As you have have gathered we have arrived safely in Arctic Bay on the east side of Admiralty Inlet and on the west side of Baffin Island. Tonight our good ship Catryn lies at anchor in the shadow of Mt King George V covered with snow. Things have been quieter today around Arctic Bay since all the children returned to school but they were all up and down the shore waving at us when school let out at 3.35 p.m.

Yesterday afternoon Pete busied himself with arranging the fuel truck to come down to the beach so we could refill our jerry cans and transport them by dinghy on to Catryn. Dai set off to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police station to alert them of our arrival. Katherine Phil and i headed up to the two food shops to buy supplies. We were almost down to our last tea bag and with five Brits on board it was quite tense! Some crew members are up to about thirteen  or fourteen cups a day, quite a strain on the piss bucket on the stern!

Oh yes, we were able to secure three pounds of seal meat yesterday afternoon talking to the kids on the shore. Dai was on galley duty today and did a masterful job of marinating it and frying it up for supper this evening.

Every five days we rotate and we are off watch to clean up the boat, heads(toilet) scrub the decks and all surfaces, prepare all meals and wash up. It also means that you get one night in five in your bunk and sleep all night, its a great system and works very well. When we are underway we are on four hours on and four hours off and always with another crew member.

Today I met up with Clare Klines here in Arctic Bay and will be interviewing him for the film tomorrow evening. Clare is a very interesting person and shared with me much of the culture and history of the region. Claire has lived here for many years after retiring from the RCMP and married a native of Nanavuk.

He is the expert birder here and I spent a great 90 minutes today in his office discussing the local bird scene. The raven a scavenger is one of three birds that can survive the high Arctic winter and it has adapted to eating dog dung the other two birds being the Snowy Owls and Ptarmigan.

This afternoon Claire told me that an elder in the community had seen three ravens attack a Gyrofalcon and bring it to the ground. They were able to intervene and  allow the Gyrofalcon to  escape. There was another instance this summer here next to the dump that some ravens had killed a Common Eider! For a scavenger this is most unusual and new. The raven family is considered to be the most intelligent of all birds and seems to be something different happening here. On Sunday while we were staying in Cummins Inlet on the north side of Lancaster sound we climbed a mountain in the afternoon.We sighted a Polar Bear on  the beach a short distance away and half way up the mountain it started snowing. By the time we reached the peak it was snowing quite nicely and visibility was limited. When we did arrive at the shore there was a herd of Musk Ox grazing a couple of hundred yards away.

We have also seen Brant Geese flying around Cape Crauford where they are nesting. Lots of Snow Buntings flying around the shore here today and tomorrow Clare has said he will take me birding tomorrow after supper.

Truly the most special part of the day here in the Arctic for me is the night time when the light mellows and dims and everything  is quieter and a sense of tranquility overcomes the landscape, its pure magic!

Good night and nos da to you all, Hywel Taff Roberts.

 

Everyone has been very friendly toward us