Sunday 17th September 2023
Fog delayed our arrival a little on Tuesday and consequently we rescheduled our flight to London for Thursday, which meant additional days in Halifax. We are now at home after a journey of around 17,000 miles.
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Monday 11th September 2023
We are currently crossing the Gulf of St. Lawrence which was found for Europeans by John Cabot of Bristol. He was a Portuguese navigator but given an English name by the Bristol nobility because his voyages were an ‘inside job’ to seek the fish that the Basques were already catching. This was in 1497 and …
Sunday 10th September 2023
Another fog-bound morning, because we are heading south and in the Humber Estuary. We were arriving in Corner Brook. Found by James Cook in 1767, this settlement is now one of the largest in Atlantic Canada and Newfoundland. In 1943 Churchill and Lord Mountbattan and Geoffrey Pyke, a scientist, had a plan to build massive …
Saturday 9th September 2023
It was a fog-bound morning with rain and then more rain when we arrived at Red Bay, Labrador. However, the historical and archaeological evidence of whaling made this walk ‘across the end of the earth’ worthwhile! Named Baie Rouge by the French in the 17th century, Red Bay is a natural harbour that was used …
Friday 8th September 2023
Another day at sea on route to Red Bay, Labrador, tomorrow and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Temperatures have risen to 7⁰C and the calm sea at 56N means we have left Polar waters. We had a lovely sunset during the evening meal but didn’t have the camera with us to capture it.
Thursday 7th September 2023
Today was a ‘getting there’ day. We are crossing the Labrador Sea towards the North Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador and Nova Scotia. The weather improved during the afternoon and we have a slight chop before dinner – the sea that is, no lamb chops in sight!!
Wednesday 6th September 2023
We must have had a good work-out yesterday because we missed breakfast! By the time we were in expedition mode we were on approach to the small settlement of Sisimiut 75km north of the Arctic Circle. We had a chance to go walk-about around the old settlement. The settlement used to be on an island …
Tuesday 5th September 2023
Overnight we continued the choppy crossing of the Davis Strait. By lunchtime the wind had dropped, the sea was calm and the fog had cleared as we entered the icefjord at Ilulissat. Ilulissat in Inuit (Inuktituk) means icebergs. Our afternoon walk was through parts of the settlement that did not exist the last time we …
Monday 4th September 2023
Overnight we crossed Baffin Bay. It was in these waters in 1845 that there was the last sighting of Franklin on his mission to find the NWP, from Greenhithe, London. Two small English vessels, called The Prince of Wales and The Enterprise, came across the two large vessels Erebus and Terror and stopped to check …
Sunday 3rd September 2023
Overnight we entered Baffin Bay by rounding Bylot Island and approaching Pond Inlet from the east. Here we had our first sighting of snow-capped mountains and more ice, but it looked like it would not deter us from the transit. As we are following the history of the NWP in reverse, it was in this …