This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today we visited Gjoa Haven, named after the ship that Roald Amundsen made the first successful trip across the Northwest Passage. Interestingly, the Inuit name for this community is Uqsuqtuuq which means “lots of fat” — which refers to the abundance of sea…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 After a beautiful, sunny day yesterday, it was inevitable that today had to be cloudy, rainy, and rough. Today we are visiting Borge Island, a small (just over a mile square) and largely flat island. It was named by Raoul Amundsen after the…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today we stopped in Cambridge Bay, or Ikalutuuttiaq (which means “good fishing place”). This has been a gathering spot for Inuit for over 4000 years. It is the largest community on Victoria Island with nearly 1800 people and is the largest stop for…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 We made a brief stop this afternoon at Murray Island. If you Google this place, you will find nothing, and that’s probably not a surprise — there’s not much here. Apparently, the island was named after Gilbert Elliot-Murray Kynynmound, the 1st Earl of…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today we visited Ulukhaktok (previously named Holman), an Inuit community of around 450 people. It sits on the west coast of Victoria Island, which is the ninth largest island on earth. The name translates to “where there is ulu material,” which refers to…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today was another sea day on our trip. We generally like sea days because they provide an opportunity to relax, catch up on reading or writing, and maybe attend some lectures. But there is one thing that I truly appreciate about cruising on…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today we did our first landing on Herschel Island (or Qikiqtaruk), a 45 sq. mile sedimentary stand of land that was thrust up by a lobe of Laurentide glacier ice. It is the Yukon’s only large offshore island. Herschel Island is largely rolling…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Well, we’re off again on another long trip, the first part being the transit of the Northwest Passage which should take nearly two weeks. Then we are off to Eastern Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, and ending in Nova Scotia. Why are we taking…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 All good things must come to an end, and yes, this trip did too. We arrived early in the morning after a voyage of 9,197 nautical miles, and the debarkation process began. While it was only 44 days earlier (only!), the time flew by…
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This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 We are now close to the end of our cruise. Today we pulled into Nanaimo, the so-called “Harbour City” almost directly across the Georgia Strait from Vancouver, our debarkation point. We once spent the night in Nanaimo on our boat as we were heading…
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