The delivery team finally arrived in the RIB at 2:30am this
morning after a monster leg! Well done John, Ben and David!
Tim, Dave and myself are now in transit north to meet up
with the RIB at Pond Inlet and we are waiting for the support
vessel as well to arrive..
Here is Dave Pearce's email below as well.
Bear
- Hi all,
Hope all's well. I have arrived in Pond Inlet after more
delays! Arrived early evening on the 25th, dumped my bags and
went straight down to the beach for a quick recce for our
RIB.
Firstly, I had some good aerials views of the sea and coast
leading up to Pond Inlet. The seas were calm and clear with
the odd ice berg. It looks stunning and I am sure progress
will be swift. I dived from one side of the plane to the other
to see both sea and inland water ways. They look very clear
and I remain optimistic of our route being somewhat
clear.
I think Pond Inlet is close to the same latitude as Resolute,
our northerly point, so again I think seas will hopefully be clear
but with the sporadic, stunning ice berg. Fingers
crossed. The channel off Pond Inlet, too its North is
very clear of ice. It is hard to judge the sea ice issue but I
think it is clear. I could not see any 'chock points' to make an
assessment of ice build up but my feeling is optimistic. The short
term forecast is good and getting warmer with highs of 10 degrees
C.
Secondly, mooring at Pond Inlet, there is no dock. Mooring is at
sea and seemingly by anchor. I have a house number for a guy
and his tender to get out to the RIB. The beach is good to
bring the RIB onto less me doing a full submersion in wet suit for
an incline and bed visual/recce!...flash backs of military
days......but from the beach it is good to get the bow in and
unload. The beach is sand.
Although there are light winds today, surf seems limited
but not that sheltered as the name of the place may suggest. The
main beach is to the west end of the town and just past the obvious
Pond Inlet words (marked out with white stones) on the hill side
close to the shore. There are local fishing boats there.
The town is sparse and supplies limited. I will start preparing
food tomorrow and buy the store out of nuts and oat bars! I think
the delivery team may want a beer on arrival but at the moment
there is nothing.
As you would expects the pace here is slow and getting
information is nothing short of applying thumb screws.....but it is
stunning, remote, rugged and atmospheric. Big news is the
chest punching and jestering for sovereignty of the NWP between
Canada, US, Russia, Dans and to a degree,
Norway....fascinating!
Dave Pearce