Day 1 We meet Akademik Ioffe at Resolute - 74*85 North

Muskeg outside of Yellowknife, NWT.

The Slave River empties into Great Slave Lake. 

Day 1 Mon Aug 25

Six am comes early and the hotel lobby hums with excitement as we pick up our snack bag and coffee and board the bus.  At the airport the usual security measures are forgotten - we weigh our luggage, show our passports, then are herded onto our chartered 737 for the flight north.  We bag window seats and are rewarded by a mostly clear flight over northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories to Yellowknife.

 Again it's the rivers that delineate our path.  First the sinuous Athabasca into Athabasca Lake, then the wide and slower Slave into the
massive expanse of Great Slave Lake.  The land flattens and the trees diminish.  Great knobs of rocky earth protrude between potholed muskeg bogs.  The long brown gravel strip at Yellowknife is like a bandaid stretched across the shoreline.

 We refuel, and watch the shifting clouds along the shore.  No one mentions that we need a full tank just in case the runway at Resolute is fogged in and we have to return here.  Less than half way there, another 2 hours to go.




 Intermittent cloud covers the north as we leave trees behind and head into tundra.  Suddenly clear sky reveals a vast expanse of shoreline, and a sea of ice to the north.  This is our cruise route laid out below us, completely filled with ice.  Cambridge Bay goes by on our left, and we keep flying north.  Cloud has returned as we approach the 2 hour mark and we descend into thick fog.  Resolute is notorious for fog and missed approaches, and I hope for an experienced pilot today.  Just as I'm sure we must be past it, the land appears below startlingly close and we bump down on the gravel.  Resolute  - land of browns - gravel, clapboard, rusted metal, even the sky today.  The airport is tiny, and the gift shop like a closet, but a walrus skull complete with tusks is on offer, as well as a hand printed sign advertising a polar bear skin 'good skull, teeth, and claws'.  The walrus skull appeals, but $1500 is a bit steep.  Wonder what the polar bear goes for?



Ice fills Queen Maud Gulf, south of Victoria Strait, our intended destination.



Our first view of Akademik Ioffe, from the air as we land in Resolute.

Two ancient busses carry us down to the sea past the tiny enclave of 300, and we see our ship at last.  The Akademik Ioffe is a working research vessel, 117 meters long, with a boxy cabin and large open decks covered with cranes and equipment.  The zodiacs are onshore, and we pile in from the steep gravel shore and zoom out to our home for the voyage.  Inside, the cabins are bright and cozy, if tiny, and there is food, coffee, and hot showers.  We are thrilled.



The big town of Resolute, Nunavut at 74* north.

We are welcomed by our expedition crew, a varied and talented lot of adventurous explorers.  The ship crew are Russian, the kitchen staff as well, the chef is Canadian, the bartender from Squamish, the ornithologist English, the expedition leader from Malaysia via America and the other guides from the ends of the earth.   The passengers as well seem to be a talented lot, many scientists and serious amateurs, accents from all over.  Surprisingly a large number are Canadians.







On the forward deck, watching the zodiacs arrive with our luggage.

We explore the ship from top to bottom - we are welcome everywhere, have a safety briefing, check out our wet gear for zodiac travel, and gape at the Arctic landscape.  Dinner is good - a choice of a meat, fish or vegetarian dish, soup, salad, and dessert.  The dining room is noisy with excited discussions and everyone is eager.





I am so excited I can't sleep.  We visit the bridge late at night, check out the GPS and paper chart, look at the weather, the sea, the horizon.  There is no darkness even this late in the season at 74* north, only a sort of early evening light that brightens to dawn at 3:30.  I spend the night tossing and turning, then jumping up to look out our window.  Ice scrapes against the hull from time to time as we travel and I yearn for morning.





The hamlet of Resolute, home of 300 hardy souls, and blessed with sunlight.