Author: John Cruse

We were all woken at 7.30am for breakfast at 8am so that we could be taken ashore on the Zodiacs for a 11.36am charter flight back to Edmonton via Yellowknife.

As it was a nice sunny day and the wind had dropped, it was a much nicer walk of 2km back to the airport and on the way, the local people of Pelly Bay (called Kugaaruk in the Inuit language) opened their new community centre for us to look at. It had some bone carvings by local artists in display cases, pictures of the Inuit games and a room where the leaders of the Hamlet of Pelly Bay met which included a Polar bear skin laid out in the room.

Pelly Bay was very pleasant in the sunshine with no wind but does get colder as the sign below at the airport states.

The RJ85 aircraft of Summit air arrived and the first 80 of us left for the 3 hours flight to Edmonton via Yellowknife.

As promised One Ocean had put us up in a hotel near the airport which was very nice and were paying for dinner and the bar bill for over 100 people. We got stuck into the the C$45 per bottle Malbec, their most expensive, and were thrown out of the restaurant at 12 midnight as the staff wanted to go home and were not used to so many people crowding into their bar.

I managed to rebook the same flights home today that we would have had next Sunday although at addition cost so at least we will arrive in the UK on Tuesday morning.

As I write this we are just sitting in the lounge at Toronto airport feeling disappointed that we are not still cruising the Artic Ocean spotting Polar bears and Narwhal, although we did see a couple of Narwhal yesterday on the way back into Pelly Bay.

Once we get home, we will have to console ourselves with the thought of Costa Rica in December this year.

We were woken at 6.00am to find the sister ship, Akademik Sergey Vavilov, moored next to our ship and we were told that we would be transferred across with our baggage at 8.30am.

When we got to the Akademik Sergey Vavilov we found that it was full of passengers who had finished their tour but had not been able to fly out of Pelly Bay the night before as the weather had been so bad. So we did not have cabins and were asked to go to the bar area and camp out there. The ship then left and headed for Pelly Bay.

We then had two shifts of passengers going for breakfast, lunch and dinner and were concerned what would happen if we all had to stay on the ship that night. Luckily for us, One Ocean had arranged for a charter flight for the 100 original passengers so after dinner they left and we took over the ship and their cabins as we would be leaving the next day.

The plan was for 2 aircraft to arrive the next day and take us back to Edmonton where we would be put in a hotel at the expense of One Ocean. We even got some free wine with dinner so the day did not end too badly.

The call came over the ships tannoy at 7am that a polar bear had been spotted on the pack ice on the port side at nine o’clock so we rushed up to get a glimpse. The bear had disappeared but shortly after another was spotted on the pack ice. Unfortunately no photos, as it was too far away, but we got a great view through the Nikon binoculars that have been provided to each passenger.

We then went down for breakfast at 7.30am and the tour leader gave us some information about how the day would pan out and the team of experts introduced themselves. They were a very impressive bunch of seasoned guides, historians, writers, photographers and archaeologists whose expertise was in wildlife, history, photography, the Inuit culture and we even have an artist in residence. The Chief Scientist of the Northwest Passage project from the University of Rhode Island gave a brief talk on what the project was doing and the many experts that they had as part of the team. In addition to the scientific side they would be making a feature length documentary of the project. The scientists and their students will be on the boat for 20 days so will do the trip we are doing and return the other way with the next group of fare paying passengers.

After breakfast we had to do the mandatory lifeboat drill and were able to go into the lifeboat to see how it looked inside. As the boat was a Russian Cold War vessel, all the writing around the boat is in Russian and in the mud room (this is where you exit the boat to go ashore in the zodiacs) there is a massive long range antenna used for more sinister purposes during the Cold War period.

As we joked about not wanting to have to use the lifeboats, at 11.43am, there was an enormous scrapping noise and the ship juddered to a halt. We had grounded. After a short while, the tour leader came over the radio saying that the Captain had said that there was no breach of the ship’s hull and he was trying to get the ship back afloat using the thrusters.

Apparently, we were not in danger, and the sister ship is not too far away but at this time it was unclear what it meant for our trip.

Our intended destination for our first landing by Zodiac was the Astronomical Society Islands and the map below shows where we hit the rocks.

The tour leader was not sure if and when we will have to leave the ship but he said that after a grounding the Maritime Authorities will not allow the ship to continue without a full inspection of the hull.

Therefore, Day Two continued with the Captain trying to get the ship off the rocks.

Apparently, this was the first time that One Ocean had picked up passengers in the Pelly Bay Area and the route the ship was taking was not one they had used before so it was down to the Captain to approve whether or not we took a particular route through the many islands that the ship had to go through to exit Pelly Bay into the Gulf of Boothia.

We were then told that we would be transferred to the sister ship, Akademik Sergey Vavilov, which would be coming to pick us up the next day and take us back to Pelly Bay. The Akademik Ioffe had to go to be inspected and repaired. The holiday for us was over as the sister ship was taking the next group of people for their tour.

Not a good way to end Day Two.

As with all trips to the Artic or Antarctic regions they are often subject to change at very short notice.

We left Edmonton on the 23rd August with the smoke from the wildfires in British Colombia still blocking out the sun and made our way to the executive airport for what was originally expected to be our charter flight to Resolute Bay.

Due to the ice that had recently broken off the Greenland ice sheet the ship could not get into Resolute Bay so we had to fly to Pelly Bay another small Inuit community on Simpson Peninsula in the Gulf of Boothia.

As the airport at Pelly Bay is only a small one serving the small community of Inuits, the B737-200 of Canadian North only took us to Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories where the group of circa 100 was split in to two and we boarded 2 ATR72’s for the final leg to Pelly Bay (called “Kugaaruk” in the Inuit language)

Upon arrival in Pelly Bay, we all had to walk 1.5 miles to the harbour to board Zodiacs that took us to the ship. As soon as we stepped off the aircraft at Pelly Bay, the difference in the temperature was evident with a biting wind so the walk was welcome to keep us warm before we had our Artic jackets and trousers which were in our cabins on the ship.

The cabins are nice and comfortable and as we were upgraded to a two room cabin so happy days.

The ship left Pelly Bay whilst we were having our first dinner board and went north in to the Gulf of Boothia.

Just leaving the hotel for the charter flights. The tour leader tells us that we may still get to Beechey Island but it is still all weather dependent. Only 65 passengers on the boat and 35 researchers.

We visited today the Fort Edmonton Park which is one of the many parks situated on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River about 6 miles from downtown.

The 150 acres of the Park is divided into 4 sections (as set out below) and is preserving the historic buildings of Edmonton.

Some of the buildings are original and have been donated to the Park by the owners and others have been recreated based on the originals. They also give rides on street cars from the Municipal and Metropolitan eras and a steam train, although that was not running today.

They also have a good selection of working cars from the early 20th century which they drive around the site.

The Park provides a good balance between education and fun for the kids as, in addition to the historic buildings, there is a period fun fair in the Metropolitan era section. They also have people in period costumes acting out roles, such as suffragettes.

The New Capitol Theatre showed a very interesting 15 minute film about the establishment and rise of the city of Edmonton from about 300 people to thousands after the railway was built in 1891.

The Park is certainly worth a visit if you are interested in the history of Edmonton.

Whilst at the Park, the sun disappeared behind a haze and we were later told that this was caused by the hundreds of forest fires currently burning in British Colombia.

We returned to the hotel for a first meeting with the One Ocean people who are running the “Pathways to Franklin” trip to the Northwest Passage. They advised us that, due to ice breaking away from the Greenlandic ice sheet, the ship was not be able to get into Resolute Bay and we would be taking 2 flights to another location to meet the boat. The good news was we did not start at 5am but at 8.30am and the increased ice meant that we were more likely to see wildlife such a polar bears.

Any trips to the Artic or Antarctic are very weather dependent so it will be interesting to see what the next 10 days brings. As from tomorrow we will be mostly out of the range of WiFi so the posts will be more sporadic.

The actual route the boat will take is set out below. I have just looked at the weather in Resolute where we board the boat and the current temperature is 2 degrees centigrade and snowing. Good job we are not going in the winter. That said, the days are currently still very long as Resolute is so far north with sunrise at 3.23 and sunset at 23.20.

The area we will be visiting in now known as Nunavut.

Nunavut is the newest, largest and north-most territory of Canada although the population, of mostly Inuit, is estimated at less than 40,000. Nunavut was officially separated from the Northwest Territories on the 1 April, 1999 with the capital being Iqaluit (formerly known as Frobisher Bay).

Just checked in for our flights, British Airways to Toronto and Air Canada to Edmonton so not long to go now.

We are off the Northwest Passage on Monday. We are flying to Edmonton via Toronto where we join our shipmates for a charter flight to Resolute where we board the ship, Akademik Loffe. Before we leave Edmonton we will enjoy the sights of the town and are lucky that our visit coincides with the Edmonton fringe festival.

The trip is primarily historical and follows in the footsteps of the ill fated voyage of Sir John Franklin which left Greenhithe, England in 1845 tasked with finding a way across the top of Canada, referred to as the “Northwest Passage”.Franklin and his men sailed in two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and overwintered on the ice for two winters before they abandoned the ships. Franklin had already died by this time and the crew tried to hike back to the nearest civilisation via the Back River. All 129 perished hundreds of miles from the nearest civilisation.

The ship we are travelling on was part of the expedition that found both ships, the Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016. We will see the graves of 3 of the Franklin crew who died in 1845/6 on Beechey Island as well as other artefacts left 170 years ago.

In addition to the historical side of the trip, we will also visit remote Inuit communities and see the fantastic wildlife such as Polar Bears, Walruses, Whales and countless species of birds.

As you would imagine, the window for this trip is very short and there is normally only a couple of months a year when the ship can navigate this area.

More to come when we reach Edmonton.