Archive for October 2020

Sunday August 22, 2014 (73o 52’N 90o 18’W): Port Leopold Since Friday, we have remained anchored in Port Leopold along with the yachts Catryn, Drina, and Gyoa. Together with their crews, we’ve been going on long walks on the neighboring bluff and having daily meetings to share information and opinions  as to whether or not…

Friday August 22, 2014 (73o 52’N 90o 18’W): Port Leopold (Due North of New Orleans, 2600 Nautical Miles) The Lillian B. will stay in the Arctic until August 28th for one last shot at making the passage this year. This decision is based on rapid changes in the ice conditions, plus the experience and optimism…

Tuesday August 18, 2014 (73o 02’N 89o 09’W): Arctic Bay, We are anchored in the picturesque harbor of the village of Arctic Bay, off Admiralty Inlet. The final decision to depart Beechey Island was precipitated late Sunday (Aug 16th) by the afternoon download of the ice charts and weather report, indicating short-term favorable winds for…

Saturday August 16, 2014 (74o 44’No 91.47’W): Erebus and Terror Bay, We have now spent a week in Erebus and Terror Bay, hiking the surrounding hills, and waiting for access to the remote outpost of Resolute, described in the Yachtsmen Routing Guide NWP2  (by Victor Wejer, Toronto, Canada, Jan. 2014, [email protected] ) as: “Resolute Bay…

Wednesday August 13, 2014 (74o 44’No 91.47’W): Erebus and Terror Bay, We have now spent three nights in Erebus and Terror Bay, keeping close watch on the ice charts, waiting for a band of ice between us and Resolute Harbour to either move or melt.  The bay is a two by four mile wide bowl…

Sunday August 10, 2014 (74o 44’No 91.47’W): Erebus and Terror Bay, By Sunday, the high winds at Rigby Harbour had calmed down to around 25 knots. Given that we had dropped our anchor in eight feet of water, retrieving it was timed for near high tide and at  12:30 (EDT) we departed Rigby Harbour, heading…

Thursday August 09, 2014 (74o 35’No 90.00’W): Rigby Harbour, Graham Harbour was a safe anchorage, as hoped, but during our three day stay it was still necessary to re-anchor nearly a dozen times due to wind changes and the roaming pieces of ice that had found their way into the inner harbor.  Like the other…

Graham Harbour, Thursday August 7, 2014 (74o 30.355’N, 88o 08.973’W): The crew threatened mutiny at the suggestion that re-anchoring in Blanley Bay (74o28.6’N / 87o20.4’W) might be an option. Two days earlier we had left Cuming Inlet, with its musk ox and walruses, to head further west down the coast of Devon Island, with the…

Saturday/Sunday August 2 & 4, 2014 (74o 39’N, 85o 01’W): Cuming Inlet We departed Dundas Harbour at 11:00 Saturday morning August 2nd , bidding good-bye to the yacht Arctic Tern on the way out and then heading out under sail, along the coast of Devon Island towards Resolute, 250 miles to the west.  More accurately…

Saturday August 2, 2014 (72o 58’N, 76o 17’W): Dundas Harbor Having decided that Pond Inlet was not a viable refueling stop, the next logical choice was to head north to Lancaster Sound, the entrance to Parry Channel and  common waters for all routes through the Northwest Passage.  Conceivably, we had enough fuel to make it…