Captain's Log, M. Y. Asteria
Davis Strait to Pond Inlet, Baffin Island
July 28 - 31, 2011
For several months prior to our departure for the Arctic we had been following the ice reports generated by Environment Canada from satellite photos. As required by Canadian law we hired former Canada Coast Guard ice breaker Captain, Pat Toomey, to serve as our Ice Pilot while in restricted Arctic waters. Pat is somewhat of a legend in high latitude sailing, having transited the Northwest Passage eleven times and completed thirty one trips to Antarctica. His expert interpretation of the ice charts helped us navigate with minimal contact through the fields of ice floes in Davis Strait and Baffin Bay.
Captains Don and Pat
We were encountering three types of ice; first year ice that may freeze to a depth of one to two meters, old ice that is layered and substantially harder and thicker, and ice bergs that break off from the huge glaciers on northern Greenland and Ellesmere island and drift south. Some travel as far as the North Atlantic great circle route shipping lanes and become deadly hazards to navigation. Such was the tragic fate of the Titanic nearly a hundred years ago.
On day five we traveled in some of the most dangerous conditions I have ever encountered. In poor visibility we steamed though an area of growlers, relatively small ice bergs that may only protrude a few meters above the
surface, but with six to eight times more bulk below the water and weighing hundreds of tons. In four meter breaking seas they were invisible on the radar and spotted by eye only a few boat lengths ahead.
Conditions gradually improved and we finally relaxed enough to enjoy one of the wonders of the far north: monster ice bergs a half mile wide with shapes that challenged the imagination.
An Icebird
Our first polar bear was seen swimming forty seven miles offshore with only a single berg in sight four miles away. Within nine hours we had spotted two more.
Mid-way between Greenland and Baffin Island we watched a pod of small whales cruise in a large arc ahead of the boat. A bow head whale rose briefly to have a glimpse, ring seals popped up to check us out as we cruised by at eleven knots pushing a big tug boat bow wave. For hundreds of miles we were escorted by fulmars gliding on the air waves created by the ship. The time flew by literally as we crossed four time zones.
Crossing the Arctic Circle
On the sixth day we crossed the Arctic Circle and soon after at 68 degrees north we began our days of perpetual daylight.
After seven days without seeing land, Cape MacCulloch, at the NE corner of Baffin Island, broke through the mist.
Davis Strait
We turned west into Eclipse sound framed by jagged peaks divided by glaciers every few miles.
We anchored a quarter mile off the beach at Pond Inlet, population 1,300, and posted a twenty four hour watch to spot bergs that might drift into the ship. Anchored in thirteen fathoms, the larger bergs would ground before colliding with Asteria, but smaller bergs, nearly as hard as rock are a constant hazard.
I gathered passports, ship’s stores list, crew effects declaration, and the remainder of the requisite paper work for clearance on arriving from a foreign country. Friendly locals directed me to the RCMP office which fulfills most federal functions in the remote villages of the Arctic.
First Foray Ashore at Pond Inlet
Taking advantage of duty free shopping in Guernsey, we stocked up on wine and liquor for owners and charter guests – forty cases of wine and twenty cases of liquor. As most of the small villages in the Canadian north are dry, there was some concern that we would have to seal most of it during our passage through the Arctic, but the Mounties are a pragmatic lot and took our word that it would all remain on board.
Pond Inlet
We now settled into the routine of putting the ship back together to become a proper yacht again in anticipation of the arrival of owner and guests in three days. Storm covers were removed from main deck windows, furniture unlashed, and a stem to stern wash down began.
Our Favourite Berg in the Evening Sun
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