Right now a PolarQuest-group explore Canada’s most historical waterway known for adventure, exploration and navigational skills – the Northwest Passage. Below, please read an excerpt from the expedition cruise.
Beechey Island - 20th of August 2015
It’s a week since we boarded Akademik Ioffe in Kangerlussuaq in Greenland and began our journey through Northwest Passage. After a couple of interesting landings on the west coast of Greenland and a very calm crossing over Baffin Bay, we are currently in the midst of polar history. It was here, on Beechey Island, Sir John Franklin and his men spent the winter of 1845-46 at the beginning of his fateful expedition with the goal to sail through the Northwest Passage. It was also here that three of his men died and were buried on Beechey Island’s barren and stony beach.
During the following years the 129 expedition members, including Sir John Franklin himself, met the same fate. Thus it seemed very fitting that the sunshine we had yesterday today had turned into a raw, cold fog. A fog that swept down from the mountains over the weathered gravestones on the beach and found its way under our thick layers of clothing giving us chills down our spines.
Unlike Franklin’s men, we could return to a warm and secure vessel, and our journey continued south. No sooner had we got on board, until the discovery of the trip’s first polar bear was announced over the speakers. A beautiful white bear climbed high up on a steep limestone cliff in search of chicks and eggs.
Now beckons Prince Regent Inlet and in the coming days we hope to encounter drift ice – in moderation – in the Victoria Strait, and along the ice perhaps even more of the exciting Arctic wildlife.