On our way to Resolute

We woke today to no polar bears and grey skies. The ship had traversed through quite a bit of ice during the night and had come to a stop at around 5am – could this be for a polar bear, or more ice? I quietly half-dressed in case we received an announcement about a polar bear.

But no – it was for ice after all, and the option of walking on the multi-year sea-ice that had stopped us - it is very thick and stable. I opted to take photos, and after about an hour we were back on our way around that particular ice – even this ship cannot push through multi-year ice. Well it can, but it would take a very, very long time at 1-2 knots, and we have a lot of ground to cover.

Soon after breakfast we were in the helicopters flying around the ship as it bashed through some solid ice – always a great view! This time I was in the black one – it has small windows that slide open – a great feature. Then it was back on the ship and time to check/edit and continue to post-process photos.

The Hadfield crew chartered the black helicopter for a half hour flight so that they could get footage of the KK in action – they took the doors off so that they could photograph without glass and metal in the way. It was amazing watching them fly over the ship, and their timing was perfect. Beautiful white and blue ice to fly over against steel-grey skies – we’re all looking forward to seeing the video.

And soon after they were back on the ship and the helicopters were tied down, we hit some amazing ice as we sailed through a massive blizzard – the ice is actually is strong enough to push us sideways at times – and this ship is not small.

We're now in open water, still with grey skies, poor visibility, some snow at times and cold temperatures - overall, it's been a good afternoon to stay inside!

Bob Headland gave a presentation about the Northwest Passage this afternoon – had we not come across that multi-year ice this morning, we would have been taking a new route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean – but that is not to be. Let’s hope that on the next leg we’ll be able to traverse the route north of Victoria Island – that would be wonderful.

We have another full day tomorrow, visiting Beechey Island – an amazing part of the Arctic that has memorials to some of the men that died on the failed Franklin expedition. Then Wednesday morning we will be in Resolute, where many passengers will leave us and new ones will join us.

This will be the last post for this part of the trip – email stops tonight, and won’t resume until we are well on our way on the next leg. It's been wonderful being in the Canadian High Arctic - an amazing place. I’ll keep making notes so that I can fill you in on what we’ll have been doing during this “break in transmission” and as we start the next phase - through the Northwest Passage. Please stay tuned!