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 […]

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

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

At 0800 we were in Lancaster Sound heading east off northwest Baffin Island. The sea was calm and with sunshine we were at 1.7⁰C icebergs are alongside us as we move eastwards. On both sides are the sedimentary rocks that exhibit life before the last Ice Age. At lunchtime we turned into Croker Bay. In

At breakfast we had reached 74N 90W with an overcast sky passing fog, a moderate chop and some snow showers. By 13:00 we were dressed for our landing, just as our title page states, “This is how a (couple) must dress to step outside – at least 5 layers, over trousers and good strong boots.

An early start, 06:45, for arrival at Conningham Bay. There is a stronger wind today and so one feels the cold for the first time. The landscape here, again is of glacial origin, only on a larger scale as the eskers here are particularly high and extensive. Yesterday and overnight, we were close to the

At this stage of the transit, we are at the centre of the Franklin Expedition of 1845 controversy. Overnight we travelled to 69N 95W. Where we are, in 1845, was the location of the last chance for the British Admiralty to ‘conquer the Far North’. There were a reducing number of supporters for big ventures

At 08:00, en route to Gjøa Haven we had reached 68N 97W. Outside through the sprayed stained window of the cabin it looked wet and misty but with improvements on the horizon in the east. 45 years after the searches for Franklin were abandoned the NWP was first navigated by Roald Amundsen between 1903 –

“Breaking News” Guess who made the big TV screen in the Explorer Lounge. Overnight we made good progress towards Cambridge Bay and arrived a little before 07:00.  Cambridge Bay is a typical Inuit settlement with the essential ‘honey trucks’, collecting sewage and their counterparts delivering fresh water and fuel oil. The buildings are raised above

When Larsen returned to Vancouver he went by way of the then untried northern route. He visualised a time when large powerful icebreakers would manage summer transits of the passage with little difficulty. Actually, this has not been the case. On the southern route, that most ships take, there is still a risk of closure,