Northwest passage

yep, we need more rules and regulations, one day we will only be able to sit at our computers because any outdoor activity will be banned.

 

Greetings,

Reminds me of Trevor Robertson, who's fooling around with Mrs. Hill. He supposedly took his 34' whylo and wintered over in Antartica when the ice came in. The story is at Atomvoyages.

 

" The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof "

Canadains are up North because trillions of dollars in oil and minerals are there and they are in a low scale political war with Russia, Denmark, US for supremecy. The original inhabitants -inniut- have no problem with visitors as long as people are good stewards and respectful.

There is an obligation for people to help one another when the occasion arises. Trying to make the passage easier to cross is in everyone's interest, commercial as well as those who want to enjoy the beauty. Peolple have settled the earth in this fasion since ancient times.

Boats ought to prepare themselves for emergencies, but no one can prohibit trying to make passage due to arbitrary thoughts. Furthermore, this gives cadets something to do in that barren wilderness, they are supposed to be brave fellows after all and they chose the occupation of being called the "gaurdians of the frontier".

Peace.

 

The Canadian Coast Guard fleet currently includes 2 Heavy, 4 Medium, and 7 Light Icebreakers.....the majority of these vessels are busy in the Arctic every summer.....They undertake stuff like this....http://blogs.nature.com/inthefield/reports/earth_and_environment/canadian_icebreaker/ And they are tasked with keeping the ports and passages open for commercial shipping. They keep track of every vessel passing through as a matter of course......most yachts speak with them often to get ice condition updates as many CG vessels deploy helicopters all the time. It often happens that one of these CG vessels is close by when yachts going through the NWP get in trouble......as happened in 2005 when Idlewild and 4 other yachts got caught.....



It is questionable whether they or the others would have gotten through that year (2005), probably there would have been a bunch of yachts trapped for at least one winter. I think the CCG view is that intervention before things get really bad is a better (safer for all and cheaper) option. I think 7 yachts went through the NWP in 2010, all without physical assistance though they all received weather and ice reports.

No matter where we sail, all mariners are dependent on others coming to our aid if they can.....The Arctic is no different. The Canadian Arctic is a smaller geographic area and more populated than say the Great Southern Ocean. Should voyages south of the five capes be forbidden as well?

 

Absolute nonsense. I was an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves, and did many training courses with Inuit people. I live in a neighborhood of senior military people here in Ottawa, and many of my neighbors and friends are involved in Canada's north. Canadian's aren't up north for the resources, we've been up there for many decades before any resources were discovered. Communities have had opportunities and support from the Canadian government, including education, comprehensive healthcare and security provided long before any perceived value was found. All of Canada above the Southern provinces has a population of about 45,000 people - in an area close to the size of the lower 49 states of the US.

The Inuit are a proud, but concerned culture - worried about keeping their identity and uniqueness, but also trying to be good parents and providers. Much of the contact between outside cultures and Inuit is not welcome or helpful. Many Inuit communities are "dry", and without a lot of the problems and issues of modern society. I was on a course once (which was primarily Inuit, but with a few southerners like me), and these people had never been exposed to alcohol, never been to big cities and basically quickly got into trouble with all the above, due to a lack of experience with things. The people on the course and the course administration at CFB Borden very quickly figured out that more needed to be taught than the material in the book. We got together and talked about what went wrong, and how to make things better - in some ways the Inuit people were like 16 year olds in High School - experimenting with all the things their parent's didn't tell them about at home - and they had no boundaries because their homes never needed any.

I made many friends with Inuit from the North, and have kept in contact for over twenty years. I long for the chance to go there and visit, but knowing people who have been posted to CFS Alert - I have an understanding of how completely unequipped and unprepared most people are for life there. Months of murky darkness, followed by months of full light 24 hours a day. I deal with a couple weeks of -30 in February every year and I can't imagine months of it. Everything freezes instantly - car engines, oil turns to molasses, food - even taking a leak is an experience - hearing your urine snap as it freezes before it hits the ground.

All this to say, not every intrusion into a culture brings benefits. We've brought Canada's north diseases they never had, cultural problems and social issues they never had and things like divorce and drugs they never had.

Canada is not in a war for territory we've protected and supported. Other countries are pushing at the borders because they smell resources, but very few people are equipped and willing to deal with the climate and life in the North. Try -40 for a few days. It isn't easy.

Protecting fools from hurting themselves is a social expectation here in the South, but in the North, such concepts are less binding. Here you are not putting yourself into danger searching for a missing person - but in the North you are endangering your own life just leaving town.

There is NO realistic commercial passage in the North. And no one is obligated to provide one, or make it easier for fools to try. And yes, it is sensible to make it clear that even attempting to enter another country's sovereign territory makes you subject to their laws, not your own whims and thoughts.

This I agree with!

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CutOnce

 

After a lot of years both building and sailing my own boat and watching others go off to far horizons, I feel that you cannot expect someone to rescue you if you screw up. Don't go to sea unless you are ready to be self-sufficient even if you have to paddle home on a cooler lid rather than get a ride from the CG.
About the NW passage vessel, yes it would seem those without actual arctic experience would emulate Shackleton or an icebreaker, but the actual conditions call for excellent information on ice cover and the ability to motor for long periods of time (lots of fuel) in calm conditions, plus a hull that can take impact and abrasion with ice. Historically, wooden vessels used in ice are sheathed with greenheart around the waterline and below, usually with a steel false stem over that.
Steel or aluminum would seem to make the most logic.
Getting frozen in or beset by moving pack seems to be more avoidable than it was for those without satellite info, plus the much lighter and more open pack due to climate change is going to be an ever-bigger factor.
I guess there is no perfect boat for the passage, and thank you all for your informed and thoughtful comments.

 

I prefer steel. We operated aluminium workboats fitted with Hamilton jet drives off Antarctica so I've some experience with the metal.

Steel is a lot more abrasion resistant, less temperature conductive (every bit helps), less notch sensitive and it can be deformed a lot more before it tears. It's also a lot cheaper to build with in the first place and can be repaired in the field with simple, cheap equipment. I like steel.

Satellite info is wonderful. Provided of course that you're not sitting under a big cloud, and the wind changes and pushes what *was* loose pack onto you against something hard. Then you go nowhere fast (or at all) while burning huge amounts of fuel if you try, or you wait until the wind changes and blows the pack out again. Hopefully before the end of summer and it all freezes solid.

I like the idea of traversing the NW passage but if I were to attempt it (which I have no plans to do BTW), I'd have a lot of fuel aboard and enough supplies to carry through a winter. Keep in mind that running out of fuel is really, really serious. No fuel, no heat, no heat, no ability to melt ice & snow for water. You might have a lot of food but it isn't going to do you any good unless you can melt ice for water.

Diesel turns to jelly at low temperatures. It won't pump. You need something closer to kerosene. Saving grace with a boat is, provided you're in water, the under hull temperature is not going to drop below -1.8C so it's not going to get too cold. Provided the water you're in doesn't freeze solid.

PDW

 

More historic NW passage photos from GJOA.

 

Bataan. If you like reading of the NW Passage Farley Mowat's, Ordeal by Ice, is great

 

Thank you Michael. Yes, Mowat's book is really good. Lately I've been reading "Hunting the Whale" by a long time Arctic whaling ship captain. He spent many winters frozen in and they would use snow to bank the ship for insulation and cut large pieces of 6" thick fresh water ice ashore and use them to build "ice skylights" over the ship's skylights. This insulated and still let light in.
The secret to his success was employing Inuit hunters to supply them with a constant supply of fresh meat, and not relying on salt provisions.

 

Another Mowat book (Walk Well My Brother) was adapted to film as "The Snow Walker" (available on Netflix) - about a northern bush pilot who crashes his Dehavilland Beaver while carrying a sick Inuit woman. Over time he realizes she knows far more than he, and he learns how to survive the barrens after her death of tuberculosis (a gift from the South). Some of the vistas of the barrens repeating endlessly in the film give an idea of what things look like in the North.

Farley Mowat and his wife Claire are still living here in Port Hope, Ontario - and he wrote one of the favorite books of my teen years "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float". Mowat is well known for the phrase "Don't let the facts get in the way of the truth". Although Mowat's legacy is fogged by blurring of fiction with non-fiction, the message he made and the pictures he painted changed the world's perception of the Canadian north - including the views of politicians here in Ottawa.

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CutOnce

 

Its been many years since Ive sailed up in the North. Other good reading for the Canadian Maritimes are books by Wilfred T. Grenfell such as Labrador Days.. The "Grenfell Mission ". brought health care the the remote villages. Also as a cruising guide for the area up to Killineck Island we used Willian E Cook's Cruising Directions, Puffin Press, Weston Massachusetts. That was back in the late 80' early 90's. If youre bound for that area and can get a copy of these sailing directions, its well worth it

 

Harold Horwood is the real voice of Newfoundland and Labrador as well.

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CutOnce

 

Rank nonsense. You're advocating big brother and the nanny state at its worst -- protecting people from themselves by deciding for them what they can and can't do, where they can and can't go, etc.

Methinks it would become a boring and locked-down world, if someone died and left you in charge....

 

For those interested:

Interesting article in the Ottawa Citizen regarding rescue and the Canadian north - refers specifically to the First Air crash I mention earlier. Canadian Forces Base Trenton, the one mentioned in the article is an hour south and two hours west of Ottawa (by car). Something to think about before you start west from Labrador.

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CutOnce