Jacko by his house
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One of the many genuinely hospitable locals!
Catch from the Nets
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Surprisingly there are now Atlantic Salmon this year. First time in Many generations.
Fwd: Arctic Bay beach
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There are no docks in the Arctic we run the tender up the beach and clamber off over the bow. Arctic Bay is much prettier and better organised than all the other Settlements we have visited..
Arctic Bay School
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This is the Primary or Elementary School. The other School here goes all the way to High school level. 50% of the people that live here are under 16..It is hard to find older folks or maybe they all just look young..
Arctic Bay, tending the nets
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From the shore they have recently been sending out a little net to catch fish. They are doing better than we are as you would expect..
Katabatic!
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From Bellot Straits we Went North up Peel Sound. Thankfully Ice free. We had 20kts of wind behind us and for the 1st time in a while the sun set.. We crossed the top of Somerset and then down Admiralty Inlet the Southerly wind peaked around 40kts but the seas were flatish. The wind was enhanced by the Katabatic action developed by the very high hills we were sailing by. Some Cliffs were 1000m meters high…
Onwards to Arctic Bay
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With Bellot Strait astern, we turn North again for the 36 hour run to Arctic Bay..
Hard at Work...Not...
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North America behind us Raya and Hutch with the end of the strait in sight everyone relaxed a bit with a cup of Tea..
Bellot Straits
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Bellot Strait, one more little challenge Due to our proximity to the magnetic North Pole, the warning on the chart reads “Magnetic Compass Useless.” But we do have 3 GPS systems and 2 gyros.. What Data is on the charts is in the right place. It is just most of it is missing.
Through!
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Doesn’t look as fearsome from here as it is…Also don’t remember it being that blue..
From Here we turned to the North sadly to start the trek back to the East Coast of the USA. We decided to go up Peel sound which is not usually open and across the top of somerset back East To Arctic Bay. in Admiralty inlet 408nm from here..
Bellot Drone
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A nice shot from Ritchie’s Drone as we head West through Bellot Straits.
Serious watch maintained through the strait
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As hard as the royal navy looked..It took a Frenchman Lt. Bellot to find this strait in 1852. He was working for the Royal Navy though and died a year later at a young age when he fell through Ice in Wellington Channel in 1853..No ship transited the straits until 1937 from the west and 1946 from the East...
Bellot Transit
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We timed our arrival to coincide with a light incoming flow from the West. At this time it was about 3 knots, maybe a bit more than we wanted but at 15kts boat speed we made good progress against the current. It can run as hard as 8 knots at this point in the passage and this rock throws a mighty wake..This passage never freezes but its location was hard for the explorers to find. and impossible to transit safely under sail.
Where is Magpie Rock?
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From Ft Ross we decided to go through the much vaunted Bellot Straits it is the key to most recent North West Passages. a tricky piece of water.. 101% focus, Bellot Strait Almost everyone was on the flybridge for this east to west passage through the narrow and potentially treacherous strait
Give me 20!
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Marcus oversees three “drop and give me 20’s” The crew has a very spirited ongoing (and merciless) game in which anyone using the word “mine” must immediately do 20 pushups. Much very funny maneuvering goes into tricking shipmates into using “the word.”