Heart of the Northwest Passage
One departure
Start: Ottawa, Canada
Finish: Edmonton, Alberta
Day 1
Ottawa, Canada
Many of the significant locations associated with Sir John Franklin’s tragic search for the Northwest Passage, as well as those associated with Roald Amundsen’s successful first transit will be explored during this expedition. Overnight in Ottawa, Canada.
Day 2
Embarkation Day
A charter flight from Ottawa to Resolute is followed by a Zodiac transfer to the ship for embarkation. This is the first of many days of almost endless daylight.
Day 3
Peel Sound
Although the focus of this expedition is the Northwest Passage, we will spend some time watching for wildlife. Peel Sound is a known habitat of narwhal and beluga. Akademik Ioffe has a reputation for quiet operation, especially important for sighting narwhal, known to disappear at the sound of ship engines.
Day 4
Lancaster Sound
At Beechey Island three members of Sir John Franklin’s crew are buried. This poignant shore landing will be enriched by our onboard historian, steeped in Franklin lore.
Day 5
Fort Ross and Bellot Strait
Overnight we have been sailing in a southerly direction, following the coast of Somerset Island, just as Amundsen did. We plan to go ashore at Fort Ross, an uninhabited Hudson’s Bay Company trading post.
We sail westward through the Bellot Strait, a narrow channel separating mainland North America from Somerset Island. Halfway through the channel is the northernmost point of the continental land mass, Zenith Point.
Day 6
King William Island
Here, we’ll return to the saga of Sir John Franklin. For two winters, Franklin’s ships Erebus and Terror were beset in ice near the island. In 1848, the ships were abandoned. A decade passed before a cairn with a terse note of explanation was discovered on Victory Point. The questions raised by that discovery have inspired search expeditions into the 21st century.
Day 7-9
Coronation Gulf
The Expedition Team will use ice charts, weather forecasts and their years of Arctic experience to make the most of time spent in Coronation Gulf. You will go ashore to hike, cruise in Zodiacs in search of wildlife, and visit historic sites.
Day 10-13
Pearce Point, Bernard Harbour
We will have reached the end of the heart of the Northwest Passage when we enter Amundsen Gulf. So it will be time to begin the homeward journey. En route to Cambridge Bay, we plan to visit historic outposts. On Victoria Island we seek musk oxen, prehistoric beasts with shaggy coats and massive heads.
Day 14
Cambridge Bay
The history of the Canadian Arctic is also the history of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Hudson’s Bay Company. En route to Cambridge Bay, our shipboard historian will relate stories of the redcoats, the fur trade and the merchants who governed the Canadian Arctic for nearly two centuries. Fly from Cambridge Bay to spend the night in Edmonton.
Fly from Cambridge Bay to to spend the night in Edmonton.
Day 15
Edmonton, Canada
Depart for home.