This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today we found ice again — in a big way! Croker Bay is a fjord on the south coast of Devon Island on the Lancaster Sound. The island itself was named by William Baffin in 1616 for Devon shire in England. It has…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Today was a busy day! We started at about 6:00 am doing a slow pass by Leopold Island, situated in Lancaster Sound. Most of this island rises steeply from the sea, with cliffs as high as 1000 feet! The cliffs are made of…
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This is part of a series called Northwest Passage et al 2024 Sea days provide an opportunity to learn through lectures, create art of different media, and perhaps help conduct some experiments. In the Science Lab today, we got to look at the water samples we had collected two days earlier to see what we…
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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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