August 13^th, 2026

Northwest Passage

Blaney Bay

Our Image Masters Zodiac ride set off at 6:30. It was already a bright sunny morning. The ship was right next to an amazing glacier.

We weren’t the first off the ship, the kayak leaders were already out checking weather conditions.

We had hoped to see some wildlife, especially polar bears, but as we scoured the coastline there were none in sight, but there was a pretty little waterfall.

We were in the shade and the wind had increased, the spray from the boat was turning to ice, but the little waterfall was doing it’s best to flow under these adverse conditions.

It was like going on safari, some days you can drive around and admire the bush, but not see the animals that you were looking for. There was nothing to be seen.

Then we saw the walruses right by the shore.

They were huge and fun to watch. I was happy that finally we had seen something! We sat watching them for a while, fortified by hot chocolate with a dash of Baileys. It would have been Amarula had we been in the bush, but the Baileys was just as good.

We left the walruses and headed back towards the ship.

Seeing the ship in front of the glacier gave us a perspective of just how big the glacier was.

We spent some time getting up close and personal with the glacier. There are so many layers, and so much texture. Sometimes glaciers remind me of lump crab meat.

The wind had died down a bit, and the kayakers were out and about. We did consider doing kayaking, but I think I should get proficient in warm waters first before I venture out into the Arctic.

The Zodiacs live on deck 9 between the Constellation Lounge and the Club, where you would expect to find a swimming pool and pool bar on a normal ship. At the end of our excursions the deck crew hoist them up with these cranes, clean them, get them secured, and then off we go again.

We had an important meeting after lunch. Our build a boat team got together to discuss the design of our boat, and I think we finally came to a consensus, but will it float? I am leaving those decisions to the more engineering minded among us, I am more interested in how stylish we can make it. And where we can purloin some of our much needed supplies.

We had to cut our meeting short so we could go up to the Constellation Lounge for Blues and Booze. Olivia, Charlie and Jim played the Blues while Peppi, the hotel manager put together interesting looking cocktails, I stuck to champagne, however.

We stopped near Caswell Tower. Caswell Tower is a 270-meter-high rock bluff on the southern coast of Devon Island. Located by Radstock Bay, it is famous for ancient Thule Inuit stone-and-whalebone houses and a hunting camp linked to the Franklin Expedition.

Whilst we were looking at the rock a polar bear appeared. Yet again he was in the distance, but at least he could be seen with the naked eye.

We watched him for a while, before heading off to our final destination of the day, Beechey Island.

It took a while to get there, and we only got to go ashore at 7:00, but there was still plenty of light.

The island is the site of several significant events in the history of Arctic exploration. In 1845, the British explorer Sir John Franklin during his search for the Northwest Passage aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, chose the harbour of Beechey Island for his first winter encampment.

Then in 1850, Edward Belcher, used the island as a base.

Beechey Island is best known for containing graves of Franklin expedition members, which were first discovered in 1850 by searchers for the lost Franklin expedition. The searchers found a large stone cairn, along with the graves of three of Franklin’s crewmen – Petty Officer John Torrington, Royal Marine Private William Braine, and Able Seaman John Hartnell. The Franklin expedition spent the winter there, but there is no written record nor indication of where Franklin planned to sail the next season.

In 1852, Commander Edward Inglefield and a physician, Dr Peter Sutherland arrived at Beechey, and John Hartnell’s grave was opened, damaging his coffin, and Hartnell’s memorial plaque on the coffin lid was removed. His body was remarkably well preserved, and Dr Sutherland was able to make some observations about the cause of his death.

In 1854, during a later expedition, a man named Thomas Morgan died aboard the vessel North Star and was buried alongside the three original Franklin crew members.

After visiting the graves, we walked over a hill

to see the remains of Northumberland House. This was built in 1854, using wood salvaged from a wrecked whaling ship. It was stocked with supplies in case any member of the Franklin expedition found their way back to the island.  Alas they didn’t return. Rusty remnants of the canned food left for them are scattered all around the site.

There are memorials to Franklin and other polar explorers and sailors on the island, including to the French naval officer Joseph Bellot, after whom the Bellot Strait which we will pass through tomorrow, was named. He came to a rather unfortunate end after falling into the water and drowning near the island.

Of interest, in 1903, paying respect to Franklin, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen stopped at the island at the beginning of his successful voyage through the Northwest Passage.

On the plane to Reykjavik I had started reading the book Frozen in Time, which is about the Franklin expedition. It was very sobering to be standing in the very place that he and his crew spent time. Here we are in the middle of summer, and it was freezing cold. Winter could not have been much fun. Thanks to the Arctic explorers we can now transverse the Northwest Passage. We can climb back into the Zodiac (with a little bit of help) and return to the comfort and warmth of our expedition vessel. We can get to the Colonnade for dinner just before it closes at 9:30 and later have a nightcap in the Constellation Lounge listening to Barry and Merle playing jazz music.

In less than 200 years, things have certainly changed.