2024 Northwest Passage - Day 22-23 Northern Lights!

September 9-10 Monday-Tuesday 

For the first time since leaving Nome and sailing through the Bering Strait, we are south of the Arctic Circle. 

We’re spending two days at sea crossing the Labrador Sea as we sail south towards Red Bay in Labrador. 

This body of water is also known as Iceberg Alley, as the icebergs emerging from the Ilulissat icefjord are carried south by ocean currents. It’s believed that the iceberg which sank the Titanic came from Ilulissat. 

We had a cabin announcement around midnight that the aurora borealis was faintly visible but would probably be getting brighter. So we threw layers over pajamas, grabbed hats and gloves and headed up to the top deck. 

What started out as a gray vertical strip on one side of the ship gradually grew into a wide arc over the ship and down the other side. The lights got more intense as new strips materialized, and stretched into folds like drapes, trailing down towards the horizon like big fireworks. I could see very little color with the naked eye, but the iPhone did a great job with 3 second exposure. 

These pictures are in chronological order, taken over an hour. 

This was not an exceptionally active aurora, with a KP index of 2.5-3. But we’re so far north that cameras could capture a decent show. The index ranges from 0-9. A KP score of 5-6 can be seen in Canada under good conditions. The exceptional solar storm that generated an aurora visible across the United States was an 8-9.

There’s a free app called Aurora that shows the KP index score in your current location, as well as a map showing where the aurora has the best chance of being seen (the location is constantly moving around the globe, from east to west). For most of our time in the Northwest Passage, we were actually too far north to see the northern lights!

The colors of the aurora are created by different atmospheric gases. Oxygen creates a green glow, while nitrogen glows blue and purple. Combinations of gases create colors in between. 

There’s a scientific explanation for the display, but it still seems pretty magical. We were all so excited and happy. What an unexpected treat!

2024 Northwest Passage - Day 21 Sisimiut

September 8 - Sunday 

Sisimiut (pop 5520) is the second largest city in Greenland. A bit north of the Arctic Circle, it is the northernmost ice-free port on the island, which enables its principal industry, fishing. Sisimiut is home to Royal Greenland’s largest fish processing plant, and sells over 20,000 tons of shrimp annually. 

We arrived on a sparkling afternoon, a perfect day to explore the hilly town. 

Throughout Greenland, the bright primary building colors were selected for a reason. Originally, red was for schools, commercial and government buildings, and churches. Yellow was for hospitals, health services and homes of medical personnel, blue for fish factories, green for telecommunications and black for police stations. Now, however, there is more freedom is color selection. 

Although the website said that the town museum was closed on Sundays it was open for us until 4 pm. The museum is a small collection of original and reconstructed buildings, including homes, a forge and an original 1775 church. 

The original Bethel Church is small and plain inside. We were entertained by interactive videos on either side of the nave. One was a young, overly-eager 18th century priest in a large ruffled collar, and the other a bare chested, necklace draped shaman. They had recorded answers to identical questions, such as “What happens when we die?” and “What if my wife doesn’t get pregnant?” You can speculate as to who leaned pragmatic and who was idealistic.

A cultural walking tour took us through the main areas of town. 

Artistic graffiti of fishing prey. The humpback’s eye is especially fine 

The 160 km (100 mile) Greenland’s Arctic Circle Race, the world’s toughest cross-country ski race, starts at this lake. The fastest racers complete it in under 11 hours. You can also choose to hike the route over several days. 

I found a pair of earrings carved from caribou bone in an Inuit handicraft center. The carver spoke no English and only took cash, which precipitated a search up and down the steep hills for a working ATM. Mark came to the rescue. 

A butcher shop storefront illustrates some of the meats for sale. Hunting still supplements store-bought food for many in these remote locations. 

Families can keep up to four dogs in town. Well outside the residential area are dog lawns like we saw in Ilulissat, where larger groups of sled dogs are kept. 

To maintain the purity of the breed, only Greenlandic Sled Dogs are permitted above the Arctic Circle and in East Greenland. They were bred not for companionship, but for strength, stamina and hardiness. They’ve been used for hunting and transportation for thousands of years. 

When puppies are born, they are allowed to run around and play for their first five months. After that, they are chained and begin training for their big dog jobs. 

A trio of murals

Sisimiut has more of a Scandinavian feel to it than Ilulissat. There are more grocery stores and amenities in town as well as a couple of banks. Roads are paved. There are many large multi-storied housing units. Denmark, Greenland, or the fishing factory must have invested more in infrastructure. 

Still signs of quiet, idyllic times. 

2024 Northwest Passage - Day 20 Ilulissat

September 7, Saturday

The town of Ilulissat, which means “iceberg”, is located deep in Disko Bay. It’s a busy fishing port, with a population of around 4,700. The seafood company Royal Greenland has a processing plant here, as the nose detects as soon as one enters the busy marina. 

We were scheduled to go ashore by tender this afternoon, but weather conditions forced a change to zodiac shuttles. 

Ilulissat is the most popular tourist destination in Greenland because of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Ilulissat Icefjord. The icefjord is 40 km (25 miles) long and 5 km (3 miles) wide. It runs from the massive Greenland ice sheet to Disko Bay. 

The Greenland ice sheet covers an area three times the size of Texas, or about 80% of the world’s largest island. It’s comprised of 90,000 layers of annual snowfall compressed into 3 km (almost 2 miles) of ice. 

The mass is so great that much of its bedrock base is below sea level, having been compressed by the weight. If it totally melted, sea level around the world would rise 7 m (33 ft).  

The fast-moving Jakobshavn Glacier from which the icebergs calve is the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. It is 700 m (.45 miles) thick and produces huge icebergs that pile up in the icefjord as it gets shallower near the sea. 

Months ago, we had booked a small boat tour of the icefjord. But today’s weather was not favorable. Wind was blowing massive icebergs together at the entrance to the fjord; it wasn’t safe to thread boats between them. 

There were shuttle buses to take us to the Icefjord center, but we were bundled up and despite a light rain opted to walk the mile on foot.

I’d read that there are more sled dogs than people in Ilulisset. This may be true. We passed several “dog yards”, open spans of tundra where dozens of dogs were chained around small buildings. Each building is the center is one owner’s dogs. 

They were mostly very good - if wet - boys. 

The Icefjord Center is high above town. A long boardwalk leads across the tundra to the icefjord. 

The tundra is beautiful this time of year, with autumn colors in the ground-hugging plants. 

The boardwalk ends at a scramble of rock and mud, where the buckling ice spreads to the horizon. 

As we walked back towards town, the dogs started howling. Perhaps it was chow time. It sounded like Halloween on steroids.

We stocked up on licorice in town (it’s a Scandinavian thing) and headed back to the ship for a late dinner. 


Tundra at the boardwalk’s end. 

2024 Northwest Passage - Days 18-19 Baffin Bay

September 5-6 Thursday-Friday

Thursday

The expedition team told us how lucky we’ve been with weather on this voyage. The 2023 crossing had activities (nature/historical landings or community visits) canceled on four days due to inclement weather. We’ve had none. 

Today we sailed around Bylot Island and west into Pond Inlet to pick up our Greenland pilot. And with that, we had officially completed the northwest passage. 

Cambridge University maintains a website documenting all of the Northwest Passage crossings, organized chronologically and by route. We took route number 6. Through last winter, 392 ships have made the transverse. This includes icebreakers, Amundsen, commercial vessels and expedition ships like ours. The exact number of individuals who have crossed is unknown. Amundsen sailed with a crew of 6; we have over 300 aboard with passengers and crew.  

For comparison, around 7,000 people have summited Mt. Everest. (Not really a fair comparison, as in 2024 we travel in safety and comfort, while those who summit Everest and were early NW Passage explorers were at extreme risk.)

We are setting clocks one hour forward again for the next three nights to get to Greenland time. 

Tonight we began sailing east across Baffin Bay. 

———-

Friday

We continue sailing towards Greenland. 

We attended a tablet weaving workshop and wound up with a bulky bookmark each. It’s believed that the Norse people used tablet weaving to make bag handles, belts and straps to tie the tops of boots closed. I’ve seen people weaving like this in Peru, with strands of yarn stretched between a tree and a belt around their waist. 

For us, we used yarn and 8 playing cards that had been cut into house-shaped pentagons and punched with 4 holes. Getting started was a tangled mess (not for Mark). No one was more surprised than I was when it worked out okay. 

Mark found a young black-legged kittiwake sitting on the walking track on deck 11. Brendan, the ship ornithologist came up wearing gloves and a mask and examined it to make sure it had no wing damage. He took it down to a lower deck to release into the water. 



One of the most rewarding aspects of this voyage are the Inuit cultural ambassadors sailing with us. 

We were shown a documentary film, Martha from the North, last night. It’s the story of Martha Flaherty, one of our cultural ambassadors. Her family was forcibly relocated in 1953 to a newly created “settlement” in the far north, Grise Fjord. They were moved from the Hudson Bay Area where they had grass, solid homes, and good hunting to a barren unforgiving area with only their tents for shelter. There were severe hunting restrictions (one caribou per family, no musk ox) so had only seals for pelts and meat. The deprivation was devastating. Once relocated, they couldn’t return to their homes until the 1980s. 

Her grandfather, she learned as adult, was Robert J Flaherty, the director of  the famous silent film Nanook of the North. He had had an affair with the woman star of the film, who tragically died young. Their unacknowledged son was Martha’s father. 

A documentary sequel called Shadow of Nanook is in post-production and will be released in Canada, Ireland and the United States. 

Martha has spent her life as an indigenous activist and traveled throughout the world to raise awareness of and seek justice for aboriginals. Among other roles, she’s served as the President of the National Indigenous Women’s Association. We are honored to have her spend time with us. 

We had a round table discussion today to discuss Inuit crafts. 

Ashley’s niece is modeling an amauti, a special parka worn by Inuit women. There is a pouch below the hood to carry a baby up to about two years old. The hood lifts to cover both mama and baby. The long “tail” in the back provides protection when sitting on the snow. 

Rose modeling an amauti her mother-in-law made for her. 

Handmade doll, about 8 inches tall

Clockwise from upper left: purses, necklaces, ulu knives, earrings.  All, unfortunately, photographed on a glass table. 

We’ve also been learning about “country food”, or food that is obtained from the land. It’s the favorite food of all of the Inuit on board. Mark asked them what were their favorites and they happily volunteered: 

Raw frozen caribou (kept in the freezer and cut off in small pieces for a treat)

Raw beluga - fat and meat layers

Surf and turf- arctic char and caribou

Fresh seal brains

Bannock (fry bread - not exactly a local dish but very popular)

We’ve gotten to sample some of these, including raw beluga, arctic char in several forms, and bannock. I liked the dried char, like jerky. 

Panel of some of our cultural ambassadors: Heidi, Cathy, Ashley, Joe and Rose

2024 Northwest Passage - Day 17 Croker Bay & Dundas Harbor

September 4 - Wednesday

We cruised across the south coast of Devon Island during the night. Around 4 am, we met Hurtigruten’s MS Fram on its way to Cambridge Bay  Our captain disembarked from our shop and boarded the Fram. Not to worry - a new captain had joined our ship in Cambridge Bay and we will see us safely on to Halifax. 

Yesterday we visited Beechey Island and Radstock Bay (red dots on the southwest corner) and today we explored Croker Bay and Dundas Harbour in the southeast. 

We cruised deep into icy Croker Bay to view glaciers flowing from the Devon Icefield. 

We continued along the coast to Dundas Harbor, a ghost town in the high Arctic. Its Inuit name is Talluruti, as snow which collects in narrow gaps between the mountains resemble talluruti, the tattoos on a woman’s face. 

The huts hugging the right shoreline are the remains of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police post that was established in 1924. Amazingly, the compound was assembled in a week. 

Shortly after, an extended Inuit family was relocated here. They were basically sent to serve as human flagpoles, used as a claim to Canadian sovereignty in this arctic desert.

The RCMP abandoned the post in 1933 at the height of the depression. The Hudson Bay Company moved in four years later, staying until they too abandoned it (1948).

A big wind came through several years ago and blew some buildings off their foundations. Others were entirely destroyed. 

One of the most northern cemeteries in Canada sits on a ridge above town. Two Mounties are buried in a fenced enclosure. A 15 year old Inuit girl is interred nearby. 

Heidi (one of our cultural ambassadors) spotted a beluga whale swimming along the shore of the bay below. We walked back down to the beach and watched it swimming back and forth between us and a polar bear guard. 

Belugas are more curious and friendlier than most whales, and probably was just checking out the strange intruders. Adults are between a dolphin and a small whale in size, between 10-18 feet long and up to 3500 lbs. 

We also had small boat cruising in the area. 

This rocky coast is a walrus hangout, but unfortunately they had all gone fishing this afternoon. 

Icebergs from Croker Bay dotted the sea near Dundes Harbour. Since there were no walruses, these had to do. 



In case anyone is interested as to how we get onto our zodiacs:

The lonely but lovely watch of a polar bear guard