After exactly one month to the day, we bid farewell to Greenland and set
a course across Baffin Bay to the Canadian side and Lancaster Sound. We
spent the last day cruising through Greenland’s spectacular Disko Bay, a
vast area where several glaciers calve icebergs into the sea. As we
slalomed through the crowded waters we gasped in turns at the amazing
shapes of nature’s sculptured behemoths, while catching brief glimpses
of humpback whales surfacing with a blast of steam after a deep dive of
feeding in these rich waters.
Those icebergs continue to keep us company, and on our toes, as we
started our 500 miles passage to Lancaster Sound. This is the start of
the intricate part of the Northwest Passage, much of which is still
choked by ice at this time of year and thus not navigable. However,
with the arrival of summer, the ice starts its brief retreat making it
possible to negotiate these challenging waters. To be able to take
prompt advantage of an improvement in the ice situation, we shall anchor
in one of the protected bays on the south coast of Devon Island, to be
ready to go as soon as conditions are favourable. Based on the record
of previous years, this can happen in early August. With only 200 miles
to go, my next report should hopefully see us in a calm anchorage in
Nunavut, the official name of Eastern Arctic Canada.
