Tooluka, Arctic Tern and Libellule waiting at Levesque Harbor, just off the eastern end of Bellot Strait. The ice flow in the middle ended up chasing us away from our anchorage. But then we boarded the floe to take some Xmas pictures on top of it, which was real fun.

The ice conditions are still very bad in Bellot Strait. So much so that all the seven sailing boats waiting on this side of the Strait are discussing whether to abandon the whole NW Passage project. The problem is that even if the Strait becomes passable in a week or two, the winter may start early in which case the boats would not make it around Alaska anymore since the ice there is still very close to shore. So the decision is either to turn around and head back down to Newfoundland, or to continue but risk being closed in by ice somewhere around Tuktoyaktuk or Northern Alaska and having to spend the winter in the Arctic. We’ll probably need to take the decision this weekend…