Leaving Herschel - 20 miles to Stokes Point

“Good morning, good morning from Herschel Island!” Larry is waking us up with a call home, on his CB radio. It’s 8:00am, and I'm woken out of a very deep sleep.  I have a vague memory of Steve waking me in the middle of the night to see the Aurora Borealis - I immediately fell back to sleep and missed "a really spectacular one."

But now it's time to get ready to leave.  It takes 4 hours to have breakfast (pancakes and maple syrup), pack our gear and harness the dogs. Because of the size of the team (10 dogs) and the rough sea ice (take Port Phillip Bay on a very windy day and freeze it, and you will have the general idea), I opt for the back seat of one of the snowmobiles, with Martha driving. Frozen sea as far as the eye can see, with pressure ridges that we climb up and over, making for reasonably slow progress.

Although we’ve start in sunshine, it disappears quickly and before long the wind is blowing from behind us. Our first heading is to Stokes Point. There is a DEW (distant early warning system) line station here, which can be seen from Herschel Island. These were set up by the US during the Cold War (1950s/60s), and this one is still active and remotely monitored. David, a US tax-payer, is keen to understand why they are wasting his dollars on this system when there are perfectly good satellites in the sky – a good question! [Interestingly, it was still there when I sailed by Herschel Island in Sept 2016 [see Arctic 2016].

After a short stop, I'm driving the sled.  We by-pass the station, and after stopping for a snack for the dogs and ourselves, head a little further east and set up camp on the ice, just off the coast. Surprisingly the shore line is very clearly marked by drift wood, not unlike a normal beach. It just happens that this beach is covered in snow, and the water is frozen rather than lapping onto the shore!

Once the dogs are un-harnessed and secured to their lines, we set up the tents, with Bob, David and I getting a helping hand from Steve. Martha and Rod dig out the all-important and very colourful “cook-tent” and set up the kitchen.

So this is it, my first night camping on the ice!  I’m actually looking forward to climbing into the double layered sleeping bag and having my first sleep. I’m rapidly adapting to this new environment and really don’t feel uncomfortable about being a million miles from everything that was familiar!

Martha and I have the largest of the 3 sleeping tents, and with the heating going it is quite cozy, despite a fairly strong wind gusting outside. The long hours of daylight are strangely stimulating and I’m still writing in my diary at 11:00pm without the need for a lamp. But we finally turn the heating off and with the inside temperature plummeting, I zip up the sleeping bags for my first time sleeping “on the ice.”