Burnett Inlet - 74° 35' 58" N 86° 10' 09" W

By Kate and Sean -

 

How far north will we go?  74° 35' 58"N!!

We left Tay Bay and headed north up Navy Board Inlet to Lancaster Sound.  A motor into a stiff breeze through yet another stunning landscape. Glaciers, icebergs, absolutely nothing that would inspire an artist.  Once again, we need several languages of adjectives to describe this raw and boundless landscape. 

Navy Board Inlet with the glaciers coming down off the Baffin Island ice sheet

We zipped across the ice-free Lancaster Sound to the entrance of Burnett Inlet, which is on the south coast of Devon Island.  Devon Island is the world's largest uninhabited island, so harsh and barren that even the Inuit chose not to live here.  The Canadian Space Agency and NASA use locations on Devon Island to simulate conditions on Mars.  Quite the tourist destination!

Walrus as we entered Burnett Inlet

As we navigated the 6nm into the inlet, we came across herds of walrus. Remarkable creatures who made lots of noise and seemed to love swimming on top of each other.  They were very curious and came up to investigate once we had anchored. Such a thrill as these were on this list of critters we hoped to see.

"Well, hello Voyager.  What kind of animal are you??"

And then, wandering along the beach, was a polar bear.  You can imagine the excitement.  Despite being at a distance (a safe one of course), it was amazing to watch.  He lifted his nose to smell the air and had a good look at us before lazily wandering up the beach and back into the valley, casting a glance back to us on occasion.  Another major critter ticked off the list.  We are on a roll!

Squint hard - yes, it is a polar bear!

Not long after we anchored, another yacht, Abel Tasman, came into the inlet.  They are a professional adventure yacht and are transiting the NW Passage with a 'goal to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of climate change on the Arctic Ocean'.  They have a professional film crew aboard and we first met them in Pond Inlet. You can read about their expedition here.


Voyager (taken by the crew of Abel Tasman)

Abel Tasman (photo taken by the crew of Voyager)

Later that night, two more boats came to join the fun.  They both happen to be Garcia Exploration 45s!  So all three GX45s are now sailing together in the attempt to transit the North West Passage.  They are the British-flagged Night Owl and the Polish-flagged Hauru.

And then there were three... Voyager, Hauru and Night Owl

We spent a great evening aboard Night Owl.  Night Owl was originally Snow Gum and we first met Adriano and Marisa aboard in Cherbourg in 2022.   On our way back, we discovered Hauru had also arrived.  That makes three Garcia Exploration 45s in the same remote anchorage.  You would think these boats are designed for remote anchorages in high latitudes. What a marketing coup for Garcia!

Nodding Lychnis - quite the sturdy little plant

Sean and Chris (from Night Owl) conquer the mountain.

We organised a shore excursion - safety in numbers, no polar bear would dare take on the Garcia Gang.  
It gave us the opportunity to catch up with those we knew and meet those we didn't.  It also gave rise to many a photo opportunity - from the three GX45s in the anchorage to the whole NWP 2024 Garcia Gang - and to the invitation for everyone to come for some after-dinner fun aboard Voyager later that evening.  A very merry anchorage indeed!

Three boats, three dinghies


The Garcia Gang


How many can you jam into a EX45?  The whole 2024 NWP Garcia Gang!

And check out Marisa and Adriano's video @our_tern on Instagram:

Chapter 94 - Humans and other wildlife

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