CECILIA CLARK P HOTOGRAPHY

The volunteers We've left Nunavut behind and are now in the Northwest Territories in the small hamlet of Ulukhaktok. Ulukhaktok is a small Inuvialuit Settlement hamlet on the west coast of Victoria Island, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Victoria Island is about the size of the UK but with far fewer residents. Between 450 to 500 people live in the hamlet. Until 2006, the hamlet was called Holman. Hamlet of Ulukhaktok Local volunteers escorted us on

Sedna at the Red Fish Art Center Sedna is a legend from Inuit mythology shared across the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. The Legend of Sedna: Sedna was a young mortal woman who refused marriage proposals and was eventually tricked into marrying a spirit disguised as a bird. After her father tried to rescue her, a fierce storm threatened them. Her father threw her out of the boat. As she clung to the side, he cut off her fingers, which transformed into seals,

Gjoa Haven (pronounced Joe Haven) is a hamlet of about 1,500 people, mostly Inuit, in Nunavut. It is the only settlement on King William Island. Explorer Roald Amundsen spent two winters (1903-1904) here during his Northwest Passage expedition. Amundsen's ship was named Gjoa. He said that Gjoa Haven was the prettiest natural harbor he had ever seen. The Hamlet Office has a bronze bust of Amundsen. Home to the Nattlik (people of the place where there is seal) Inuit, the commun

Bellot Strait is 25 km/15.5 mi long and 2 km/1.2 mi wide at its narrowest point. It will take about 1.5 hours to pass through. The most northerly point of continental North America is in this passage (71°58’N 94°57’W). The tide through the passage is tricky and while in the past several ships tried it, it wasn’t until 1937 that the Aklavik, a Hudson's Bay Company boat, successfully sailed through the passage. Hudson's Bay Company had a trading post at the eastern entrance of

Sunrise and Prince Leopold Island This early morning between 4:00 to 5:00 I wandered around the ship. On the port side the sunrise was just beginning to shine through the clouds. I returned to our room just before 5:00 am and found the photo I wanted on our balcony on the starboard side. Most of the image is blue but an orange band of the sunrise was visible behind Prince Leopold Island. Sunrise, port side A little later in the morning, the ship stationed itself quite near P

Much of our voyage is along the path of the doomed Franklin Expedition of 1845. The expedition, led by Captain Sir John Franklin, hoped to find and map a sea route through the unnavigated parts of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The expedition consisted of two Royal Navy vessels: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. There were 129 crew members and sufficient food and supplies for three years. The Captain Franklin chose the protected harbor of Beechey Island for his first

Part of the Arctic Cordillera We were "at sea" for the prior two days sailing across the Davis Strait and are now on the Canadian side of Baffin Bay. Since leaving Greenland on August 18, we have lost three hours in time zone changes (-1 hour entering Baffin Bay, -1 hour Canadian side of Baffin Bay, and now -1 at Pond Inlet. On the crossing, the only thing I saw was a couple of icebergs. The day we visited Pond Inlet/Mittaatalik the temperature was quite warm (too warm for mu

We were in Ilulissat last year. This year we took an optional excursion to a small village named Oqaatsut (means Cormorants in Greenlandic). Leaving the port by small boat, we had a good view of the Ilulissat's colorful houses and the Black Church along the way. The Black Church (Zion's Church) was built of wood between 1779 and 1782. It was funded mostly by whale oil contributions and was once the largest man-made building in Greenland. In 1929 the church was moved slightly

Cottongrasses on Aasivissuit-Nipisat Island We arrived early in the morning in time for an excursion to the nearby island of Aasivissuit-Nipisat (a UNESCO World Heritage site). The island was once home to the 4,000 year old Saqqaq culture and has archaeological evidence of 14th century Thule habitation. In addition to the Saqqaq there are remains of the Dorset and Thule cultures and sites from the later Inuit and Danish colonial era (early 1700s) within the site. Around 1100

We sailed into the 75 k/46.6 mi long Kangerlussuatsiaq Fjord (in Danish: Evighedsfjorden which means Eternity Fjord). The Danes named it Eternity Fjord because it has so many branches. The largest glacier, Sermitsiaq Glacier, is a tidewater glacier that drains the Maniitsoq ice cap into two fjords (one north and one south) flowing towards Davis Strait. We were in the Kangerlussuatsiaq Fjord, the southern leg. The mountain peaks of the fjord are almost 2,000 m/6,600 ft in heig