Pond Inlet, A Birthday to Remember & Glaciers Spilling into the Sea

Peeter and Carol Vanker

Sailing towards Pond Inlet located at the top of Baffin Island, we saw a large number of sea birds, mainly Kittiwakes, but no whales as yet.
Carol was surprised at dinner time by our Craig group host who had provided streamers, balloons, and a cake and wine to celebrate her birthday and the birthday of another of our fellow Craig travellers.

Peeter had planned to buy roses but could not find any in the Arctic.

We witnessed a spectacular sunset with icebergs in the distance. Once we learned that we could open our porthole window, we enjoyed the fresh Arctic air and the soothing sound of the waves.

This morning the mountain ranges on both sides were jagged snow covered peaks instead of the flattened tops of the mountains on Devon Island. Many glaciers were spilling into the sea.

We had a very fascinating stop on Pond Inlet. The wind and waves at 5:30 AM were quite high but had moderated sufficiently by 9 AM. for us to embark in the zodiac tenders to land on a gravel beach.

We wandered through the streets in this small community of 1500 persons, over 50% under 15 years of age. We visited the Coop store where Carol got a soap stone polar bear carving as well as an ulu (an indispensible, traditional Inuit tool used by their women for cutting). We attended an Inuit cultural presentation of traditional Inuit sporting games, songs and dances. We “enjoyed” a wild zodiac ride back to our ship as the wind had picked up considerably. We were glad for our waterproof pants, coats and boots.

We learned that the official Canadian symbol for the 2010 winter Olympic games will apparently be the inuksuk, the central symbol on the Nunavut Inuit flag.