A Full Moon and Friendships

We arrived to Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktutiak) around 2:30am early yesterday morning, and we found ourselves already currently about 40 miles or so out of Cambridge Bay entering Queen Maud Gulf before noon today. It was a quick pit stop to take care of boat chores, but it was not too short to have some great laughs and we even got to meet some new friends!

A quick dinghy ride to shore, we divided and conquered the boat chores (refueling, rewatering, provisioning the galley and laundry) while Graeme took care of work and played dinghy shuttle driver.

While most of the wildfire smoke had lifted, a slight haze still lingered over the town. Walking the dusty roads and seeing the park sculptures, for a moment I thought I was at Burning Man, except wool bibs, a puffy, and Xtratufs wouldn’t be the attire for that. In fact, it was still quite warm…around the high 50’s and I was regretting my choice in clothing as I felt like an overheated marshmallow.

Cambridge Bay is the largest settlement on VIctoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. The traditional Inuinnaqtun name for the area is Iqaluktuttiaq which means “good fishing place”.

The official Royal Canadian Mounted Police station After traveling over 1,000nm of Canadian waters, we finally were making a stop and had our official customs check. Our friendly Canadian Mountie who came to inspect our vessel shared some interesting facts about the town. Like the fact that the town has a population of 2,000 and unfortunately he arrests about 1,000 of them every year for various domestic issues. And yet, with issues like that, a half million dollar high arctic research center rests in this small town as well. But we all got our passports stamped, returned, and off we went to complete the remaining boat chores.

Rusty and Eli got to take a ride with a skipper of a famous research vessel, Martin Bergmann to the fuel station to make arrangements for fuel delivery. They caught a glimpse of the most northern golf course in the world, Many Pebbles Golf Course. Instead of the lush green manicured lawns we’re used to seeing, this golf course mostly consists of dirt/mud and sad. True to tundra landscape, there are no trees, but plenty of other features that make the course more difficult. According to the locals, the recent growth of grass on the course “greens” is an annoyance and challenge. Apparently the grass “gets in the way”. It’s all relative right? We’re guessing a sand wedge may be all you need for this course.

I’ve been pretty impressed with all well stocked some of these small towns considering their high arctic locations. Some places in northern Alaska are serviced by planes and barges, and even smaller towns only serviced by freight on dirt roads (sled in the winter). Canadian arctic towns seem to be serviced by boat and planes as well. We were able to provision a great selection of produce and even picked up some local arctic char from a fish plant, Kitikmeot Foods.

After refueling, replenishing water, and showers, it was time for happy hour! The guys took turns fishing and Iqaluktuttiaq lived up to it’s name because they all caught us some cod!

After radioing with the crew from Mōli, a 41ft aluminum sailboat also doing an eastbound NW Passage the last couple of days, we finally got to meet face to face in Cambridge Bay. We invited them over for a dinner of fresh cod, cous cous and veggies, and dark and stormy cocktails! They brought salad and delicious fresh brownies to share and many laughs and stories were exchanged. French/Canadian Marcus from Pinocchio also came for a drink! He’s been sailing around the world with his wife, their 7 kids, and a dog!

Randall and Harmon are quite the duo, double-handing this year. Though for Randall, this is probably old hat, since he has already previously completed the passage as part of his Figure 8 Voyage, a first-ever circumnavigation of both the American and Antarctic continents in one season – SINGLEHANDED – NONSTOP.

The qwirkiness of this route, is a perfect match for Randall, who is equally if not more interesting as a person. Just one of those people who want to get out there and do things just because why not and for the fascinating/challenging human experience of it all. For example, one of his dreams is to “accidently” winter over in the arctic.

While I wouldn’t put wintering over on a sailboat in the arctic at the top of my list of things to do, I can absolutely see the appeal of this and other such expeditions people create for themselves. I think it’s what draws a lot of us to places like the arctic. It’s one of the few places left in the world that relatively few have explored. Challenging the human body, mind, and spirit as an chosen experience is an absolute privilege that I feel very very grateful for. Many of us never get a chance to “get away from the grind” and sailing puts us in a place where we become very present, life becomes a little more simple (or complicated depending on the task at hand), and we all find a little more peace out here.

After we exchanged more stories and laughs, we called it a night as our 6am departure started to loom over. Meeting other sailors and adventurers is always a highlight, but meeting them in the middle of respective adventures creates an acknowledged bond that will always be respected. After Randall and Harmon dinghied back to Mōli, the Supermoon Blue Moon started to rise and and we all took a moment to enjoy the scenery in silence.

Today’s transit was beautifully sunny. A light haze on the horizon, but we motor sailed along around 7 knots. We just anchored on the south side of Qikiqtaryuaq (formally known as Jenny Lind Island). Fun fact, I recognized the name Jenny Lind from a character from The Greatest Showman (one of my all time favorite musicals), who plays a Swedish opera singer. Turns out, Jenny Lind was a real person, and the island was named after her by John Rae, a British explorer explored the Arctic in 1840s and 1850s, simply because he was a fan. Apparently her notoriety created “Lind Mania”. Imagine opera being as popular as Taylor Swift! We had hoped to find some actual recordings of her to listen to her over dinner, but unfortunately the technology wasn’t there yet so there are no known recordings of her. So here’s a clip from the musical for your entertainment.

Our bellies are full with spaghetti al vongole and salad. A hazy sunset lingers behind us, wildlife is scurrying on shore (from what I could hear, it was probably polar bears but then they started flying so now they think it’s geese) and Shauna’s blonde brownies are on the table. But before I run off to stuff my face, here is a route map with today’s latest ice chart showing the latest plan. We’ll anchor the next couple of days along Jenny Lind Island to wait out some incoming northwesterly wind in Larsen Sound. The concern being the wind may push any ice down towards us as we are coming up and or block any part of our routes. If the ice forecast stays clear and true, we hope to make our way through Bellot Strait. If not, we will keep going north through Peel Sound and into Barrow Strait.

Now…must…eat…brownies…!