The last 7 months have been special for everybody and the three of us (and our crews) have tried to make the most of it. Iceland has treated us well, the sailing was beautiful! We have visited every fjord in the Hornstrandir and done most of our regular hikes, and it all confirmed that this is a special place. A place that we would love to show to more people. But because most expedition crew have canceled their voyage or taken an option on one of our voyages in 2021, we have decided to start our voyage home and leave Iceland behind for now, with a promise to return when traveling is back on all our minds. People are reluctant to travel with a plane and some borders are closing again. We do not want our crew to get stuck again. We want everybody to stay healthy and feel safe on board and so we will keep you update on our plans for 2021. We have many plans, for now we will continue our Virtual North West Passage, but our next live chat will be once we have returned to the Netherlands. Our 2021 season will stay unchanged for now.
When we are back in the Netherlands, the Tecla will stay in Den Helder for the first few months, getting ready for winter maintenance.
Lets go on with the NWP 2020!!
Last stop on King William Island
Mc Clintock Bay at the western end of the Simpson Strait was our home for the night. First surveyed by Simpson and Dease for the Hudson Bay Company. Their expedition was partly done in two open boats and covered well over a thousand miles! Their voyage was the longest taken by open boat and without loss of live. It filled in most of the gabs in the North West Passage on the Canadian shore! The Canadian Arctic is littered with DEW stations or so called early warning stations, dating back from the Cold War days. Most of these stations and their depots have become useless. Some of them are transformed to research stations. They are grim looking and remind us of a desperate time. The air strips that are present on these locations are a welcome feature. For in case of some emergency the area becomes less remote if an airplane can land in the near vicinity!
For us a short hike up to the station and Mc Clintock bay gives us a good idea of what it must have looked like 60 years ago. One of the huts is open to sledge parties and some of them have left remarks on the walls, when they where there and where they came from. There is one remark from a sledge party coming from Cambridge Bay, 180 nml to the west and they where bound for Gjoa another 80 or so to the east! On the way back we have a look at the wreck of a boat used in the fickle summer trade. A wooden carcass lies idle on the beach and is filled with sea weed. The remains of an old hut and a church are scattered over the beach. What a place!! We have set sail and are bound for Jenny Lind Island in Queen Maud Gulf. Named by Dr J Rae after the Swedish opera singer! It is a winding track leaving King William Island, the heart of the North West Passage behind us!
