Northwest Passage Cruise

We will travel the northern coast of mainland Canada, investigating vast expanses of sea ice and the plethora life that it supports, visiting with, and learning about, Inuit culture and the Arctic. We will explore the southern reaches of Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, remembering some of the expeditions that have gone before us, but choosing our own way through the ice.

We plan to investigate the spots that evoke the European legends of discovery of the region, but we will also find plenty of time to explore the local communities, observe the wildlife and enjoy ourselves just poking about exploring some of the world’s most impressive ice.

We will depart from the small community of Resolute and immediately push south into Peel Sound, a stretch of water open to us for navigation for only one month a year. We will work our way south, stopping at the western entrance to Bellot Strait, where Point Zenith marks the northernmost extent of Boothia Peninsula, the extreme northern point of the Canadian mainland. Continuing south through Franklin Strait we will investigate the waterways and coastlines that attracted and confounded so many European explorers. From the comfort of our modern ship, we will take ourselves back to the late 1840s, and speculate on the fate of Franklin, his men, and his two ships, the Terror and Erebus, which disappeared into this region, never to be seen again. Conditions permitting, we hope to land at Victory Point on King William Island, to have a look at the cairn where the only written clue to the fate of the expedition was found.

From King William Island, we will challenge the ice and head south, through Icebreaker Channel, along the coast of Adelaide Peninsula and into Queen Maud Gulf and to the tiny, isolated community of Cambridge Bay. All along our path, we will be keeping a good lookout for the seals, whales and polar bears that attracted the local Inuit peoples to this region, and we will always scan the shorelines for signs of caribou and muskox, rare mammals regularly spotted on the low hills of the region. We will continue to dodge any heavy ice in the region and sail west through Coronation Gulf as far as time allows, attempting to touch the waters of the Beaufort Sea, to complete the full extent of the North West Passage. Conditions are always changing in the Arctic, and our eastward voyage to Resolute will be just as exciting as the westward part of the expedition. We will explore new shorelines, investigate the ever-changing ice and all the wildlife associated with it, stop for walks on the tundra, and enjoy all the challenges of traveling through the North West Passage from west to east. As we finish our voyage, we will attempt to head east of Resolute to Devon Island and view the last known winter camp of the Franklin expedition at Beechey Island. Here, we hope to explore the location of Franklin’s winter camp and pay tribute to all of the explorers that carried the spirit of adventure to the Arctic before us.