Master Charlys Musings

 Gjoa Haven is situated on King William Island and is another area connected to the ill fated Franklin Expedition in 1845/46. Also the Hudson Bay company had a base there where trading was done with the locals, Furs etc. We got up this morning to find it had been raining overnight and the day didn't look to promising. So it was decided that Morgan and I stay on board today. I was quite pleased as I had a hangover from my Rum tipple from the night before. The Inuit name for the place is Uqsuqtuuq. We have also crossed the border into Nunavit (Our Land) this territory is an Inuit self governing part of Canada. Today we are going on another walking tour around the settlement and hopefully will be able to get into the Heritage centre and they are going to put on a show for us at the Community Hall. Almost as soon as we landed the weather started closing in and it got very wet and mizzerly. We started walking round town with our guide who showed us the Health Centre, the Home for the El...

 This is a large main settlement of at least 30,000 and is a main supply post for other smaller Inuit settlements around. We are supposed to have a guided walk and then some time to ourselves. Artic Foxes went over at 9.50. Morgan and I decided to stay on board ship today and let the Master and Missus tell us all about it when they get back. There was a quick briefing on the beach by Fred, we gave our cabin nos. to security and we didn't go on a guided walk as we felt it would have been too  long for the Missus.  Yet another disappointment awaited us, again the Heritage Centre will not be open to us because of COVID. So no souvenirs today either. Apparently we would have been meeting quite a few of the town elders. The place where we landed was an open air heritage site with some of the original houses had been preserved. One had been the RCMP station, another a business, but the most interesting were the 3 different styles of residences the Government had built for the p...

 Well its a lovely sunny day and we are going ashore to day at Sutton Island. It is a small uninhabited island but it has been regularly used by the Inuit for a long time. The first expedition crews went over to the island at about 5am,  to check for any dangerous animals and to set up walking routes for us to follow. There is a lot of archaeology there. So we must keep to the right of the red flags along the route. The Expedition Team  are  along the route to show us interesting things that might have appeared. Some of them carry Rifles in case of Bears.  Apparently no one has visited the island for 8 years so there could be some more archaeology visible. Our group Artic Foxes is going over at 10.40 so we had time to watch some of the other groups climbing to the top and back. Some people are mad enough to want to have an Artic dip in the sea when they get back to the Landing site. I an glad the Master and Missus aren't that mad. We will all keep dry hooray. Mo...

 Today we are hoping to land at Ulukaktok, Victoria island. We are on the West coast and in the Northwest Territories. We are really looking forward to this as the locals (the Copper Inuit) have prepared visits to the schools, Heritage Centre and are also putting on a show for us in the gym. Drummers, dancers, and Artic sports. There will also be souveniers to buy, locally made arts and crafts and they would like us to pay in Canadian Dollars. Good job the Missus has bought some with her. We  found out we are also in Polar Bear country. I am scared for their safety. I am staying on board.  This is also another place that another expedition visited while looking for the ill fated Franklin Expedition, this one was led by a person called Inglesfield and the Hudson Bay Company opened a shop there! Due to speed restrictions we arrive late, and our landing time now is 15.30 from deck 3 the Expedition Launch Deck. Announcement a bit later, Landing today has been refused because ...

 Phew! glad the sea is calmer today, Master slept well and is feeling better. Though I think we are still in the Beaufort sea and we had just been through another Ice field. When we opened up the curtains a sizable chunk of Ice floated by. We soon left this ice field behind and continued to make good progress. Ship making good progress at 14knots There is an Inuit word of the day and todays is 'Siku' pronounced (SeeKoo). It means Sea Ice. Fred has been working on Plan 'B' for today and it has been decided to go to Smoking Hills at around 18.00hrs. This apparently wasn't on our original itinerary. I am glad it is now as my carer says they are magic hills and are permanently on fire. The rocks are quite young and the land is still being created.  Before we go into the smoking hills we had a visit to the Engine Control room at 11.30. It was very interesting to see the controls. Also amazing that everything is controlled electronically, not only the propulsion of the sh...

 Well I am having to put 2 days together because my writer forgot that things did happen on the 23rd as well. In fact we had a very interesting lecture about Humans in the Artic and What Makes a Bear a Bear. Firstly the humans in the Artic. With climate change and the visible ancient shorelines, it has been discovered that there were humans in the artic 5000 years ago. The Sivullirmiut were the first people to live in the Artic, this was pre Dorset and the climate was warmer. With perma frost melting and erosion, various stones were coming to the surface and they found evidence of habitation from 2500 years ago on Banks Island. These were nomadic people who moved season to season using pack dogs. A skeleton of one of these dogs was found and it had a very flattened backbone, this was caused by carrying items from site to site. Hearths were also found. About 1000 years ago the climate cooled and people disappeared from this area. The next people to move in were the Thule, they arriv...

  Master and Missus had to get the Bio security form signed by 12 noon. They couldn't sign it yesterday as it wasn't at the station where they had their backpacks vacuumed. The Expedition Team had wondered why they were 50 signatures short! We had a very interesting talk about the ships propulsion. The Chief Engineer is obviously very proud of the ship as it runs entirely on electric. It has its own power station on board in the form of 4 large diesel engines that run on regular diesel, not the heavy oil that older cruise ships run on. Also it has a very efficient exhaust system.  It uses 2 engines at a time to charge the large batteries that run the ship. The 4 engines are in pairs, in separate rooms. Its green credentials are why this ship can go through the North West Passage, and not others. Also the Roald Amundsen is a tiny ship, it only takes 500 passengers. We were informed by the Captain that since leaving Nome we had travelled 685 nautical miles and that there was a g...