Hi it’s Pete here. We are are chilling out in Arctic Bay (no pun intended), restocking essentials like chocolate biscuits. You may be wondering why we are still lurking around East Lancaster? We are waiting for the ice to clear further West, and this is a comfortable place to wait. We hope to start our push West on Friday, because when the ice does start breaking up, we want to be in a position to take advantage of it and make some good progress South and West.

 

My shipmates are describing our situation in some detail, so I want to do something different. There are about 10 small boats up here in the high Arctic, say around 35 sailors in total, each with his or her own hopes and dreams. As you can imagine, there are some very interesting characters here, and in my blogs I would like to give you a “snapshot” of some of the characters that we come across.

 

I will start with Garry, who is a Canadian from the Pacific North West. Garry built his own boat. It is strongly built of GRP, Garry even made the moulds himself. It took him 20 years to build. I think he made every mechanical system on board himself. He is, among other things, a diver, and carries a compressor on board. Naturally he built the compressor himself, using parts from the gear doors of old US military aircraft. On board, his vessel is warm and cosy, with a solid fuel stove roaring away, with a huge pile of logs stored in the aft quarter of his boat. Someone brought him over some logs, which he sawed up with his chain saw (yes – a chain saw!) on his deck.

 

As I have indicated before, Polar Bears are fearsome creatures. Most crews have a rifle on board for protection. Of course nobody wants to kill such a magnificent creature, and we all do everything we can to avoid them. If approached we would run like hell, if it followed we would try a couple of warning shots,or flares, to try to scare it away. Anything more would only be as an absolute last resort. Anyway, Garry doesn’t carry a gun, he has a machete. Garry with a machete against a bear? Frankly, I would feel sorry for the bear!

 

Most people here have spent many months or even years planning this voyage.

It is the culmination of their dreams. Gary’s shipmate is a lovely Welsh lady from Anglesey in N Wales, namely Lee, real name Gwenllian. They decided that they would sail to Wales so that Gary could meet Lee’s family and friends. This they did, presumably via the Panama Canal and the Caribbean. When I asked Garry why he was sailing the NW Passage, he replied: “well..you know....we’re going home, and this is the shortest way”.  What a guy!

 

In my next blog, I will tell you a very short story concerning the Innuit children here in Arctic Bay.

 

Until the next time

Pete