Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 2

Blog 18

August 24, 2024

We left Cambridge Bay early Thursday August 22nd on our way the Bellot Strait. By “we” I mean the four of us who have become fast friends (see Randall’s previous blog on the “fleet”. Just to clarify, besides us we have Pinocchio (Quebec family of 8 on board), Dog Bark! (Seattle area based with seven aboard) and Que Sera (Swiss with 6 aboard including artists).

Upper left: Mōli Upper right: Pinocchio

Upper left: Dog Bark! Upper right: Que Sera

Above: We spent one night anchored off Jenny Lind Island to wait for favorable winds, and then we took off. It did not take long to find ice as we headed up into Victoria Strait. It was a little concerning to arrive at ice so quickly (not in our forecast!) but it was incredibly fun to sail through the loose flows. The temperature held into the 50’s as Randall proclaimed this was his first time he was actually able to sail through ice instead of motoring.

Further up Victoria Strait, the temperature dropped into the high 30’s (still daylight) as Randall begins to get a bit concerned about how we might cross over to Bellot later in the evening. At that time, he was contemplating an alternative which would be overnighting behind Hobday Island.

I donned my Arctic-wear and was ecstatic to be able to sail through the high Arctic, warm and cozy and to be so close to the sea ice.

heading up to Larsen Sound from Upper Victoria Strait was cold, icy, but it was time to motor as the wind had calmed and the ice had thickened.

Above: Crossing Larsen Sound, it is getting colder, later in the evening and a little bit more concerning as we have not finalized this evenings plans. Dog Bark! has powered through north of us, and we have passed Que Sera and Pinocchio.

Planning ahead for future simcha’s (drinks, blessings and cheers) Randall decides it is time for us to take time to “smell the roses” so to speak. Which in this instance means to take some sea ice on board. Not quite as simple as it looks, we have to slow down, go into reverse -careful not to have the prop come into contact with the ice. Once we are over the ice, I reach under the ice with a bucket and Randall strikes the ice with a hammer as I catch the bounty.

Any good Hammer will do – this one is a Randall favorite.

Success! Now we just need something to celebrate!

As we reach Hobday Island, we rendezvous with S/V Thor, built and skippered by Gerd and Melissa Marggraff, longtime sailing friends as well as the mechanical guru for Randall during his Figure 8. Thor is coming up from Florida heading through the Northwest Passage east to west on their way to overwintering this year in Homer.

OK…this is really sad. Both Randall and the Marggraff’s had bottles of Champagne that they wanted to open and drink with each other to celebrate this auspicious meeting in the Arctic Ocean. Due to mutual time constraints, the cheers would have to wait until the next rendezvous. But all still had time to catch up and give good cheer and wish each other favorable and following winds. Gerd mentioned seeing a Polar Bear five miles prior on Prince of Whales Island and that we should be on the look-out. Thank you Gerd (and lovely to meet you both).

Well Gerd was right and “waiting” for us on the shore of Prince of Whales Island was this mature male who was checking and sniffing the heck out of us. Sorry Mr. Polar Bear, next time I will take a shower before our next meeting!

Most important, our spell has been broken. This is our first Polar Bear sighting of our trip and we are so happy to see this magnificent creature.

Already 9:00 in the evening, the temperature is now in the 30’s so I pull out my seal skin gloves to keep those fingers warm.

It is now time to make our way across Franklin Strait. We are on the west side and need to transit the 20 or so miles to the east side to meet at False Pass where we will stay the night before transiting Bellot Strait. The ice has moved, and we seem boxed in. The southern route seems filled with ice, so we head north to try to get around the flow. We pass the Canadian Coast Guard Ice Breaker Saint Laurent.

We heard that when Dog Bark! passed Saint Laurent earlier in the day, they offered and Dog Bark accepted an escort as Saint Laurent cut a path through the flow ice. We said “Hello” to the Saint Laurent, but no offer of help was forthcoming – we figured that it was bedtime for them, and they had finished their good deeds for the day. We asked for any tips for penetrating the ice flow, but they simply wished us good luck.

We knew we were on our own which was as planned, so Randall began to hunt in earnest for a path through the flow ice from west to east across Franklin Strait. This was not proving easy.

What I found fascinating is that in the middle of Franklin Strait, we say footsteps in the ice flows. Someone or something is out there!

It is not too late to turn back, so we are committed to finding a way across. We were lucky that the moon continued to provide just enough light to allow us to maneuver through the pack-ice.

As we watched the ice-flow close around us without us first finding a path to cut through, it finally made sense to Randall to have Mōli physically push the ice around and then we were able to cut our own path through. While we cannot say “Icebreaker Mōli”, she was the next best thing as we plowed our way through, being as gentle as can be. A lot of uncomfortable sounds later, we persevered to the east side of Franklin Strait. It was late and we were almost 10 miles north of where we wanted to be. It took us another two hours to reach False Path, one inlet North of Bellot.

At last! It is 3:00 AM and we are finally at False Pass.

We are cold and tired, but happy to see Lumi, Libertaire and Dog Bark! anchored (but they told the good spots!)

It is 4:00 AM and we are anchored and ready for our Rum Toddy (equal parts rum and water with a squeeze of lime served very hot!) Thank you Mike and Kristen Borsetti for the rum!). I do not know why we cannot arrive during normal hours…It is cold, rainy and it will blow a light-gale the rest of the morning. Our objective was not to have to re-anchor during the wee-hours of the mourning (all three boats did have to re-anchor, and Dog Bark! decided to go for Bellot Strait at 0600). Randall set a good anchor, so we were able to get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow through Bellot Strait we go!