Reposted from SV LUMI
Alluring Arctic is with Raymarine and Helly Hansen.
Some views from our anchorage (photos 1-3). If you look in the horizon of the first two pictures you will see the continuous mass of ice which is currently blocking our way forward. Have a look also at 4th pic pic which shows the latest good satellite picture from two days ago (+ our intended route in red). Things are changing very rapidly though and each day the satellite imagery and the ice charts look different. We're on standby and the only thing we know for sure is that we'll be here for at least one more night.
We've got word that we're likely the first sailboats to use this Qikiqtagafaaluk anchorage and I'm not surprised about that. To gain access we spent around 7 hours navigating through the shallows with no charts, aided just by satellite pictures, a drone and a sharp lookout (photos 5-7).
The fact that overall Arctic sea ice extent is declining does not necessarily mean that the Northwest Passage is getting any easier. With the season for shorefast ice being shorter what basically happens is that the ice is now more free to move around, carried by the wind and the currents. Recent studies show that the shipping season in the NWP is actually getting shorter! ( https://thehill.com/.../4766212-northwest-passage-ice.../ ).
While the study above concentrates more on larger ships and old ice, we are currently battling with first-year ice, and our our progress is largely dictated by small scale weather events. We have now chosen a route that is less travelled by private boats, as small boats usually elect to go around King William island. That route usually clears up first, but this year the loose ice has been blown into it.
We don't know for sure, but we've placed our chips on this more direct route through Victoria Strait. Except for Libertaire, the other sailboats are behind us, so they still have their options open. The last few days we've had good southwest winds which hopefully is clearing up the way ahead for us....
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