We had an exploration of Southern Ontario today. We concentrated upon the Rideau River and its canal system which links Ottawa and the Ottawa River with the St. Lawrence at Kingston. Today this is used by pleasure craft but was originally built to ensure that Canadian products could be exported during times of civil unrest, …
Upper Canada Village was the focus of our explorations today. It is a reconstruction of a village in this area in the 1860s. Buildings from across the area have been rebuilt here and are ‘peopled’ by workers and everyday people acting as if they were in that time. Upon entry one steps back to the 1860s. …
Today by way of the first cruise boat we toured the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River where it exits Lake Ontario. The cruise of one hour took us past lots of the islands, many of them with houses on them. All of them are granite roche moutonnes (sheep rocks) which were sculptured by …
Today we drove to Brockville, Ontario. It is a small town on the shore of the eastern end of Lake Ontario and where the navigable part of the St Lawrence River going downstream begins. There are a series of locks between here and Montreal where the Great Lakes – St Lawrence Seaway begins/ends. This massive …
Overnight Sunday/Monday we returned to Pond Inlet on the north of Baffin Island. This was to be the starting point of the airlift by chartered aeroplanes to Montreal. We were to use the ship and all of its conveniences until called ashore to catch one of five aeroplanes to Resolute where we would change to …
After breakfast we were at 72° 08´ North, 74° 58´ West off the northeast coast of Baffin Island and Cape Jameson. We are approaching the South Arm Fjord and will sail in between snow-capped, granite mountains to the glaciers at its head. The island is named after the English explorer William Baffin but it is …
We are still in Lancaster Sound at 74° 18´ North, 82° 01´ West. We are surrounded by floes of sea ice and enveloped in sea fog. We have spent the night here and were woken by the bow thrusters turning the ship into the wind just before 08:00. We came here last evening after receiving …
At 8:00 a.m. this morning we were sailing up Croker Bay, on the south of Devon Island, to where one very big and two smaller glaciers reach the sea. We are at 74° 07´ North, 83° 02´ West. Croker was the First Secretary of the Admiralty when his name was used by John Ross on his …
At 08:00 a.m. we were at 75° 13´ North, 78° 53´ West en route to Philpots Island on the east coast of Devon Island. This destination has been chosen as site of interest as we make our way to the Fort Ross area where we hope we hope to visit Beechey Island. It sounded dramatic …
This morning we are heading to Grise Fjord at 76° 25´ North, 82° 54´ West. It is known by the Inuit as Aujuittuq, ‘a place that never thaws’. It is the most northerly community in this region. There are only two other settlements on Ellesmere Island such as Eureka and Alert which has a decaying …