We have entered the Far North. At 3:00 a.m. this morning a member of the party rolled over and saw low Arctic sunshine! At 8:00 a.m. We were cruising the Davis Strait at 70° 49´ North, 56° 35´ West, off the west coast of Greenland. We have more than 400 miles to travel to reach Baffin Island and during the day we will turn more northwesterly to head to Pond Inlet. we are writing this blog in the forward Observation Deck. The photographs give a clue as to what it is like to be blogging on this expedition!
At the moment there is concern about ice conditions along some of our route. Pack ice is to the north of the Davis Strait and we will miss that but recently there has been some concern of more substantial than normal ice along our route. The expedition leader has informed us that an Ice Pilot will be on board from Pond Inlet to help us navigate safely through any ice and decide upon course changes if needed. At lunch we had reached 71° 04´ North, 59° 00´ West and the sky is clearing in the west.
By late evening we are alone in the Davis Strait, without sight of land at 71° 25´ North, 62° 25´ West. There is no sign of a sunset yet and we put our clocks back another hour tonight.