Northwest Passage Expedition – daily update 8 September 2024

Missed yesterday’s post? Click here.

The morning was uneventful. Then at around noon the day suddenly became way too eventful.

DAYDREAMING, READING EXPLORERS’ WEB ARTICLES

Now that there no longer is that much bailing to do, I was doing a bit of day dreaming while lazily glancing through a few ExplorersWeb articles I had downloaded from the internet. Kayaking along Greenland’s shores, rock-climbing in the Karakorum, high-altitude skiing in Patagonia, paragliding in the Himalaya, or trail running in the Alps all sound kind of fun, but what would Ellie say if I asked her permission?

A SACRED PROMISE

I had promised her, that if she lets me go on this Northwest Passage thingy, I’ll come on any silly overpacked FOMO-driven sight-seeing tours she wants to book us on and I won’t go on any other major projects of my own for a while. Maybe just gently pass a few ideas by her, when there’s a good moment? Take her out on a nice dinner at one of those irritating Instagram-friendly fusion places that don’t serve steak, tell my cute little Petite Potato how beautiful she is, then just gently, no: subtly and stealthily put it out there? What’s the worst that…

THE EVENTFUL BIT OF THE DAY

“ALL MEN AT THE OARS NOW! WE ARE DRIFTING TOWARDS THE ROCKS PORTSIDE!”

I woke Mike up, whose resting time it was. We both jumped out of our cabin and joined Leven and Karts on deck. Leven was steering and shouting commands. The rest of us started rowing immediately.

“Backwards, your right side only! Hard as you can. Quick tapping!”

“Now all oars, gentle long strokes. Go slow.”

“Slower. Stop. Mike, can you pull the anchor please.”

“Only right side. Backwards.”

“That’s right.”

“All oars. Bit faster.”

“Stop. Take out the oars on your right. Start punting away from those rocks. Now. Push harder. C’mon gents. Harder! Harder!”

“Only right side. Backwards.”

It went on like this for about 20 minutes. On various occasions it didn’t look like the patch on our main leak was going to last, sliding over submerged boulders. At times it looked like the hull was going to get a whole new set of cracks.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED?

It was only when we had made it a safe distance from the original anchoring location, that Mike and I got a chance to ask what the blooming heck just had happened. Leven’s response: “Oh, there had been a slight change of winds, that’s all.”

GETTING ON WITH NOT DOING MUCH

Everyone got back to what they had been doing before. The plan was to start getting ready for tonight’s row from 5:30pm, then start rowing from 6pm. Leven mentioned that he was going to check the forecasts again, before having another nap during his well-deserved rest time.

STARTING OUR DAILY ROW EARLY

A couple of hours later, it was decided to start rowing early. Shortly past 3pm we lifted anchor yet again and started rowing Westward on our 10-mile (11 statute miles, 18km) journey to tonight’s stop.

MARVELLOUS VIEWS

The currents and winds weren’t great when we started. We were struggling to make 1.8 knots (2 mph, 3.2 kph). Luckily the marvellous views of the approaching table mountain which we had only seen from the distance earlier were more than making up for the hassle.

EASY ROWING

After two miles our fortune changed and we were now making 3.2 knots (3.5kph, 6kph) without too much effort. We were going with our usual standard shift pattern, where everyone gets a comparatively easy half hour at the helm every two hours. 1.5h rowing. 0.5h steering.

SOME ICE AND SOME SKYNET VIBES

The table mountain had more than one surprise for us. First, we spotted an about 30m (100ft) long, 8m (27ft) wide stretch of ice on the Northern tip, which was pointed at us. This was only the second occurrence when we saw ice or snow on our expedition. In all those five weeks. The other time had been close to a hunters’ camp site about 40 miles East of Lady Franklin Point, two weeks ago.

AN AIRSTRIP AND AN UNDERGROUND BUILDING COMPLEX INSIDE A HILL

What was even more surprising, though, was that at Tysoe Point, close to the Northern tip of the table mountain, there were not only an airstrip, a very well-maintained dirt track, and a few huts. A lengthy hose-shaped hill was either entirely man-made or had at the bare minimum had tunnels and/or underground chambers dug into it. Every 20m (65ft) little ventilation shafts were sticking out of it. There were also identical weird wooden boxes spread in symmetrical patterns across the compound. We spotted some more ice along the shore.

A POD OF WHALES

Half an hour later, the currents and winds had become much more challenging again, Mike spotted a pod of whales near the horizon, hardly noticeable with the naked eye. Impossible to tell the species. As far as we could tell, it could be insects, to reference Michael Palin’s former performance troupe, Monty Python.

MORE HILLS

The landscape kept our attention. More table mountains and pyramid shaped hills, partially covered in mist, showed up in the distance, further inland.

OUR NEW ANCHORING LOCATION

At 7pm, after four hours of rowing, we had reached our anchoring location for the night. We were now no longer in Nunavut, the Canadian province in which the whole of the Northwest Passage Expedition, including last year’s first leg, had taken place so far. We had crossed into the Northwest Territories. Should we make it all the way to Herschel Island, then that would be the third and last province of the expedition: Yukon Territory. The plan is to sit out the adverse winds in our current anchoring location, then row another 10 miles (12 statute miles, 18km) tomorrow evening from 6pm.

ANOTHER MESSAGE FROM IAIN

I got another lovely email from my buddy Iain, who, I had misremembered, is not from Manchester but from Nottingham. He informed me that either he had slept through the announcement the captain of the MS Roald Amundsen had made over the Tannoy system about Hermione and her crew passing the much bigger vessel in the Northwest Passage, or perhaps the announcement had not been made. Funnily, Iain also complained about the disappointingly repetitive, dull and boring Arctic tundra on the stretch of the Passage we are doing this year. Perhaps understandably, the giant mountains and the plentiful icebergs and more diverse flora and fauna at the Northeastern sections of the Passage, which Leven and Mike would have seen last year, were more to his liking.

MY POEM ABOUT THE EXPEDITION

During the row today, I passed the idea of writing a poem about our expedition past the other guys. Obviously, Mike set the bar very high. Too high. But I might just come up with a few paragraphs for the fun of it. The team had a few good ideas. One of the suggested a certain type of Japanese poem style. Someone else said limerick. Next thing you know we were reciting our favourite (mostly hilariously dumb, very light-hearted limericks and had a good laugh.

 

A QUIET BIRTHDAY

I’ve turned 50 today. Never been one for birthday celebrations. More than happy to celebrate other people’s great achievements in the art of getting older, but for my own birthdays, I could never be bothered. So it was pure bliss that no one aboard Hermione knew. I wish all my birthdays would be exactly like that.

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