Traversing Time and Ice

If you’ve been following our tracker, you’re probably wondering what on earth we’ve been doing the last few days without any blog context! You may have noticed, we didn’t quite make it to Arctic Bay as planned. As we turned into Admiralty Inlet, we ended up with 20 knots in front, and with the narrow body of water it made for a very bumpy ride. After about 25 miles of bashing, with another 60 to go, the crew decided to change plans and head towards Navy Board Inlet. With a beautiful sunset that lit up Dogbark against the stormy skies, I welcomed the wind that followed behind instead of fighting it.

With building winds, we decided to seek shelter at Tay Bay, located on the northwest corner of Bylot Island. We arrived around 2am our time, 4am local time (the amount of time zone changes we’ve had this journey has been confusing to say the least!), and of course the charts were not matching up with our depth finder so it took us a little bit before we let down our anchor.

Everyone promptly took some well deserved rest for a few hours. I woke up to beautiful sunshine and the sweet smell of Eli making a round of pancakes! It may not be Arctic Bay, but the water and surroundings were breathtaking. We were finally seeing proper mountains again with snow on top. Signs we were heading back down south. A part of me wanted to stay in the arctic longer, but another part of me was excited to explore more dramatic landscape as well.

The water warmed back up to 38 degrees! Balmy, I thought, compared to the 33 we were seeing earlier. So of course, I got my cold plunge in! Brian and Eli got inspired as well and we were all happy and invigorated. Well I was…I’m not sure how the other guys felt. Eli may have had some choice words as he went into the water…

While we were cold plunging Graeme got an email from Victor who is still tracking us that we needed to leave Tay Bay as it was a restricted area, protected by the Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We didn’t know that a special permit was needed to be there, and while we were disappointed to leave yet another beautiful area, we respected the sanctuary and promptly hoisted our anchor and off we went!

We continued south down Navy Board Inlet on our way to Ragged Island to anchor for the night. Surrounded by mountains and glaciers, it was incredible to see how the fingers of the glacier would cascade down the mountains like fingers.

Naturally, the dance party kept going, and as we did our narwhal song to call in the narwals, Al surprised me with his own narwhal move, which honestly, been the highlight of this whole trip for me. It’s the little moments you know that make life so special. And as I am used to serious racing mode Al before this trip, I was SO delighted to see this fun silly side of him. I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the day, and so glad I caught it on camera to share with you all.

Victor was correct, the icebergs were getting bigger and we couldn’t believe how large they were getting. Brian was able to get the drone back up to capture the magic and his photo says it all:

You can see the scale of Dogbark compared to this large iceberg and how deep the iceberg goes below the surface.

I even went fishing for some glacier ice for our whiskey!

We finally arrived to Ragged Island late in the evening, but we were all happy to have a place to rest. 6am came too early, but we were finally on our way to Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet)! Atlantic waters are just beyond!

Mittimatalik translated is “the place where the landing place is”. A small but growing community that is predominantly Inuit on the northern side of Baffin Island. It is considered one of Canada’s “jewels of the North”, and I could see why. Mountain ranges can be found in all directions, and even though we were there late in the summer, it was the most icebergs we had seen in one area, including one that looked a couple hundred feet tall just outside the breakwater!

Docking was tricky since we didn’t have any information on it, the recently developed harbor wasn’t charted yet, but thanks to google maps and recent images, we found an image with larger boats we passed previously tied up along the wall so we knew we concluded that we would would be able to as well. It was low tide and very windy, and took all six of us to get docked properly, and it included running aground in the middle of the harbor, a slow reverse parallel into the wall and a very sketchy parkour stunt by Graeme to get up from the boat rail, solar panel, and up on the dock wall, but we did it!

We had to be rechecked into Canadian customs because apparently it was correct in the system, but it was a great chance to get some local intel from yet another friendly Canadian they called the “pretty boy”. Considering I haven’t seen anyone close to my age since Nome (3,000 miles ago), I agreed – he was pretty. Others disagreed. Maybe I’ve been at sea for too long. Haha.

We divided and conquered boat chores again, and once again a local person saw us walking up the hill and offered us a lift to the store. He also offered to bring us back to the boat, but we opted to walk back. Stretching the legs out feels so good after being underway! We were able to find most of what we needed, including some elusive PVC glue and materials for a dinghy repair thanks to a local municipality worker.

We spent the evening doing a group dinner on the boat with some arctic char, mashed potatoes, and a salad. We celebrated Eli’s last night aboard with a newly harvested glacier ice and whiskey and shared many laughs and memories. Just how these kind of journeys should be. We noticed that the glacier ice had a different snap, crackle, and pop in the ice. Turns out the air bubbles that are trapped inside are released by the room temperature whiskey when expanded.

We decided that there are three tiers of ice:

While I was looking forward to getting my first opportunity for a full night’s sleep, I was awakened by a VHF radio call from Que Sera calling us. It must’ve been 4 or 5 am, and they were trying to get some intel on the harbor situation. I was really excited that we would have some friends in the harbor soon! Graeme, Rusty, and Al woke to catch their lines, and I came up once they were situated. I was really excited to meet another boat!

A lazy morning in the “sun room” with ukelele jams, but soon we had to say goodbye to our dear Eli! Saying goodbye to crew is always hard, you never want the good times to end. Plus, I will miss Eli’s pancakes! It’s been great hearing all the shenanigans and stories Eli shared with us and we will miss him!

It was another beautiful very windy day, but perhaps what was most alarming to me was how the Matterhorn shaped iceberg outside of the breakwater had rotated overnight. Imagine the force that is needed to move something that large that is aground!

We all took a little time for ourselves for the day before regrouping for a group dinner with the crew of Que Sera. There were gin & tonics, wine, brandy, Graeme made a great puttanesca pasta, and Que Sera made a beautiful chocolate, salted caramel pineapple right side up cake! What a feast!

Que Sera is a 16-meter, all-aluminum sailing expedition boat part of a nonprofit called Pacifique. They specialize in arctic science research, supporting artists, and public education.

Great merriment and stories were shared. Que Sera is made up of an amazing crew including a Maiden member, extreme sports videographer, tallship sailor, artist, two captains, etc. So many personalities and wonderful experiences to share and learn about. I am so glad we were able to connect!

The next day, we left the dock around 6am and began our journey towards Baffin Bay. Atlantic waters here we come!