Category: Arctic

  • Into the Shetlands, Saturday, Sept. 15

    Left Norddepil, Faroes at 6am, all hands on deck to raise sails. Very fresh westerlies but a change coming in the next 36 hours so Gijs wanted to get to sea early to have a clear run to the Shetlands before the winds changed. All sails raised, a quick breakfast and on watch at 8.…

  • Leaving Torshavn, Faroes Monday Sept. 10

    Torshavn on a Sunday is very much like Toronto the Good used to be 50 years ago, nothing open except the odd restaurant and cafe and very few people to be seen. Captain Gijs had arranged for a minivan to take most of my cremates on a drive around the island to see some of…

  • Arrived Torshavn, Faroes Sunday Sept 9

    We left Reykjavik on Tuesday night, we have been sailing steadily since then and arrived at Torshavn, Faroe Islands this morning Sunday at 7am. At 10:30 last night we passed the lighthouse on the outermost Faroe island, whose name I can’t remember, and we were demonstrably in Faroe waters. Our expected arrival time was around…

  • Reykjavik Kickoff

    Left Toronto for Reykjavik on Sunday evening, wanting to get to Iceland a day early to find my bearings and get acclimatized. Could have and should have flown Iceland Air but in an effort to burn my remaining Aeroplan points I flew Air Canada, very weird flight. Due to leave Toronto at 9pm and arrive…

  • Scoresby Sund and Ittoqqortoormitt 16/08/14

    Overnight and this morning the ship sailed further down the east coast of Greenland and entered Scoresby Sund, the largest fjord system in the world covering about 38,000 sq kilometers and whose arms at times extend about 350 kilometres inland from the coast.We will be visiting the Innuit village of Ittoqqortoormitt a hunting community perched…

  • Greenland and at sea 15/08/14

    Arrived this morning in Kejser Franz-Josepph Fjord, East Greenland  and we have sailed from 80 degrees North at the top of Spitsbergen to 73 degrees North at our present location. Because we are 7 degrees farther south we are once again seeing sunsets at about 11:30 pm and sunrise at about 3:30 am.The intercom went…

  • At sea 14/08/14

    Sailing through the Greenland Sea. Very relaxing day capped by a special Chef’s dinner. 6 course dinner and wines to match; after a day of relative inactivity, more than we wanted to face but we soldiered through it.

  • At sea 13/08/14

    We were expecting to cross the Greenland Sea today and arrive at our destination in Greenland tomorrow afternoon but when we looked at the chart of our progress on the tv in our cabin, we had sailed for a considerable distance during the night but had then doubled back on our track and taken a…

  • Spitsbergen and at sea 12/08/14

    For the first time since we left Longyearbyen, awoke to heavy fog and the ship moving very slowly as it threaded its way among ice floes. We had been scheduled to stay aboard this morning while the ship reached the southern edge of the Arctic pack ice, which is starting push down at the end…

  • Spitsbergen and at sea 11/08/14

    Le Boreal sailed all night and when we awoke this morning we were greeted by grey skies and a sullen sea. During breakfast the ship anchored and at 10 we dressed very warmly and loaded the zodiacs for an hour and a half trip to a long section of very high cliff faces rising out…