Posts Tagged ‘northwest passage’
Whirling away to the Northwest Passage, Halifax, and Port Dover
We’re gearing up to go voyaging Into the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada, departing from Greenland on August 26. Above, we see the three musketeers who figure in Passage, the docudrama based on my book Fatal Passage. Two of them — Inuit leader Tagak Curley and myself — will sail aboard the Ocean Endeavour. The…
Read MoreWe’re voyaging Into the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. Are we excited yet?
Three Facebook friends from different corners of the world have drawn my attention to a call for presenters aboard a celebrity sailing in the Arctic. While I really do appreciate their thinking of me, this does make me wonder if I haven’t made sufficient noise about how, this August, Sheena and I will be voyaging…
Read MoreNorthwest Passage voyagers make history . . . maybe next time?
[Here endeth our Adventure Canada voyage Out of the Northwest Passage. . . .] DAY SIXTEEN Sept. 20 Today we visited what is arguably the most picturesque community in Greenland. The settlement of Itilleq is 49 km south of Sisimiut on a small island at the mouth of Itilleq Fjord. Inhabited by about 100…
Read MoreNorthwest Passage voyage enters the Greenland ice
DAY FOURTEEN Friday, Sept. 18 Sunrise in Karrat Fjord provided the most memorable morning of the voyage, featuring dead calm waters, icebergs large and small, wisps of fog swirling past distant mountain peaks, white-capped and soaring to 6,000 feet. Voyagers could hardly believe the vistas. Those who had visited this sixty-kilometre-long fjord three or four…
Read MoreVoyagers beat north along the American Route to the Pole
DAY NINE: Grise Fjord Sept. 13 A larger-than-life monument at Grise Fjord, carved out of stone, depicts two Inuit: an adult female and a child. These figures face towards Resolute Bay, where a companion statue of a male Inuk gazes back at this memorial. Together, the two monuments speak to the separation of families that…
Read MoreAtwood, Belugas & Dundas Harbour: Why sail the Northwest Passage?
DAY EIGHT: Dundas Harbour Sept. 12 As the ship neared the foot of Croker Bay, voyagers crowded onto the deck, dazzled by the sunshine magnificence of Croker Glacier, essentially an ice river pouring down from the Devon Island ice cap. This was our first look at big ice and we liked it. The bay takes…
Read MoreMerry Christmas from the Northwest Passage
Okay, so we aren’t there at this moment. But we WILL be going back in August. Party on! DAY SIX: Port Leopold and Beechey Island 2015: Sept. 10 Spectacular Thule sites greeted voyagers who went ashore at Port Leopold, at the northeast corner of Somerset Island. Archaelogist Latonia Hartery identified these dozen dwellings as Thule…
Read MoreAdventure Canada voyagers discover Fort Ross
DAY FIVE: Fort Ross Sept 9 (Pix by Sheena Fraser McGoogan) The Ocean Endeavour anchored for the night where Bellot Strait meets Prince Regent Inlet. Starting at 8:30 in the morning, we went ashore in zodiacs and made a wet landing at “Fort Ross.” The site, so named by the Hudson’s Bay Company, comprises two…
Read MoreChasing history through the Northwest Passage
Voyaging in the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. We’re going to do it again next August. Photos by Sheena Fraser McGoogan. DAY THREE: Gjoa Haven Monday, Sept. 7 Exhilarated. The word surfaced again and again as people arrived back from Gjoa Haven. Were they excited by the zodiac ride through choppy waters? No, one woman…
Read MoreNorthwest Passage voyage dazzles even old hands
This past autumn, we sailed Out of the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. Our Hero wrote the logbook (see pic), a full-color version of which goes automatically to passengers. Next August, we’ll sail the other way: Into the Passage. What’s it like? Coming your way: a few excerpts. This voyage left even old hands awestruck and…
Read More