The 500nm crossing from Disko bay to Baffin Island was for the most part uneventful. The seas were calm and the wind light to non existent. Heavy fogs often obscuring the horizon. It wasn’t until around 80nm off the Canadian coast that we got some excitement.
For a minute the fog lifted, offering a brief glimpse of the jagged toothed profile of ice on the horizon, before closing in once again. Awhile later I could make out the hazy shapes of icebergs all around us. The brash ice covered the water like a solid carpet. We were able to push our way through it, avoiding the larger chunks and leaving a trail of open water behind us.
Motoring through the brash ice
Entering Sam Ford Fjord
Soon we found ourselves motoring through the stunning landscape of Sam Ford Fjord, named after a local fishermen who used to come here.
Sheer walls of granite rose 1300m from the water on each side, the higher elevations adorned with a dusting of fresh snow, and glaciers overflowing the saddles, some tumbling off cliffs and others flowing more placidly down the valleys. It was a truly awe inspiring landscape.We tied up to a cliff face in a small bay 30nm down the fjord. Callum wasted no time in hopping off the boat and scaling the cliff.\
Tied up to the rock face
We refilled on water from a creek running down the base of the cliff which was probably the freshest water it’s possible to get.
The next day we took the dinghy across the fjord to an ice cave we’d seen in the base of a glacier.
The Saumure moored against the cliff, in the bottom right hand corner in the shade.
Glacier coming down the mountain side
At the foot of the glacier
Entrance to an ice cave at the foot of the glacier
It was a 45 minute dinghy ride and the wind and waves picked up on the return trip, soaking us both through with freezing sea water. We were both so cold we could barely move by the time we got back to Saumure.
Drying out after our very wet dinghy ride
Making potato chips for a treat
On the mountain up above the Saumure anchor point
View farther down the fjord from top of anchor cliff
The mountain we were tied up below
The next day we decided to move over to Swiss bay.
Anchored in glacial till Swiss bay
Here we went ashore, and after some deliberation decided to bring the rifle with us.
Callum with rifle in Swiss bay
We followed the braided river up about two km, when Callum spotted something large, white and fury about 500m up ahead. Our first polar bear! And it was coming our way fast!
The walk back to the dinghy seemed to take an eternity, but would have felt much worse without the rifle. There is no cover here, which is a strange feeling coming from the heavily treed south, and leaves you feeling exposed.
That night we slept with the hatch boards in.
On the way out we sailed passed the ‘remote peninsula’ which seemed about right.
Next stop Pond Inlet