Prince of Wales Strait – here we come

Ice, ice and more ice – 24 hours ago we were breaking ice in Parry Sound for about 12 hours. It’s amazing to watch, feel and hear as the Kapitan Khlebnikov pushes her way through. When I was last on the KK in the Antarctic, we literally spent days watching the ice cracking in front of us as we made our way south, but it was different last night.

When confronted with a solid ice-pack (sometimes 2-3 meters thick), the KK pushes its bow up onto the ice, cracking it under its enormous weight, and pushing it to the side – if the ice can’t be pushed to the side (eg a heavily blocked channel), we can’t move through it. This is has stopped many, many ships in polar regions, and is determining which route we are taking through the Northwest Passage

Last night I was on the port (left) side of the bow – I saw huge chunks of blue and white ice being pushed to the side, sea water rushing over and around them, massive slabs of ice being pushed up beside the ship and overturned, large shapes turning over and righting themselves, and an occasional seal sliding into the water as we pushed forwards. We could hear the ice scraping along the strong hull, and felt the ship shaking, shuddering and sometimes being pushed sideways by very large masses. Other times we could hear the cracking and tinkling of thinner ice being broken.

I was out for 90 minutes or so – it really is mesmerising, but also very cold! The initial photos were still shots with my Canon – but the power of seeing and hearing this was overwhelming, and I raced up two decks to grab my little Sony, and now have video so that you’ll be able to see and hear this.

This morning we arrived at the northern end of Prince of Wales Strait, and when I went out onto the bow at around 6:30am, we were drifting with the currents and the sea ice, and had open water around us for a short distance. It was quiet, a little cloudy and quite cold. I could see the surface of the sea changing from liquid to a slightly oily looking texture – it was starting to freeze. Pans of ice started to form, and a small area of liquid sea gradually solidified as it froze solid – really amazing to watch this in real time!

After breakfast we were on the zodiacs to Point Wallace on Banks Island and a 3km hike across the frozen polar desert. It was easy walking from the stony beach onto frozen mud mixed with pebbles and rocks. Had we been here even 3 weeks ago, it’s likely that the mud would have been the “boot-sucking” variety, making hiking next to impossible!

It was good to stretch our legs after a number of days at sea (although we are always up and down stairs on this ship). We found the remnants of an old Nissan hut from around 1954 – timber struts, old canvas and old metal boxes from the USS Nevada. There was a small stone “monument” referencing collaboration between the Canadian Public Service and the US Navy – we are unsure of the purpose at this stage.

As we walked across the frozen tundra, we saw footprints from musk-ox and caribou, and various plants now dormant for winter, as well as brightly-coloured lichen – we also saw many rocks (fist-sized) that have been “sliced” by water freezing in fine cracks, then thawing and freezing again over many years.

Then it was back on the ship to move a short distance back towards the ice so that we could take to the skies to see the sea-ice forming. The sun was starting to shine, and all was looking good until the reconnaissance flight was due to leave – a sudden squall reduced visibility to zero and we had a small dump of snow! Then 60 minutes later the sun was out, visibility was perfect, the reconnaissance was completed and we were set to go!

I was in the white helicopter – it’s smaller and more nimble than the black, and after a “ho-hum” 7 minute flight yesterday, we were to be treated to a 10 minute flight! We rotate groups, and mine was towards the end of today’s flights. Our pilot David is aware that I can be a little nervous, but I was good to go today – gave him the thumbs-up as I climbed into the back seat, and away we went.

We flew high across the top end of Prince of Wales Strait, over the coast of Banks Island and above the polar desert. As we flew inland we came down low and could see a ravine ahead – we actually flew inside this ravine (quiet screaming of delight from the back seat), came up a little, turned 180° and hovered above a narrow peak. And yes, he then took us down to touch that peak! We then flew back along the ravine, across the sea/sea-ice, landing on the KK’s heli-deck a short time later. Amazing! I have still shots and video – the iPhone is great for this.

The light this evening was glorious – the low sun cast beautiful golden light across the sea and sea-ice. And with helicopters still flying around the ship, I also managed to catch a great shot of the black helicopter flying across the sun!

This evening and tomorrow we are expecting to transit the Prince of Wales Strait that runs between Banks and Victoria Islands. The ice charts indicate that we should be able to get through, although this could change of course! Of 160 or so successful transits of the Northwest Passage, 16 have managed to complete the route through Prince of Wales Strait (12 going west and 4 going east) – we expect to the 17th ship in history to do this! Stay tuned!