Name: Lorne Trottier
Cabin No. 604
August 31, 2009
Correction from yesterday, at mid afternoon we were mid way between the southern end of Prince of Wales Island and the Northern end of King William Island.
This morning we awoke to clear ice conditions. We were no longer following the Wilfred Laurier ice breaker. We learned that the planned destination had been changed since there was too much ice at our original destination – the NW tip of King William Island where the Franklin expedition had met its end. The new plan was to go to the hamlet of Gjoa Haven on the south coast of King William Island. This is the place where the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen spent two winters with his small crew of 6 men before continuing on to become the first team to complete the Northwest Passage in 1905. The town is named after his ship the Gjoa, and the harbor was a “haven”.
When our ship anchored in the bay, we went ashore using the rubber Zodiacs. It was a bumpy ride in the frigid choppy waters. Gjoa Haven has a population of about 1200. It is similar to Resolute, only bigger.
We walked through the gravel streets to the community center were there was a small museum dedicated to Amundsen. This included a number of photographs taken by Amundsen of the Inuit, who were then still living their traditional nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle. Amundsen spent two winters learning arctic survival techniques from the Inuit including how to make caribou winter garments, build an igloo, and operate a dog sledge.
We then walked to the old peoples center which featured an exhibit of traditional Inuit clothing, tools, weapons, and artifacts. The skill and ingenuity of the Inuit crafts using only available materials was astounding. Next we went to the town arena to see a show of traditional Inuit throat singing and drum dancing. On our walk back to the beach and the dinghies, we passed some houses with seal skins and a polar bear skin that had been set out to dry.
On board the ship we attended interesting lectures on how to take good pictures, as well as part 2 of the lecture on the ill-fated Franklin expedition. We were told that we would spend the next day at sea. The ice breaker had advised us to follow them back up Peel Sound if we wanted to benefit from their services. It was an invitation that we couldn't refuse!
Sept. 1, 2009
We woke up this morning to relatively clear seas. The ice breaker had left us since there had been a change in wind direction and the ice in our path had cleared. We spent the day sailing up Peel Sound. The weather was mostly cloudy, with a brisk wind, and colder temperatures.
We were kept busy with some interesting lectures on lichens, evolutionary adaptations to the Arctic, contemporary issues in the arctic (arctic sovereignty, suspected oil & gas deposits, global warming, etc.), and arctic bears (brown and polar). In the early evening we dropped anchor in False Strait, which is a protected bay next to Bellot Strait.
We were told that the plan for tomorrow was to wake up at 5:30 AM to go ashore for a hike along the beach and terrain surrounding False Strait.
The plan is then to sail through the treacherous Bellot Strait to the east side of the Boothia Peninsula and Sommerset Island. We hope to visit Fort Ross, which is an abandoned Hudson's Bay Co. trading post.
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