Prince of Wales Island - 71° 57' 58" N, 96° 34' 57" W

By Kate and Sean -

We woke to a glorious but cold morning. It had snowed overnight and the hills around the bay were frosted white.  And to our excitement, there was a herd of muskoxen grazing on one of them! The last major critter on our list now had been sighted.  Okay, even through the binoculars, they were tiny, moving black dots but they were not 'muskrocks' which we had seen many, many of! 

Snowy hills with muskoxen - you are going to have to trust us on this one!

Snow dusting the deck

Snowy lines

The sunshine suited our moods.  We were through the notorious Bellot Strait and now had only Larsen Sound and Victoria Strait to contend with and we would be through the ice.  And we had the day to rest, laze around, write emails, edit video and generally pat ourselves on the back.

Making life easy for The Garcia Marketing Team!

Adding to the excitement, we could see belugas swimming along the shore.  Their white bodies make them remarkably easy to spot, even at a distance.  Adriano managed some terrific footage of the belugas from the drone.

Belugas - as seen from the drone

Despite the 'day off', we still waited impatiently for the daily ice chart to be published.  When it came out, we were somewhat dismayed with what we saw.  The ice that we had passed through as we crossed from Bellot Strait was moving west and threatening to block the strait and embay us in Willis Bay.  


The ice chart for 23 August (with added notes concerning us)

The ice chart showed that the ice was moving in a northwesterly direction so the situation was only going to get worse, not better.  We checked the weather and there was only one thing for it, we needed to leave, and we needed to leave now!


Checking the charts and the weather

So, once again in a procession, Voyager, Thor, Sky Dancer and Nashichata upped anchor and headed out, bound for Cambridge Bay, 325nm away.

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