Northwest Passage Expedition – daily update 28 July

Got up at 7am after a long, good night’s sleep. Got some work done on my mobile, then made breakfast for the team.

SEVERE BACON & EGG SHORTAGE

Looks like I had miscalculated our need for supplies and had failed to stock up properly last time we had been to the supermarket: only 6 eggs for 4 people, no bacon, no potatoes. I scrambled (excuse the pun) the 6 eggs, toasted some bread, and chopped up and panfried some sausages I had found hiding away in the fridge. No complaints.

MORE PEMMICAN, PILOT COOKIES

I also had some more pemmican and a whole box of pilot cookies no one else seemed eager to eat. Word from the wise, there’s a reason why no one eats pilot cookies. They taste like old cardboard.

THREE MEN ON BOARD

After breakfast, Art, Mike and Leven went out to Hermione. Leven was going to do more checks on the electronic and electric gear, Art was going to film him doing that, and Mike was going to rearrange the gear he had brought on board. I decided to stay at the cabin getting some more stuff done on my mobile. No one minded. At that time, Leven’s plan had been to beach Hermione in the early afternoon and for my three team-mates to go on land for half an hour before boarding again. The plan was later scrapped.

FOUR MEN ON BOARD

At 12:45pm Art picked me up and Shawn, Art, and I paddled the 30m out to Hermione in Shawn’s tiny unmotorised boat. Art & I climbed on board. Shawn very kindly untied Hermione from the buoy, then paddled back to the beach.

ROWING LIKE PROS – “PROWING”?

For the first half mile towards Cambridge Bay, we used the electric outboarder. Then we put the six oars into the six riggers and started rowing. Considering that Art has no rowing experience and I next to none (1x one-day ocean rowing taster course, 2x 8-week rowing courses on the Thames, 1h per week), it went shockingly well. Yes, on a few occasions we might have been crashing our oars into each other, but in-between, to the untrained eye, if distracted by a nearby seal or seagull, even Art and I could have easily been mistaken for seasoned ocean rowers. Like our all-star expedition leader, or Mike, who was with Leven on last year’s first leg (of two) of the expedition.

LUCKIER THAN LAST YEAR

The first few days last year from Pond Inlet towards and into Lancaster Sound must have been horrifying, a real baptism of fire. Huge waves, but more importantly steep ones. The ones that keep on trying to push a little boat like Hermione over and make it capsize. Nothing compared with the almost flat sea today. There were still little waves. You had to adjust the levels of your two oars. For example, you might be forced to have your left oar’s blade higher up when it hits the crest of a wave, but the blade of your right oar lower down when it hits the trough, and so on. Sometimes the boat might be tilted to one side.

IT TRANSPIRES TRANSPIRATION IS INVOLVED

At least when a five-time world record rower is in stroke position (the position closest to the bow/rear end of the boat, ie the position that sets the pace everyone else follows), you start sweating profusely immediately, unless you are Prince Andrew. At an air temperature around 3 or 4C (37 to 39F) you don’t want to wear more than a T-shirt, perhaps a light fleece.

AVOID SWEATING AT ANY COST

As soon as positions are switched and it’s your turn to navigate and steer, there is no number of layers you can put on that will keep you warm if you’re soaked in sweat. Even at these relatively warm temperatures. Lesson learned: try to avoid sweating at any cost, if possible.

SWITCHING BACK TO OUTBOARDER

Two thirds into our 16-mile (26km) journey, after more than 2h of hard rowing, we switched back to the outboarder. Usually the stroke keeps an eye on the electronic displays right in front of his head and behind the helmsman’s legs. In absence of any rowers, it’s now apparently the helm who has to check behind his own knees every now and then, to make sure the boat doesn’t run aground. If only I had known. Luckily we had been travelling a good half-mile from the nearest dangerous shallows at the time. When I checked for the first time, it was 16m depth, not bad for these shallow waters.

A SLOW-MOVING SETTLEMENT

It struck me how long it took from seeing pretty much every detail of Cambridge Bay, and it feeling so close, until we finally reached the settlement at around 5pm. For almost an hour the town hardly seemed to move any closer.

“DON’T LET THE RIGGERS GET DAMAGED!”

Well ahead of our arrival, Leven instructed us. We were going to tie Hermione alongside our friends’ boat, the Martin Bergmann. We were going to be on our own, as the crew was on shore at the moment (but had given us permission to go ahead). Our main task was to keep the riggers (oar holders) from getting damaged, as we didn’t bring our fenders (balloon-like sturdy inflatables that keep the boat’s sides from getting damaged at harbour). Secondly, we were supposed to grab hold of the research ship and not to let it go while Leven was going to tie Hermione up along side it.

FINDING FENDERS

It all went well, not without the odd anxious moment or near-miss, but overall well. The tying-up process then took forever and a year. We managed to find one fender on the Bergmann, that was almost getting us there, when we placed and fixed it. But only almost. Mike and Leven drove back to the cabin to get Hermione’s own giant fender. When they returned after half an hour, it took us another half hour to tighten the ropes, add two additional ropes, all to make sure that Hermione couldn’t move around too much and potentially get herself damaged.

ARCTIC HARE AND FOX PUPPY

We dropped Leven off in town and the three of us drove back to Shawn’s cabin. On the way we spotted an Arctic hare and a super-cute Arctic fox puppy (I was too slow to take a picture).

THE BERGMANN CREW GONE FISHING AGAIN

It was at the cabin that we bumped into the researchers. Shawn had invited them to collect more char from his fishing nets, like they had done yesterday. The fish are so plentiful and so easy to catch, Shawn’s family will still have more than enough fish for themselves, their wider family and other friends.