Above is the current ice chart with the eastern entrance to the Bellot Strait marked by a yellow arrow. Blue is open water and only the green represents ice that can be safely navigated by leisure craft. The red area represent almost unbroken ice occupying >90% of the surface.
Most of the remaining boats attempting the transit of the North West Passage have set themselves a retreat deadline of the 2nd September as that is when they expect the ice conditions to be as good as they are going to get. But that may be too late! The Canadian Coastguard and other respected authorities have warned that the ice this year is exceptionally heavy and that it is already beginning to re-form in their wake thus closing off their retreat.
Already one boat has been sunk by the ice. An Argentinian couple on their newly purchased Ovni 345 (an aluminium 38’ sailing boat) had tied up to an ice floe at the entrance to the Bellot Strait. Unfortunately conditions deteriorated in the night and they were battered and squeezed between other ice floes swept on them by a brisk current. The hull was breached and the boat sank quickly leaving the crew stranded on an ice floe and defenceless against polar bears. Swept on by the current they desperately sent out a MAYDAY by radio which was picked up by two other yachts anchored in the area as well as a cargo vessel. In the darkness boats and tenders struggled to reach them but were beaten back by dense ice propelled by a swift tide. The shipwrecked crew spent a cold and lonely night drifting in the ice choked Bellot Strait before a rescue helicopter was scrambled from a Coast Guard icebreaker. They were safely evacuated early the following morning.
Of the three sailing boats left on the eastern side of the Bellot Strait one upped anchor and left for France only to be turned around by the ice that had closed the entrance to Prince Regent Sound which is their only feasible exit.
Two yachts remain poised to attempt the risky passage west through the Bellot Strait where tides run at 8 knots and the surface is still 90% ice. One boat is GRP and the other is metal. Both must now seriously be contemplating a winter in the ice.
There are commercial ships in the area and ice breakers are patrolling but being towed on a short line behind an icebreaker is no place for a plastic boat as it would be tossed around by broken ice floes in the turbulent wake. One hopes that they can receive provisions from the commercial vessels as one of the boats is just 50’ and has 8 crew on board.
Against all the odds a German boat, S/V Thor http://www.sj-thor.de/2017/04/03/position/ has forced its way west and is hurrying on past Cambridge Bay. This was their reward for several days of drifting in 9/10 ice on the west side of the Bellot Strait. It is a strong boat (Garcia 58) that is built for the ice and if it gets all the way to the Bering Straits then it may well be the only small boat to transit the NWP this year.
Many great sailors and strong sailboats are already well on their way home having taken the Canadian Coastguard’s advice to turn around 10 days ago. Dominique Wavre (veteran on many Vendée Globe races) on his Boreal 54 is now sailing south down the Greenland coast. The OCC’s S/V Destiny (Van de Stadt 48) is approaching Greenland having used great ingenuity to nurse a broken transmission for the thousand mile retreat. Another boat got holed but repaired is also safely on it’s way south.
Meanwhile, the formidable S/V Kiwi Roa, skippered by it’s equally rugged builder Peter Smith, sits patiently in a safe anchorage biding his time. Peter has a safe exit and doubtless he is just giving nature one last chance to open up his way to the west. Unlike the crowded boat on Prince Regent Inlet he and his partner will have enough provisions on board to play the long game without outside help.
The image above shows the position of Kiwi Roa ringed in red and anchored in Navy Board Inlet.
