31 Aug Novara in the Arctic NWP – we’re half way

We’re now more than half way through the fabled Northwest Passage. Novara has just entered the Dolphin and Union Strait, about 200 miles west of Cambridge Bay town. From the cockp

it, I can see the ubiquitous low lying islands – more shingle banks than land – and a grey sea that stretches in all directions. On the closest island is one of the many missile early-warning radar stations. A stark reminder of the world beyond our boat bubble and the strategic importance of this sea passage.

Two days ago we left Cambridge Bay. We were there for 2 days, waiting out another storm that rolled through. It wasn’t as bad as expect

ed with only 35 knots at its peak.

We slept well trusting Novara’s big anchor and strong anchor chain (I still had my

anchor alarm set just in case). The town of Cambridge Bay (about 1400 people) is one of the larger settlements

in the NWP. And it seems representative in many ways of the life and times at this latitude. The whole town in summer seemed

like it was in stasis – waiting for return of the freeze to show its true self. Without the snow and ice, the roads are gravel, dust is everywhere, the houses seem strange on

their stilts above what will soon be frozen ground and the buildings have few if any windows.

When we arrived in town, two boys were fishing. Their mother, turned up and introduced herself

as Mary Jane. We then met Shane, her husband, the local police chief. They’re on a two year posting to CB, and lucky for us, extended a welcome to their home for the day so we could use their oven to bake bread (we’re running out of Propane

so have decided we can’t afford to use Novara’s oven any more), play board games and, luxury of luxuries have a proper shower!

Since we’ve been sailing in the NWP two things have been conspicuous by their

absence – ice and wildlife. We’ve had absolutely no ice on the eastern side of the passage. Evidently the ice cleared 3 weeks

earlier than usual. Everyone is talking about climate changes here. It’s affecting them here and now.

We’ve also seen little in the way of wildlife –

a few polar bears, a pod of narwhals, some beluga whales scratching themselves on shingle in the shallows and bearded seals. But these sightings have been few and far between. It’s not clear why – perhaps this is the normal way of things, perhaps hunting, or perhaps an impact of climate change.

Daily life continues on board Novara. One day rolls in to the other, our days dominated by food, weather forecasts, tidal tables and ice charts. And we keep m

oving when we can. We’re all holding up well, and morale is high – quite a feat given we’ve been together in the confines of Novara now for 3 months. We have sailed over 3000 miles since leaving Maine in June. And we have another 3000 miles to go before the end of September.

There’s so much more to tell – the European explorer history, the Inuit culture and colonialization – but that will have to wait for another time and place.