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Upernnavik, Greenland prehistoric looking hooved beast), walrus, beluga whales and some narwhals. This trip is as much about exploring the Arctic as getting through the North West Passage. Cristina has spent four summers cruising in the area and could have travelled through the NWP a few times in the past but choose not to, choosing instead to explore more of the High Arctic. I think she has got the Arctic bug big time but I'm hoping that we are not goofing around so much that the passage closes again before we get through. Bluff without everybody in Auckland knowing about it. Upernavik is the largest northern settlement where there is a big supermarket, airport and plenty of diesel, hence the presence of a few expedition boats in town at the moment. One of them, Vagabond, just came in after over-wintering for nine months further north to do some ice studies. Other yachts are also working here, one of them Arctic Tern, has a World Wildlife Fund crew on-board doing research in the area. We sailed 400 miles up the coast from Sisismiut to Upernavik. Fog, fog and more fog thick as pea soup, with icebergs scattered all around. Icebergs and fog must be best mates as they hang out together a lot. Last night the sun dipped below the horizon but it doesn't get dark anymore, which should have made watch keeping easier, except for the fog. Occasionally it lifts for a few minutes and a grandiose view opens up with beautiful snow topped mountains and stunningly shaped icebergs scattered around us all lit up in the red midnight sun – an ice dreamy far away fairy land. And then the fog is back again closing everything in with 200 metres visibility and the beautiful icebergs become dangerous floating objects only visible on radar. We have had to do a bit of dodging around them which keeps you alert on watch – not too much chatting going on. We stop at the Devils Thumb, also known as Kuvdlorsuag Island, and then we are ready to cross Baffin Bay. After an uneventful 48 hour crossing, again with plenty of icebergs mixed in with thick fog, we arrived at Coburg Island, Canada with the midnight sun giving the icebergs an amazing alpine glow. From there we started day sailing, anchoring in a different location every night, working ourselves steadily westwards towards Lancaster Sound. The owner, Cristina, likes to explore as much as possible, going ashore at every opportunity taking everybody with her including the crew, where time permits. We always take two rifles ashore. There are more polar bears in the Canadian Arctic than in Greenland. This seems to be the case for other wildlife as well, as we saw some muskox (a very TOTAL MARINE: • Wharves • Jetty and Marina Construction and Repair • Marine Towing • Pile Driving and Drilling • Salvage • Barge and Tug Hire TOTAL FLOATS: Design, Supply and Installation of all Floating Structures: Marinas – Commercial and Private Wharf Pontoons Phone 09 379 9752 • Fax 09 379 9751 www.totalmarineservices.co.nz 60 Professional Skipper November/December 2012 Mob (64-21) 534 003 | Email tiama@clear.net.nz | Web www.tiama.com WATERLINE YACHTS – HENK HAAZEN For any vessel attempting to navigate the NWP, the crux is weaving your way through an archipelago of islands in the central section, which, up until recently, only opens for a relatively short period of time, sometimes only for a few days in early August. Now it seems as if things are changing and one long term ice observer has told us that he has never seen so little ice in the area and that the ice is behaving in a totally different manner compared to other years. I guess this might enable us to get through, while at the same time exploring as much as we can. But as mentioned before, it is bad news for our planet as the Arctic is the time clock by which climate change is measured, and it seems to be ticking way too fast. If it gets so warm that the permafrost starts thawing then run away, climate change is here. Entering Lancaster Sound is really the beginning of the NWP. This is where in the eighteenth century, most of the famously stubborn English explorers started to encounter the real Arctic ice pack. The best known of those was undoubtedly Franklin, whose ships, Erebus and Terror, with 128 men onboard, disappeared and were never heard of again. Only one piece of paper was ever found giving some indication of what happened to them; this is a story that has fascinated generations of explorers. Our first landing in Lancaster Sound was at Beechey Island where there are three graves belonging to some of Franklin's men. For the subsequent rescue ships sent to look for Franklin, this was the first clue of what might have happened to the expedition. The graves are still here. It is a very desolate island and ironically, that desolate island is now one of the most visited places in the Arctic. During our short stay, there was one other superyacht here, the Katharsis from Poland, as well as three French archaeologists camp- ing ashore. In spite of these modern day researchers and explorers, the place remains special and you get a bit of a feel for how it used to be for those men from earlier times who would sometimes spend four years overwintering in the area on wooden ships, either looking for the NWP, or searching for the lost Franklin expedition. There is some truth in the saying "wooden ships, men of steel" and in our time, "steel ships men of wood" So from here, westward trying to get through the hard part of the NWP. Cheers, Henk Haazen We are currently taking bookings for a 15 day trip to the NZ Sub Antarctic islands, the dates are 1 to 15 December 2012, costs NZ$6500 per person, please contact: VIP.S71 VIP.S90