Admiralty Inlet to Arctic Bay

18th Aug
Entered Admiralty Inlet overnight, still motoring...........wind behind for first time in 1,000 miles but only 5 kn....not worth putting the sails up. Otherwise all going well.
Very different scenery here..flatter and looks more like sandstone. As we enter the harbour we see there is a Canadian coast guard ice breaker in here as well.
Arrive Artcic Bay around 20:00............
Early night ......up early tomorrow.

19th Aug
On shore for 08:00..........the RMCP station was open so in we went. Two very helpful mounties helped us sort out ice files, contact the fuel guy and the water guy.....all brought by trucks to the harbour mole (stone jetty, more of a rock armour jetty for the initiated amongst you !!!! LOL). We asked for a photo of them with the Queen's photo in the background on the wall, at first they declined (for security reasons........fair enough). Anyway, the older mountie was actually retired (only does relief work now) and eventually agreed to have his photo taken with Billy Connlly in front of the Queen........ha ha ha .......his words, not mine !!!!
Eventually the hotel opened and we went in for breakfast and some wifi. Got loads put on the blog........excellent !!!!
Contacted Bryn on Skype..................noice.............bit late to contact Gemma. Will try her tomorrow if we are still here. Steve and Ding checking the "gribs", weather and ice charts to find a good time to leave. Steve gets an email from our Ice Guru, Doug Pohl. He says go now to Fort Ross, we are certain to get through to Gjoa Haven. We have a few jobs to do on the boat...oil changes...etc etc. So we leave it until tomorrow.
Fuel & water are delivered to the mole..................holy polony.............the bows were nearly on the rocks !!! Thr water hose was too short, so the guys had to disappear for an extension.........by this time Steve's blood pressure was about 195 / 100..........the weather was looking a bit worse.......wind picking up and we still had the fuel to do............
I had a good craiche with the local kids, the most interesting being Terry...about 13 years old.......nice lad. He was astonished to hear we had sailed about 5,000 km to get here.
We eventually got the water tanks filled....................yyyahhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooo.......shower tonight !!!!!
Fuel guy arrives and at least he had plenty of hose. In it goes, Steve starts to look more and more quizical as i shout out the litres..........900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1440....that's it full. Hand on a mo, the port tank only holds 1163 litres !!!! We filled a couple of the jerry cans, after giving about 50 litres to Bob and the Wild Bunch.
So, we have a dilemma.......have we been swindled or is the port tanka larger capacity than we thought / were told / is in the design drawings. If we have a larger tank, that means we have at least another 300 miles or so of range, which is brilliant.

 Canadian Coastguard ice breaker

 Me & Tel in the RCMP station, the Queen ....God bless her !!!

Pond Inlet

16th Aug
Wind on the nose again...............so motoring..............that's the whole of Baffin Island we have motored now...............and some of Labrador.
Winds increase overnight and we decide to take shelter in the Nova Zembla isles............no real anchorages here..............we will look for shelter while it blows out.
Arrive at Round island near Nova Zembla Island about 10:00, not brilliant but it'll do. Steve and Ding ring Fred for a weather update, it appears it's easing tomorrow.....................good.
We watch the video the boys gave Steve on the Impossible wall..............Gordon
Leave at about 18:00, wind dropped dramatically, waves also. Set off for Pond Inlet again.



17th Aug
Pond Inlet.................Arctic Tern in the anchorage, the skipper is a friend of Skip Novaks.........it really is a small world, this remote sailing mob.
No major problems over night until we get to McCulloch Point............shallows and waves pick up as we pass round into Pond Inlet..soon becomes benign though. Arrive Pond Inlet about 09:00. Get stuff sorted, shower etc......then into the metropolise.
Arctic Tern is in the anchorage.
Hotel North very nice, but, wifi rubbish. Can't get on line at all. The Ice Pilot for a cruise liner is in the hotel and he gives us a copy of his latest reports. He recommends we go to Fort Ross and wait there. He thinks Bellot Strait is the way forward. That is going to be his recommendation to the Captain of "Silver Explorer" anyway.
We have lunch, Musk Ox stew.........blooming good too.
Back to the boat, get evrything ready and off we go to Arctic Bay, via Lancaster Sound......we have time and can fuel up and take on water at a small wharf.
Just amazing, magical crossing Pond Inlet to Navy Board Inlet...... flat calm and the sun is out.............warm.........beautiful !!!!!

Entrance to Pond Inlet, Bylot Island on the right (Starboard)

Inuit summer camp for hunting seals and fishing

First views of Pond Inlet

Fancy library..

RCMP offices

Arctic Tern....another Arctic / Antartic explorer

and then a cruise ship arrived.........."Silver Explorer"..............we met their Ice Pilot....a guy called Mark, a very experienced northern latitudes pilot.........he gave us some good advice on routes etc etc

coming out of Pond Inlet towards Navy Board inlet

 some more arty farty shots...................

Baffin island from Navy board inlet

23:00 hours !!!!!

Silver Explorer passing a fjord on the way to Lancaster sound

Sunrise............

Sam Ford Fjord

13th Aug
Up early...........wind shifted in the night and took us nearly onto one of the bergs in the harbour.
So off we go, Sam Ford Fjord next stop. The wind and waves got a bit dire as it went on, so we pulled into Cape Eglinton to ride out the weather for a few hours.
Later in the day, early afternoon i reckon, we set off for Sam Ford fjord, again.
On the way i was on the helm, watching the world go by, icebergs and Erik Point, then suddenly i heard a snort and a grunt / growl on the port side of the boat, a polar bear was swimming by about 8 feet away...it was ASTONISHING !!!!!! I could see his eyes, he was that close..................bit bloodshot, but hey...whatever!!! So i very nearly had a "hit & run" on my hands..............we slowed down and did a big circle around him, so as not to scare him...............the photos are just insignificant in relation to that experience.......bet not many people have been 8' away from a polar bear and lived................it was a just incredible !!!!!
I still can't believe i'm here half the time............
On we trundled to an anchorage just inside Sam Ford fjord..............we were knocked about a bit, but managed to get a half decent sleep.

14th Aug
We awoke about 08:00....grief...a lie in........we had left over spuds and beans for breakfast.............mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
We carried on into Sam Ford.......................good grief, just amazing.....i know i keep saying this, but this place is the most astonishing place i've ever seen. A climbers paradise if we ever i saw one.........something for everyone to play in / on.
We went into a couple of the main inlets to look out some good anchorages and then moved past "Beleverdere Ridge"...............round the corner...............and this appeared...
then as we motored around looking for an anchorage for lunch.............we very nearly missed, but at the last minute saw..........."Dodos Delight"............Bob Shepton...the famous sailor / climber.
We come alongside him and hail them............4 or 5 blokes are up on deck.............hey hey .....hi all ok???
It turns out Bob has the 4 guys on board that won the Piolet D'Or in 2010 :
Nicolas Favresse, his brother Olivier, Ben Ditto and Sean Villanueva, they and Bob won the Piolet D'Or in 2010 for their climb on "The Impossible Wall" in Greenland .................arguably some of the best climbers in the world at the moment !!!!
Bob calls them the "Wild Bunch"............what a day........phew..............staggering.
We decide to put some shore lines out as the anchor is pulling, we are 34m in depth !!!! .............ANCHORED !!!!.......................................................................................................... The lads went bouldering before supper (and skinny dipping in the lake over the rise), just to keep the fitness up !!!! :-) I made them and Bob a Thai Chicken & Green bean curry with rice for their return
What a fantastic night we had..........well evening............Olivier on accordion, Nico on mandolin, Sean on tin whistle and Ben on spoons and harmonica............they played mainly irish jigs and sailing songs, with a few of their own melodies thrown in............just brilliant. They had a few beers and a few red wines, all had an ace time. They left about 22:00......they intended to climb a wall next day. As they left we discussed the weather, it supposed a decent night and fairly ggod tomorrow, i said to Nico jokingly, you may as well go now..............blooming heck, no sooner had i said it and they were off !!!! GAWD..i wss only kidding !!!!
Nico and his brother Olivier went onto Walker Citadel to do a route at 23:00 and Ben & Sean were taken across the fjord by Bob to start a climb on another peak..........don't know the name of that one....

15th Aug
......I woke about 02:00 with the chain rattling across the rocks on the sea bed ( no great worries with the shore lines out)........Bob had just returned from dropping Ben & Sean off, he was trying to pick up his shore lines and drop his anchor. This guy is 80...........gawd, he nearly fell in the water twice while i was watching him. I stayed up until i was sure he safely back on his boat.
We arose about 06:00, to retrieve the shore lines and try to collect some water from a nearby stream (in case the watermaker still played up). What a hard job that was........i was stood in the stream for nearly an hour funnelling water in the 20 litre containers we had on board. We gave up after collecting 180 litres.
Steve had offered Bob some diesel last night, so next job was to go over to Dodo's Delight with the 4 jerry cans of diesel we had....approx. 80 litres. Bob came up promptly when Ding and i hailed him from the dingy. There is something about American plastic jerry cans, the spouts they have on hem are fixed inside for transportation, so obviouslyas soon as you get the spout out it is covered in diesel............i HATE diesel !!! The wind had picked up a bit by now, so as soon as i started to pur it into Bob's funnel in his tank filler about 2 litres od diesel blew all over me ..........AGAIN !!!!!!
Anyway, we soon had Bob's tank filled.......he was so grateful, he was running low and had to get back to Greenland yet.
Away we go, bidding farewell to Bob, i must say we were a bit concerned as he was complaining of a pain in his stomach................not my food i might add !!!! WE had given him a bottle of Ibuprofen before left, lets hope that works.
On the way out of the fjord we have a bit of fun trying to get the dingy back aboard.........Steve is nearly thrown into the sea........whoops scotties .......crackle crackle goes the VHF on Channel 16........it's Sean on the crag above us, turns out he's on a really good belay stance...................
"Hey just watching you sailing by, can you see us ???"
No, we reply........give us clue where are you........explanation follows .........GAWD...they are 3/4 the way up the 1.3 Km vertical wall (well, nearly vertical.........vertical enough for me anyway !!!!).
Yeah we see you now...................we'll take a photo of you.
Sean replies....."yep, i've taken one of you guys...........have a good trip.......stay safe all"
Hopefully see you soon
We're off to Pond Inlet............

I make no excuses for the next load of photos................this place is just staggering..............my literary knowledge is no way near adequate enough to describe it properly...............just look at this lot !!!!!!!!!!!

Entrance to the fjord

Bit of a waterfall halfway down the fjord...................2000 feet high !!!

Truncated hanging valley and glacier and another bit of a waterfall

You can clearly see here how much this glacier has retreated

View back up the fjord

Panorama of  the central peaks including the "Belevedere Ridge"

Swiss Bay

Belvedere Ridge

Ding taking a photo of Belevedere Ridge..........Walkers Citadel behind him

The Wild Bunch had a guide book for the region and this had a name..............sorry it eludes me, darn it !!!

Walkers Citadel, the guys told us that most of the routes done here so far have been done in the winter by American climbers, either on skidoos or flying in onto the ice. It's too hard to access the region in the summer...........you can only get by boat !!!! That's why they are here.

The central spire was done by Nico & Olivier the two brothers..........1.3 Km high !!!!

Dodo's Delight.......Bob Shepton and the Wild Bunch on deck to meet us

Believe it or not the guys are in the dingy in front of this............see photo below to spot them !!!!

love this photo............or anchorage view for the night

Guys on their way back to the boat

The wall in far distance centre.......... Sean & Ben did this route, another around 1.3 Km high !!!!

Our shore lines worked a treat............sun a bit brighter than i thought

View out of the galley window as i was cooking tea for the guys and the wild bunch

and here they are after supper they gave us an impromptu concert........just brilliant.............left to right.............Olivier, Bob, Sean, Nico, Ben.........absolute stars !!!

The boys back on the boat..............they left a few hours later and those two walls....after a load of beer and wine..................NUTS !!!!