Missed yesterday’s post? Click here.
Another quiet day today. I shaved (still more work to do, but got more than half of the hair off, a little patch here, a little there, without taking too much skin off). Had a good wash. Changed base and mid-layers. Did some laundry. Read up some more on the camera. Paid two bills. Did some admin.
MIKE’S MAGNIFICENT MANUSCRIPT
Most importantly I read more of Mike’s manuscript. I still can’t believe we’ve got such a world-class writer on board. We half-jokingly agreed that Mike will just write some fancy poem about our expedition and let me do whatever the heck I’m doing with pen and paper.
COLIN NOT KEEN ON CARNIVORES
A chap called Colin, presumably an Inuit hunter, left an interesting comment on the news article about the latest deadly polar bear attack:
“While in some other areas outside of Nunavut the population of bears might not be a problem, but here in Nunavut we have never had so many polar bears before.
The numbers seem to be increasing each year for more than two decades now, we see a lot of teenage bears coming into town more, those are the dangerous one as they are very curious and less afraid of people.”
“But out on the land there are some big bears that will stalk you for food. In many areas around Nunavut we can’t sleep in tents anymore, where we used to be able to sleep in tent, but today it’s just too dangerous, we have attacks and deaths almost every year in Nunavut.”
“We may want to start looking at the population of polar bears closer and see what we can do to help protect ourselves more as the number of bears are at its highest amount ever recorded. It’s getting very dangerous especially in certain parts of Nunavut where bear population are above what they were historically.”
POTENTIAL POLAR BEAR OVER POPULATION ACCORDING TO COLIN
First time I hear someone complain about or even only mention a potential polar bear over-population and the fact that some bears out there are rather large and presumably healthy, but do stalk humans as prey. Will have to do more research about this. Usually it is the injured, sick, or old bears that are considered the biggest risk to humans. Unable to catch their usual prey, they resort to humans and other, easy-to-catch food. A healthy polar bear will prefer a seal or whale over human flesh ten out of ten times, we are told.
ANOTHER CHANGE IN WEATHER FORECAST – NOW EXPECTING TO LEAVE SUNDAY NIGHT
Oh.. and the weather forecast has changed again. Within a short 24h it had gone from All-looking-good-for-Tuesday-tailwinds-here-we-come to The-Universe-hates-us-shall-we-call-it-all-off-nothing-makes-sense-anymore to now Somewhat-half-decent-weather-now-and-then-from Sunday-night. We are hoping to start around 11pm or midnight, then row for 6 hours or so to the next anchoring site, then on and off at weird hours over the next five days with occasional forced longer waits.
TEN MILES A DAY IS BETTER THAN NOTHING
Even just rowing for a few hours a day making barely 2 knots would be a blessing, compared with wasting yet another day more in Wellington Bay. We all want to make some progress, even if it’s 10 not 60 miles a day.
NAUTICAL MILES
For the avoidance of doubt, when unqualified, unless context suggests otherwise, miles always refer to Nautical miles, i.e. roughly 1.8 rather than 1.6km. Fingers crossed the forecast doesn’t change for the worse until departure time.
GEESE AND FOX
Spotted some geese on land and a shifty little fox. The local variety is so much skinnier than the urban foxes in the Big Smoke who feed on discarded leftovers of chicken nuggets and meatfest pizza. Arctic foxes around here look like a little gust of wind could easily turn them airborne.
FOREST FIRES
Talking smoke, the fallout from the forest fires has gone a lot worse here, hundreds of miles away, thickening the air and colouring the sky. I can’t imagine what it must be like in the cities and towns close to the fires. Nightmare. It seems strange to me that with all the progress in technology we can’t seem to stop comparatively simple forest fires.
LONGER, DARKER NIGHTS – ALMOST LIKE THE REAL THING
The nights now last for more than an hour and are a lot darker than before, almost feeling a bit like a proper night. The predicted heat wave totally missed the memo. It was close to freezing at night and is now 8C feeling like 4C with wind chill. Those Arctic weather forecasts are even more of a joke than the ones back in Old Blighty, geesh.
For tomorrow’s post click here.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE EXPEDITION
22 July – LHR to YCB
2 August 2024 (Cambridge Bay to Starvation Bay)
4 August 2024 (Starvation Bay to Wellington Bay)
12 August 2024 (From Wellington Bay 6h further Westward)
15 August 2024 (53mi/96km from Botany Island to Richardson Islands)
18 August 2024 (from Richardson Islands past Marker Islands)
22 August 2024 (23mi/37km Westward from Miles and Nauyan Islands past Lady Franklin Point – extremely tough conditions – ‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE’)
23 August 2024 (Dreadful 10 miles – 12mi/19km – that felt like 100 miles to Douglas Island; welcome committee of two dozen seals)
25 August 2024 (An easy 19mi/31km from Douglas Island to Lambert Island; MS Fridtjoff Nansen passing)
27 August 2024 (An easy 7mi/9km along Lambert Island; yacht Night Owl passing by us)
28 August 2024 (STARTING OUR 64MI/104KM PUSH EARLY; passing Hanseatic Spirit, MS Roald Amundsen, yacht Honshu)
29 August 2024 (Arriving at Cape Hope after 64mi/104km – new team best)
30 August 2024 (EMERGENCY BEACHING at a bay next to Cape Hope)
31 August 2024 (CABIN FLOODED; LEAK FOUND)
Mike’s Poem about our Northwest Passage Expedition
3 September 2024 (REPAIRING HERMIONE)
DETAILS OF LEVEN’S MASTERPIECE: THE PRELIMINARY REPAIR and preparation of the re-launch of Hermione
4 September 2024 (A LOT OF DIGGING and another unsuccessful attempt to refloat the boat)
5 September 2024 (REFLOATING HERMIONE, MOTORING TOWARDS PAULATUK; MILITARY PLANE PASSING)
6 September 2024 (BACK TO ROWING AFTER EMERGENCY MOTOR BREAKS)
8 September 2024 (my 50th birthday; ALMOST CRASHING THE BOAT into rocks; Skynet; a pod of whales)
12 September 2024 (starting our last big push before Paulatuk; RUNNING AGROUND 3X; BIOLUMINESCENCE; Northern lights)
13 September 2024 (ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE – ALMOST CRASHING INTO CLIFFS)
NORTHERN LIGHTS, 15 September, near Paulatuk
15 September 2024 (REACHING PAULATUK)
16 September 2024 (eating proper food; shower; the good life)
19 September 2024 (flying back home; 5 flights; Breakfast Club at Inuvik Airport)
Stefan will be rowing the Northwest Passage this summer – A little Q&A
Northwest Passage Expedition – Kit List
Trevor’s Travel Trivia IX – The Northwest Passage
My home town’s newspaper, Burghauser Anzeiger, has published an article about the Expedition
Post-expedition Q&As – Coming back from the Arctic after two months
