Things have been going well since Peel sound. Half way down Peel I came across a massive number of seals, birds and narwhals (Peel sound marine party). I’ve been seeing a lot of seals since Lancaster sound, they keep there distance so its hard to get a good picture. Sometimes one will appear right by the boat but it disappears before I can turn the camera on. In Peel sound there were literally hundreds of them. Some swiming in groups chasing fish, some just doing there own thing. At any given time there was 10 or more sticking there little heads out the water staring at me. They look like little prairie dogs sticking their heads out of the ground. There are so many seals in the Northwest Passage that I’ve been afraid to fish because I don’t want to accidentally catch one. The narwhals didn’t seem to pay any attention to my boat, they would swim right by like they had no care in the world. I must of seen at least 50 of them, it went on like this for miles. I can believe I’ve actually seen a narwhal!
The winds have been light since Peel sound and I’ve had to motor sail most of the way down. My Volvo Penta has a hard time starting in this cold environment but once its running it runs like a champ. My timing has been perfect and I’ve been able to clear the worst of the ice with relative ease. There was one patch of pack ice running about 10 miles north to south but I was able to find a ice free corridor about a quarter mile wide and I shot threw the pack ice with no problems. Its been a warm summer up here. I was colder in Baffin bay, with temperatures reaching near freezing. The last four days I’ve had 50-60 degree (13-16c) weather, which is nice for me but terrible for the Arctic. I have a bad feeling that if things stay this way the Arctic is going to be decimated in the next 15 years or so and its going to effect us all. Scientists are all ready noticing some differences in weather patterns south of the Arctic and if all the ice were to melt you could say good bye to New York City (for starters) .
Enough doom and gloom. I’m in a part of the passage thats rich with history, only a few miles from here Amundsen spent a winter in the ice during his 1903-1905 journey. Not to far from here is where Franklin’s expedition went horribly wrong and around 130 people died. This is where east meets west, the missing part of the puzzle that eluded so many early explorers. I don’t know how the early explorers made it anywhere. My compass has been useless for the last 20 days. It always wants to point to the south no matter which way I head. There is so much fog that a sextant would be of little use. They had no motor, bad charts, and no idea which which way to go in this maze of the Canadian archipelago. I have all the respect in the world for these men.
Mike “da web masta” McLinn has figured out some crazy way that I can take a picture of a picture and send it as a much smaller file. So I’ve been able to send good pics. Its a relief for me, I want you all to be able to see the pics that go with the story. Well, the wind is picking up and I need to change my sails, so until next time.
FORTITUDINE VINCIMUS
