Kane Basin and Nares Strait: August 9, 2025

Sea Ice looking east to Greenland

We're deep into the sea ice. Last night it sounded like the ship was having quite a fight plowing, ramming, and chopping its way north. Our HX ship is rated for 1.3 m/4.26 feet of first-year ice. It has been an amazing experience and this morning we are still northbound in the Nares Strait. We saw Canada this morning. At the narrowest point in the Nares Strait, the distance between Ellesmere Island and Greenland is 48 k/30 miles.

View of Ellesmere Island, Canada, beyond the sea ice and the fog

The ship moved forward slowly, slowly and soon a Bearded Seal was spotted relaxing on the ice ahead. As we veered away down another ice free channel, the seal had had enough and slipped into the sea.

About an hour later, a polar bear traveling the ice flow was spotted way ahead. At first, the white bear on white ice in distant fog was a little hard to spot except through binoculars when I could separate his black eyes and nose from all the whiteness. The ship eased toward the bear who never looked very concerned; the fog lifted a little. He would look toward the ship then resume his sleeping position or maybe even yawn.

The ship passed by but the bear stayed. I walked to the back of the boat and was rewarded with a bear moving around on the ice flow.

In the afternoon we had a chance to walk on an ice flow. The crew scouted for a suitably thick sheet of ice and they sent all of us out in zodiacs to walk on the ice sheet. In the first photo the ship is in the distance and two crew members with rifles are on the periphery of the ice sheet just in case other polar bears are traveling via the ice flow. It was a unique, very cold, and disconcerting experience.

This afternoon we reached the northern most point the ship could go, and it was the farthest north we had been. The compass reading was 78° 44.5' N. 72° 35.2' W. At this point, we have traveled 1436 nautical miles north from Nuuk.

As if the morning polar bear wasn't enough, about 8:30 pm a polar bear was spotted in the distance.

Polar Bear in Silhouette

The plan for tomorrow is to explore some unexplored fjords in Kane Basin. We went to bed.