After a challenging passage across Baffin Bay from Greenland, we were rewarded spectacular glacial coastline of Bylot Island. We anchored temporary, just outside of town, to check in to Canada and wait for a spot at the dock to refuel.

Our first town in the Canadian Arctic was Pond Inlet. It was hard to imagine that just a few weeks beforehand, the town was in the strong grip of ice. The township grew over the last 50 years after Inuit had relocated from hunting camps.

The Intuits continue to try to hold on to their traditional lifestyle as hunter-gatherers. However, today, they employ snow machines to pull their sledges, large outboards to drive their skiffs, and high powered rifles to kill their game.

It was delightful to see the wildlife of the Arctic outside of the towns. We could smell these walruses before we spotted them. A polar bear was stalking not far away hoping for a little bite.

Here and there one can see reminders of the past. It must have been a very hard life in those days to establish outposts in the Arctic.

We experienced a mix of weather in the Arctic—-from unusually warm days to freezing temperatures and snow. The frightening part was how quick the weather could turn nasty in the high latitudes. We were thoroughly happy to enjoy Thor’s heated pilothouse when hand-steering was not required.

Even though 2024 was a reasonable year to cross the NWP, ice was still a great danger for small craft. Thor was designed with these challenges in mind. Looking back into these photos, we realize that we were lucky and that we would NEVER sail these waters on a light displacement vessel—it would be extremely bad seamanship to rely on someone else to bail you out if something were to go wrong. This photo is tame compared to when seas and winds made this ice dynamic.

A quick stopover was all we had in most anchorages or harbors. Successfully making the 3000 mile voyage across the NWP in just over a month does not give you any time to decompress. Good weather cannot be spent in port site seeing. In Cambridge Bay, we took two days to reprovision and refuel.

Everything in the Arctic circles around supplies. No vessel is moving without diesel or gasoline. Even in the remotest places, we saw these caches of fuel. Sometimes we wondered what they were used for in the middle of nowhere.

Early Warning Stations are strategically positioned across the Arctic. Locals explained that many were quiet for a long time, but with renewed global tensions, more activity was obvious both on the Canadian and US coastlines.

Not only for us, the Arctic has a short season. All fuel depots and provisions need to be resupplied in the short ice-free season.

Our last stop in the Canadian Arctic was Tuktoyaktuk. As our weather wind was holding, and we knew the season was deteriorating further south, after a quick refueling we continued on.

After departing Tuk, one has the idea the Arctic has been conquered. The real story is that it is still over 1000 miles from Tuk to Nome, Alaska. Sailing past Prudhoe Bay, Point Barrow, then Wainwright and Point Hope, it is a long way with no-good all-weather anchorage. Unfortunately, systems were just too close together, even with our speed. We ended up battling bad weather on our bow until we reached the Bering Strait we found ourselves once again in dense fog.

Reaching Nome is the endpoint for the NWP even though the official crossing is said to be crossing the Arctic Circle. While we were well into September, the gold fleet in Nome was still hard at work. We very much enjoyed the parade of floating objects coming and going. TV crews on the dredges and on the pontons provided extra entertainment. However, Gerd was very disappointed no one could come up with a souvenir nugget for sale.

From Nome, it was still 1200 miles from where we planned to lay Thor up for the winter. As we moved south of the Aleutians, we began to see more fishing vessels.

Thor is now waiting for next season of cruising in Alaska. We are very much looking forward exploring the Aleutians and Prince William Sound. It will be nice to have more time to enjoy our cruising grounds. The year after…..there is always the NWP west to east (if I can convince Melissa!!).