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August 5th, 2009 – Booth Island, Canada
by Herb McCormick and Mark Schrader
(August 5): Just west of the Parry Peninsula at the onset of Amundsen Gulf in the Canadian Arctic is a series of small islands, including one called Fiji. The crew of Ocean Watch considers this hilarious for about a dozen different, ironic reasons, but we admit it’s one of those you-had-to-be-there jokes. For our current anchorage may be snug and protected, but it bears no resemblance whatsoever to an idyllic, tropical South Pacific isle. In other words, if you’ll bear with us, we may be near “Fiji,” but we’re nowhere close to “Fiji.”
For the moment, then, the animated travels of Ocean Watch have been temporarily suspended as we wait for ice movement farther to the east. But we could be in worse places, and in fact, we have. Here off Booth Island, Summer’s Harbor is wide, deep and almost completely surrounded by land. Though it doesn’t elicit thoughts of swaying palm trees and coral reefs, at certain moments it does bring to mind distant destinations.
Last night, shortly after we dropped anchor, the low evening light on the barren, scruffy hills were reminiscent of the Baja California islands north of La Paz, Mexico. This morning, as the fog rolled in from seaward and the sharp edges of the overall vista were blurred and softened, we might’ve been swinging on the hook in about a hundred different spots off the coast of Maine.
For skipper Mark Schrader, the view was just fine, and he summed up the current onboard state-of-affairs in his personal log. Mark writes:
“Everything is a matter of perspective. On the first look around from our anchorage in Summer’s Harbor it seems we’ve anchored in the middle of an enormous and absolutely desolate gravel pit. This morning it doesn’t look any different – bleak is the word that seems to fit. Everything is brown, not a green hue anywhere. Brown boulders are the significant features on the ridges, beaches are brown gravel, and cliffs are brown rock.
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| Summer’s Harbor is wide and deep. |
“However, if you were trying to find a sheltered anchorage, safe from ice and gales from every direction and a possible place to save your boat from being crushed by winter ice, then this would be the most beautiful harbor in the Arctic. The holding ground is good; access to shore easy and the low lying hills a perfect windbreak from the east and west. I’m seeing the beauty.
“This morning, as we were having breakfast, six well-equipped and warmly dressed Canadian Coast Guard workers in an open RIB approached with a friendly ‘hello’ and came alongside. They were hand delivering the latest ice and weather report and brought greetings from Baloum Gwen (the French boat also sailing the Northwest Passage this summer) anchored in another cove some ten miles south of us. I invited them aboard for coffee but they declined, said they had lots of work to do today and needed to keep going.’ They confirmed we were clear of ice to the next small harbor 60 miles to the east – and then they were off. I don’t know how they knew we were here but I’m happy they are keeping track of our progress. Hand delivered weather and ice reports from the Coast Guard – that’s almost better than hot apple pie.
“The predicted winds for today are southerly, veering to the west and northwest for tonight and tomorrow. I think
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| Everything is brown, not a green hue anywhere. |
we’ll head another 60 miles east tomorrow and find the little harbor personally recommended by the CCG, another protected anchorage called Pearce Point Harbor. The ice chart shows some slight change but nothing really significant. I think we’ll be waiting for the next few days. For now, we’ll head to the brown beach in awhile and look for signs of life. Maybe we’ll find a little green somewhere.”
With that, the crew launched the dinghy and kayaks and set out for terra firma. The voyage may be currently on hold, but the adventures continue.
- Herb McCormick and Mark Schrader with photographs by David Thoreson
This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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