Breaking Ice

We arrived at a misty Bellot Strait very early in the morning, and went through the narrow channel (20 miles long, but no more than 400 yards wide in places) that marks the northern most edge of the North American mainland. As we reached the end we could see the problem that the ice charts had suggested, a relatively narrow but solid band of ice just west of the strait which would have blocked us in to join a small flotilla of yachts who had already been through the Strait but couldn’t get any further.

The CCGS Henry Larsen ploughed its way through the sea ice with us in hot pursuit, before turning back to provide an escort to release the yachts from their trap.

The Henry Larsen continued with us for the rest of the morning, before reporting that there were no more serious ice fields ahead, and assuring us that we’d have no further problems en route to Cambridge Bay.

In the Canadian Arctic – the Coastguard are the final emergency service. When we signed off and waved our thanks as the CCGS Henry Larsen peeled away, the response from Captain Frost (yes, really) was “That’s what we’re here for.”

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