Tokimata's Travels

From our overnight anchorage at False Strait Bay - a tiny cove with barely enough room to turn the boat around, we went through the 15 miles of Bellot strait to Fort Ross, a lonely bay with two wooden buildings ashore, the old Victorian wooden house semi-derelict but with the remains of posh wooden skirting, architraves and built in cupboards, so strange around windows of derelict rooms that look out on this utter wilderness. Next to this the Hudson Bay Company warehouse still proudly named ("Hudson Bay Co. incorporated 1670" in metal relief on the front). This building has been looked after and serves now as a refuge for travellers. The door protected from bears by stout horizontal planks that fit in a robust metal frame and have to be removed one by one to get in, and the windows by huge panes with the sharp end of screws poking out to stop the bears clawing them... Inside are the essentials and much of interest, records of boats that have passed since 1984 and also of "polar bear captures" on a map from 1998 and 1999, showing hundreds of bears counts.

We got here from Cambridge Bay traveling up the west coast of King William Island, though ice charts showed it blocked, rather than the east coast which was known to be free of ice. The wind had been strong easterly while we were in Cambridge Bay and we reckoned on the ice clearing, and Pete in particular was very keen to travel where Franklin's men had last been seen. So we sailed up the channel, pack ice to one side and probably Franklin's ships Erebus and Terror somewhere deep beneath us. Kit's latest ice chart came just in time to show that all was pretty clear ahead and indeed at Victory Point there was ice quite passable, though scary sometimes in such very thick fog. We picked our way through, anchored off the point and went ashore keeping an eye on the boats (Sol was with us), as large icebergs were very near. What a flat, featureless terrible place even in sunlight it was, partly our knowledge of the horrible history here but also it was all rock, no tundra, very few plants... just cairns of all sizes including the remains of Ross and then Franklin's... we left a small Tokimata cairn, clambered aboard a huge flow near the boat, then got the hell out of there...

Bellot strait, the narrow water between Boothia peninsula and Somerset island can only be passed near slack water so we anchored at one end and early next morning went through - 8 knots of current with us at one stage towards the far end, Tokimata surging and swaying with whirlpools all around... polar bears were on the hills, one walked down to the beach, then suddenly saw us and took fright bounding up the hill; another was a white ball asleep, but at the end of the strait on Foxe island one walked down, came down to look at us and stood on shore wondering whether to swim over - we circled in front several times within just a few metres of it as he stood staring, these huge white haunches (they apparently have up to 4 inches of blubber), and enormous furry feet (fur on the soles as well), with that elegant long tapering neck and pointed head with just the black points of nose and eyes and small black insides to its ears - absolutely white and beautiful with an intelligent look, not at all phased by us, perhaps deciding whether we were a meal - one would not want to be any closer!

At Fort Ross, a bay at the end of the strait, we enjoyed a shared meal in the cabin on shore. Three boats : Tokimata, Sol and Tranquilo decided to fix the broken diesel heather there then have a "Fort Ross summit" to celebrate the top of the northwest passage, the end of the main ice passages. A great meal was topped off by a Danish cake complete with banner and flags, Danish, Dutch and New Zealand ...we all had a few whiskies and rum tea then Pete ventured out in the dusk at 11pm only to come rushing back: "**!@#! there's a polar bear outside!" Sure enough we ran upstairs to the only non-barricaded window and gazed down at a young polar bear gleaming white in the darkness just outside the door. So utterly beautiful, her huge rounded glowing white contours, that expressive narrow face with a dark streak on his nose... Dan remembered he'd poured some cooking oil out there after cooking some sausages... well we hollered, screamed, sang, shouted and the bear just continued to gaze... Kim the Dane fired bird shot from his gun into the air with absolutely no effect, the bear simply continued to gaze up at us Only when Dan banged pots and pans did he give us a rather disgusted look and ambled off... We suspected the bear was a female because her shape is slightly different to the large males - she was possibly a previous years cub about ¾ grown.

Well we made it back to the dinghies though worried about Bart walking back a mile or so to a nearby anchorage (Port Kennedy). In fact Kim heard him shouting on shore so he and Pete dinghied over in the dark, but by the time they got there all was quiet and when they radioed later he said "it's amazing in the dark how many rocks look like bears"...

After 3 days in the Fort Ross and Port Kennedy area we sailed north en route to Beechy island, a bit of a diversion from our route but Pete was keen to see the place where Franklin wintered, the year before he died... it's pretty amazing under huge cliffs, the remains of buildings and structures of some of the people looking for him, as well as old cans and barrels, with rather touching graves of three of Franklins crew (some have now been exhumed then replaced), as well as some who died looking for him. Strangely hideous concrete cairns from the '70's including one from Prince Charles and another from a Dutch royal. This is the "official" Franklin site I guess as the place we're sure he wintered... the cliffs above are huge, the beach grey rock with fossils of coral scattered over it too...

We intended to stop at Fury Cove on the way there, swung in under these enormous cliffs and tried to anchor, but it was pretty wild wind and sea blowing onto the beach, frothy whitecaps around us, a couple of large bergs close inshore and the anchor dragged and most amazingly of all two "snowdrifts" on the beach rose up and turned into giant polar bears! One walked out into the water to get a better smell of us. The fog then swept in and we couldn't see the beach 100 metres away, so despite having the dinghy in the water we left without landing.

We'd seen several more polar bears after leaving Fort Ross, a mother and two absolutely lovely cubs, a single one (that we suspect was the one who visited us at the hut) and another huge one on its own small island, I think we're up to 15 polar bears seen by now!

Port Leopold at the end of Somerset island was the next stop, another amazing huge landscape of high cliffs of bare stones, whale bones scattered over the beach, a single cabin on shore. As we entered the end of the bay was seething with white shapes close inshore which turned out to be Belugas! They're amazingly white, some grey and greyish pinks which we later read are young and newborns, all cavorting, twisting turning, humping out of the water and spouting! They are quite small whales - 3 or 4 metres long at most, and enjoy playing in shallow water - scratching their backs apparently - these ones were in only 1 metre deep water.

There are drawings and etchings done at the time, of the early polar explorer's ships dwarfed by huge black cliffs. Seeing these in books always fascinated me as a child, but they have always looked like the artist exaggerated the scale to make things look more dramatic. The interesting thing about Fury Beach, Port Leopold and Beechy Island is that they are all framed by huge cliffs that absolutely tower above the beaches - the reality is even more dramatic than the 19th century drawings and there was no exaggeration involved at all.

After Beechy island we've hurried on, winds not very favourable and as we finally turned off Lancaster Sound towards Pond Inlet decidedly strong: we swerved around huge icebergs (they are absolutely enormous here, from the Greenland glaciers) the winds increasing until with 40 knots sustained we turned into Tay Bay on Bylot Island, where we are now. Sol are also here�... We will head to Pond Inlet tomorrow to get some diesel before crossing Baffin Bay and Davis Strait to Greenland.