The Northwest Passage Cambridge Bay to Resolute Expedition Cruise

Day 1: Edmonton
Your expedition begins at the meeting point in Edmonton. You’ll be transferred to the airport to board a charter flight bound for Cambridge Bay. The flight is a great opportunity to take in the ‘big picture’ view of the Canadian north, with views from the flight including Northern Ontario and Hudson Bay. We’ll be met once we land, and in the afternoon we’ll begin Zodiac embarkation to our ship, the Peregrine Mariner, which will be our home for the next 12 nights.

We’ll set sail in the evening, heading west towards Coronation Gulf. Once on board, we’ll be introduced to the expedition team and have our first briefing on the adventure to come. A critical factor on our journey will be the state of the ice. Our expedition leader and ice pilot will bring us up to date on the prevailing conditions and explain how we’ll best make our way through the Passage. Ice and weather conditions may make it necessary for us to make changes to our itinerary, but this unpredictability is all part of the exploratory nature of this remarkable adventure. (D)

Day 2: Coronation Gulf
We head west with the continent of North America on our port side and the Arctic Archipelago on our starboard. Ice and wind will dictate our activities as we search for small bays with good landing beaches to explorer.

We will be searching the shoreline for wildlife as we go, looking especially for the musk ox. The musk ox were hunted down to very low numbers, in part because of a defensive strategy that they have adopted to protect themselves from the wolves of the Arctic. Backing themselves into a defensive circle, with the young in the middle and the great horned ‘bosses’ facing out has been very effective against most predators, except humans. The numbers are slowly recovering, however the musk ox have learned to be a little skittish around humans. Our guides have great experience in finding musk ox and approaching them without scaring them off.

Many of the waterways in this part of the Arctic are shallow and poorly charted. Coupled with moving sea ice, our sailing route is often determined at the last minute, contributing to the sense of adventure.

The channels that we follow have been charted by the Canadian Coast Guard / Canadian Hydrographic Service for the supply vessels that support the isolated communities in the Arctic. In addition, some of the charting was done for the Distance Early Warning Line (DEW Line), established from Alaska to Labrador in the 1950s, as a line of missile detection radars providing complete coverage across the top of North America. We will sail past a number of these sites as we travel west. (B, L, D)

Day 3: Holman, Northwest Territories
Sailing up the coast of Victoria Island throughout the morning, we will plan to arrive in Holman just after lunch. This small community will be our western-most community visit and is well known for its print shop and the local artwork it produces. We will try to visit the print shop and meet some of the local artists while in town.

We will sail southwest in the early evening, heading for mainland Canada. (B, L, D)

Day 4: Smoking Hills, Northwest Territories
With good visibility, we should see the Smoking Hills from miles away as we approach the coastline. Our plan is to disembark by Zodiac and hike up into the hills to look at this phenomenon. The bituminous shale of these hills have been spontaneously burning for centuries, affecting the local tundra vegetation and the acidity of the tundra ponds nearby. (B, L, D)

Days 5 - 7: Amundsen Gulf to Queen Maud Gulf
As we turn back to the east and start to make our way back towards Cambridge Bay, we will sail closer to the North American coastline. We will stop along the way to visit a few abandoned outposts and villages along the way. At Pearce Point, we will learn about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and their sovereignty outposts in the Arctic. Further eastwards, in Bernard Harbour, we will see the remains of a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post and an Inuit community, both abandoned since the 1950s. (Bx3, Lx3, Dx3)

Day 8: Gjoa Haven
As we first approach King William Island, we will become aware of the gauntlet of narrow channels and shallow waterways that make up Simpson Strait. As this shallow waterway has challenged many ships over the years, we will time our transit to be during daylight and depend on favourable wind and ice conditions. Upon exiting Simpson Strait, we will head towards Gjoa Haven.

A small village with less than 1000 inhabitants, Gjoa Haven is named after Amundsen’s ship, the Gjoa (pronounced Joe). The Inuit name for the town is Usqsuqtuuq, which means “a place of plenty of fat”, referring to the excellent hunting and fishing grounds close to the town. Home to the Northwest Passage Territorial Park interpretation centre, we will learn much about the European exploration of the region as well as the Inuit culture still present in the community. (B, L, D)

Day 9: Victory Point
Today we hope to stop at a point on King William Island that will undoubtedly be one of the historical highlights of our trip, in a place where the mystery surrounding the notorious Franklin expedition still prevails. It was within 25 km of King William Island that Franklin’s HMS Erebus and Terror remained trapped in ice for two winters. The ships were abandoned on April 22nd, 1848, north-northwest of Victory Point.

The only written record ever recovered from the expedition was found 10 years after its disappearance. Francis McClintock’s expedition discovered the evidence buried in a cairn at Victory Point. Other traces have been found scattered along the coast of the island, but no trace of the ships has ever been discovered.

In contrast to Franklin’s disastrous expedition, in 1903 and 1904, Roald Amundsen, with very little trouble, sailed down the west coast of King William Island. He set up scientific instrumentation in several locations and then located the magnetic North Pole, which at that time was very near King William Island. (B, L, D)

Day 10: Bellot Strait and Fort Ross
As we approach the northern tip of the Boothia Peninsula, we will turn east and approach what appears to be a narrow inlet. This is in fact the entrance to Bellot Strait, a narrow channel separating the North American mainland from Somerset Island. Point Zenith, located halfway through the strait marks the northernmost point of mainland North America.

The transit through Bellot Strait will require the navigation team on the bridge of the ship to work together as they negotiate this narrow channel with swirling tidal currents. A navigational highlight of the voyage, we will all be out on the deck as we sail through.

Upon exiting Bellot Strait, we will stop at Depot Bay and visit the abandoned Hudson’s Bay Company trading post established at Fort Ross. The hills and shoreline around Fort Ross bear signs of Dorset and Thule habitation, attesting to centuries and perhaps thousands of years of seasonal camps - obviously a good place to trade. We will explore the site before returning to the ship and heading north into Prince Regent Inlet. (B, L, D)

Day 11: Port Leopold and Prince Leopold Island
At the northern end of Prince Regent Inlet, we will stop to visit a small cove on the northeastern tip of Somerset Island. Port Leopold was the 1848-49 wintering place of the Sir James Clark Ross expedition, one of the relief expeditions that took part in the search for Franklin. Ross was commanding the HMS Enterprise and the HMS Investigator, his final expedition after an illustrious career. He was often referred to as the “first authority on all matters relating to Arctic navigation”! A few of his previous achievements were discovering the North Magnetic Pole and the Ross Sea in Antarctica. We will see the remains of a hut as well as 158 year old graffiti where “E” & “I” (Enterprise & Investigator) “1849” (the year of the wintering party) are carved on a rock near the beach.

We will leave Port Leopold for the short sail up to Prince Leopold Island, home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds during the peak of the breeding season. Although late in the season, we will still hope to catch a glimpse of thick-billed murres, black guillemots and black-legged kittiwakes. We will also keep on the lookout for polar bear, who often make this area their home in the summer. (B, L, D)

Day 12: Beechey Island
Heading northwest across Lancaster Sound will take us to the western end of Devon Island. We will awake in Erebus and Terror Bay, overlooking the beach of Beechey Island, the last known wintering site of the Franklin Expedition. Many of the expeditions sent to discover the fate of the Franklin Expedition stopped at Beechey Island, and the remains of these expeditions are visible in the outlines of Northumberland House and the cross made from the tin supplies left behind. There are also four graves, three of which are from the Franklin Expedition. Despite its bleakness, this site nevertheless commemorates the determination of the British to explore and open up the Arctic, no matter what the cost. It stands as a reminder of all the courageous people that died exploring this vast land. It’s also a fitting place to end our voyage of exploration. (B, L, D)

Day 13: Resolute
Upon our arrival in Resolute, we’ll disembark the ship via Zodiac and transfer to the airport for our charter flight back to Ottawa. Flying south, we will get a last look at the expanses of ice, water and land that make up the Arctic archipelago before returning to the green grass and tall trees of southern Canada. Upon arrival in Ottawa in the evening, you’ll be transferred back to the meeting point at the Hotel Crowne Plaza. (B)

*Itinerary operates in reverse.

* *Weather, ice, or other conditions may require that changes be made to our itinerary and certain shore excursions altered.

 

Cabin Type US$	*August 25	September 6
Triple Shared	4600	4200
Twin Shared	6200	5600
Twin Semi-Private	6500	5950
Superior	6950	6400
Superior Plus	7450	6800
Suite	7900	7200
Cook Suite	8400	7600
Charter Flight	1650
Sea Kayak Rental	395