Prince Leopold Island – a gem in the Arctic

Wednesday was an on-ship day in the harbour at Resolute, Nunavut. People were leaving and new guests arriving, and the weather was not cooperating. Snow, wind, poor visibility, roads in Resolute a mess, a number of scenarios were possible: would the plane coming from Ottawa be able to land? If it did, would it be able to leave with the outgoing passengers? If not, where will they put everyone? With sea-ice moving around the ship (not a problem because we can push it away) and onto the shore (a problem because zodiacs could not be used) it was unclear how they would manage incoming passengers, luggage and freight.

Yay for the helicopters!! Not only did they take the outgoing luggage direct to the airport, they brought the incoming passengers from the airport to the ship, later bringing baggage and freight. It was a long, long day for the crew but with a great outcome.

Yesterday we back-tracked to visit Beechey Island and Radstock Bay so that the new passengers could experience these places. Beechey Island is historically important, and I visited the graves of the 4 sailors from Franklin’s expedition. They were so young and died in such a remote place.

This morning I woke fairly early and saw blue sky in the distance – a very nice change from the grey clouds and snow we’ve had for many days now. Just before 6am, the sun started to shine between two cloud banks, so I was dressed and outside (with camera) in about 5 minutes!

My aim was to go to the bow, but with no-one else there as yet, the icy snow and slippery surface dissuaded me. Out to port the sun was shining on the water – over to starboard and in the distance, the 250 meter high cliffs of Prince Leopold Island coming straight out of the water, were catching the morning light. It was a stunning!

Various people gradually emerged, and the bow became passible – and oh, so nice. The ship had slowed as we sailed through sea-ice, birds were once more flying around us, and the sun sparkled off the water and highlighted the turquoise and whites in the sea-ice. We even saw a ringed seal sunning itself on a small ice-floe.

7:00am – time to shower, get ready for breakfast and get my camera gear and clothes organised for the 9am zodiac excursion! Breakfast is a buffet on the KK – cereals, fresh fruit, hot oatmeal, toasts of varying kinds, eggs, bacon, sausages and an enormous array of juices.

I took some oatmeal and fruit upstairs and was sitting down with some new friends when I saw the enormous cliffs of Prince Leopold Island ahead, and beautifully reflected in the water. OK! Everything was left on the table, I raced upstairs to my cabin, changed the camera lens to the wide angle, didn’t bother to put on hat, gloves or jacket, and went outside.

Truly magnificent!! This Island is 14km x 8km, and home to masses of guillemots, fulmars, kittiwakes and glaucous gulls – many of these have migrated south. I think we were now looking at the 8km wide section.

My 24mm lens just about captured it in one frame, mirrored beautifully in the quiet sea. To the right there was a V-shaped rainbow against grey sky – equally magnificent! In fact this has created lots of questions – does this type of rainbow have a particular name? [If someone can Google this and let me know, that would be fantastic – I’m sure one of the crew will know, but until then, it would be great to have some info].

At 9am I was on a zodiac with 9 other people, and our guide Vladimir – one of the fun things about zodiac cruises is that we only have 10 people instead of 12, making it easier to sit, stand & turn around. I was in the bow – superb! This meant that I could sit on the metal box (yes, very cold) that holds lines, emergency supplies etc, and turn in both directions to take photos.

Off we went towards the cliffs. We were to the left of the other zodiacs near a “beach” below and to one side of the cliffs, when one of the people in our zodiac spotted a polar bear near the water. Over we went, soon followed by the 4 other zodiacs. We think this was a young female – she was watching us closely as she walked quietly towards us along the beach – we were about 100 metres offshore. Then she lay down, moving into a “ready to pounce” position, looking at us from time to time, closing her eyes (maybe hoping that we’d not be there when she opened them again), checking us out, and getting used to the click, click, click of 50 shutters. We stayed there for about 30 minutes or more – and so did she. Our motors were off and we drifted away, turning them on and quietly coming back. She seemed relaxed when we left and was still there when the second group went to “visit” an hour or more later. Perhaps the smells of the ship & zodiac were enough to keep her on the shore.

Then it was time for us to explore the cliffs that soared high above us, birds nesting in various ledges and then swooping down to feed on small black “water-snails” that were visible amongst the sea ice. The birds would take to the sky as we gently motored by, returning to the water once we’d gone by.

As we were leaving this area I saw snow slide down one part of the cliff face, increasing in volume as it pulled more snow along with it, until it slid quietly into the sea. We then made our way back to the ship, moving in and out of channels in the sea ice, Vladimir tried to open some channels, but not always successfully! It was a great end to a wonderful morning!

This area of Canada is very different to where we’ve been in the last 2 weeks. The west Greenland coast and high arctic of Canada are filled with large and small mountains, glaciers and fjords. The impact of changing climate is definitely evident, and disquietingly so – every glacier that we saw is retreating, even those that continue to carve icebergs into the sea have narrowed and slowed. When we stood above the glacier near Kiminsky Bay, we could see the valley that this glacier had once filled – in fact we landed high in the valley and walked down the “walls” with the glacier still well below and ahead of us.

The Inuit people that we met described how there is less sea-ice than there used to be – access to their towns is easier by sea, but they need to go further away to hunt.

Now we will see fewer glaciers – the land is flatter interspersed with tall, long rocky escarpments. As I’ve mentioned earlier, many people believe that winter has arrived earlier than usual – certainly many birds have migrated, but that is expected by now. It’s wonderful to still see polar bear, and hopefully we’ll again see whales and maybe walrus!

BREAKING NEWS: we’ve just heard from Cheli that we’ll be attempting to go west through Parry Channel after all – this is one of the northern routes of the Northwest Passage, and one that is not always open. The KK has completed this twice before – we hope to make it a 3rd time. Stay tuned over the next few days as we find the sea ice!