forever. The island, while quite bleak and wind swept, contains Franklin’s Cairn and the bodies of three of his crew which remain covered in rocks on top of the permafrost.
It was remarkable to walk the shale beach of the island and imagine the bay covered in men, supplies and the ships preparing for a long winter which they may not survive. The entire expedition embodied the spirit of exploration, to discover a Northwest Passage through a frozen world that has never been mapped. We explored the area visiting the graves, the old cairns and platforms where the crew had erected small buildings. Signs of their living on the island were apparent but scarce, we found parts of old barrels but none of the famous cans lined in lead that helped seal the fate of the missing expedition. We sailed the next morning in heavy snow for Resolute, somehow it seemed like a fitting way to depart the historic island.
Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent on March 18, ice extent for the month as a whole was higher than in recent years, but still below average. As the melt season begins, researchers look at a variety of factors that may contribute to summer ice melt. While the maximum extent occurred slightly later than average, the new ice growth is very thin and likely to melt quickly.
Ice extent this March ranked ninth lowest out of the 34 years of satellite data for the month, but it was the highest March average ice extent since 2008 and one of the higher March extents in the past decade. Ice cover remained extensive in the Bering Sea, where it has been above average all winter. Ice extent was also higher than average in Baffin Bay, between Greenland and Canada, and the Sea of Okhotsk, east of Russia.
After the near-record melt last summer, second-year ice declined again, but some of the ice that had survived the previous few summers made it through another year, increasing the proportion of third- and fourth-year ice. However the oldest, thickest ice, more than four years old, continued to decline. Ice older than four years used to make up about a quarter of the winter sea ice cover, but now constitutes only 2%. First-year ice (0 to 1 years old) this year makes up 75% of the total ice cover.
It is remarkable that the Arctic has warmed about twice as fast as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere in recent decades and that summer Arctic sea ice has declined by 40%! (Source http://nsidc.org/)
I am almost embarrassed to say how much time I have spent pouring over the archives of Canadian ice charts trying to identify re-occuring patterns and to try and estimate when ice will clear from specific areas. In the end while there are clear trends trying to figure the where and when is not a science one can learn but requires divination, clairvoyancy, premonition and prophecy.
Two scientific advances, however, aid in helping us make an educated decision if we are to take a certain course; ice charts and satellite images. While extremely helpful to get the general idea of the lay of an area they are far from exact as conditions change by the minute and once they are published they are usually already outdated. The Canadian ice services produce an amazing amount of precise information on ice conditions in the Canadian Arctic and we will use their charts daily when possible. However, for the new route we plan the Canadian ice services do not produce daily ice charts.
For this leg of the journey we will have to fill gaps with our own interpretations of the ice conditions, guess work, luck and a daily satellite image of the Arctic. Lacking the wonderfully informative and colourful navigational ice charts, we will fall back on satellite images which we learned off the coast of Greenland can be problematic. Clouds mean that a satellite image may provide no ice information at all other then meteorological. Last year we mistook a swath of clouds in a satellite image as ice, to the untrained eye these black and white photos from hundreds of miles up are difficult to interpret on the clearest of days.
Add to this that the navigational charts that we have are either devoid of information because no boats travel these regions or the information is dated. That sums up what we must somehow prepare ourselves for this summer.
Polar explorer Borge Ousland’s approach to protecting himself.
We will be spending as much time as we can, when not navigating ice, exploring isolated islands, mountains and glaciers hiking, climbing and camping in some of the most remote areas of the Arctic. In looking at getting all our land equipment in check we have to consider the places where we are headed to are frequented by polar bears. In planning our trip people are always writing us about arming ourselves against polar bears but we have been looking at different ways of protecting ourselves and the bears we encounter by non-malicious means. This means taking simple precautionary steps such as not camping by shorelines which bears like to follow, to surround camps with a detection system such as trip wires and to carry signal flares and a fog horn to scare the bears away. We are more interested in highlighting the polar bears plight in the midst of a changing Arctic environment.
According to the WWF there are “ 20-25,000 polar bears living in the wild, the species is not currently endangered, but its future is far from certain. In 1973, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway and the former U.S.S.R. signed the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and their Habitat. This agreement restricts the hunting of polar bears and directs each nation to protect their habitats, but it does not protect the bears against the biggest man-made threat to their survival: climate change. If current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century. To learn more about the topic, read the WWF report Vanishing Kingdom: The Melting Realm of the Polar Bear .”
I am almost embarrassed to say how much time I have spent pouring over the archives of Canadian ice charts trying to identify re-occuring patterns and to try and estimate when ice will clear from specific areas. In the end while there are clear trends trying to figure the where and when is not a science one can learn but requires divination, clairvoyancy, premonition and prophecy.
Two scientific advances, however, aid in helping us make an educated decision if we are to take a certain course; ice charts and satellite images. While extremely helpful to get the general idea of the lay of an area they are far from exact as conditions change by the minute and once they are published they are usually already outdated. The Canadian ice services produce an amazing amount of precise information on ice conditions in the Canadian Arctic and we will use their charts daily when possible. However, for the new route we plan the Canadian ice services do not produce daily ice charts.