(Sent from the Passage on Saturday 28
/Sunday 29 August)
John et al
All is well it's 10:30 pm we are setting up camp at Pond Inlet,
NE bank of the bay's mouth. 182 nautical miles
today. Gorgeous. Flat seas and huge icebergs.
We made 80 miles more than our target camp. Beached the
boat, set up camp, and found a 3 foot wide whale vertebrae on our
flat ground. Dave Smith is sleeping aboard the RIB at anchor,
we four are tucking in to a tea and a boil-in-a-bag in our tent
before bed.
Dave Segel
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Update:
We left finally 3pm. The sea state started off glassy calm with
us all flying west through these narrow straits - amazing!
After 50 miles we headed north and hit these pretty big and
steep white caps of a head sea- a steady reminder that we
are getting deeper and deeper into inhospitable seas.
But the RIB just came alive and maintained a steady
35mph through this and handled so steadily. Impressive. We got a
little cold and sheltered for 20minutes in a tiny inlet out of the
wind and waves and then pushed on.
As we emerged into lancaster sound the sea died thank God and we
decided to push on across, reaching the north coast at 10pm at
night.
We aimed for a small remote shingle beach, pushed the nose of
the RIB onto the steep bank and rapidly unloaded all the
camping kit.
By midnight we had eaten a few boil in the bag sachets, got the
tent up and hard started a drift wood fire of a few planks with
nails in it. There are no trees anywhere so it is pertinent to
think this wood could realistically only have come from old
shipwrecks.
We did a few polar bear drills and stashed all our food 100m's
away and settled in at 2am.
At 3am we were in 60mph winds and our tent felt like it
was being blown to bits. But a climbing rope did the trick to
buckle it down! Good call Dave on the rope!
At dawn we were in beautiful calm conditions again and pretty
grateful. Trying to get off this shore to the anchored RIB in a
heavy swell or wind would have been epic!
We are now packing up quickly and heading West as soon as
we can to Beechy Island - a forbidding place where Franklin buried
the first of his three sailors....
Bear