When signing up for the NWP trip of Tecla, I decided to conduct some beach observations using the OSPAR beach litter classification scheme as guideline. I did not follow their strict instruction to square off a 100m or 1 km section
We first have to watch the Northern Light show in peace, watch the full moon set for another hour or so and try and spot the whales we keep hearing around us. Some even as close as 50 meters from the ship. We can not make out what sort they are, we hear their spout and then see a glimpse of their back if we are looking in the right direction.. but can not tell whether something is a dorsal vin or small wave.. it is just too dark for that..
This island of about 100 km2, roughly 10 by 10 km, is the only one along an otherwise relatively straight coastline between the Mackenzie delta to the east and well into Alaska to the west.
We could hear the propeller singing, the ship is humming, it sounds like 7 knots! But the GPS tells us differently.. hmmmm so this North East current we read about, is really happening here... damn.
Nome, Alaska, is via our plotted course line still 632 miles away. Every now and then the TTA (time to arrival) is 5 days.. some times it is only 3 days and 8 hours. It feels a bit like the countdown has started. For our expedition crew this seems to mean gather pictures, recalling the memories
Pingo's. These volcano shaped hills are made by ice and are at close distance to our anchorage.. we just have to pick one of them.
It is exactly why we do these amazing things and keep pushing our limits. It is almost addictive, you feel alive. Maybe the explorers from the olden day felt the same sort of thing and that is why they kept coming back to places like this, even though their fates were so uncertain and they were in real peril.
The name Bloody Falls, comes from an event long ago where some first nation, or Indian people came into an altercation with Inuit’s that were hunting at the falls and there was a big fight. In some stories it was a massacre of the Inuit, in other stories there was really just one family staying there and the were killed
urrounding tundra, which is dotted with numerous large and small lakes. If Finland is the land of 10,000 lakes then Canada must have 100 times more (mainly because it is 100 times larger). Late afternoon when everyone returned to the ship stories were told in the comfortable kitchen on board. With the now icy breeze and flurries outsi
fog where minds were more concentrated on avoiding the ice and finding possible leads through the icy maze probably prevented their observation. However during the day when the ice was less
