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Friday, July 24, 2015
The Canadian Coast Guard has given us a strong warning to not enter Cumberland Sound due to the 9-10/10 ice. This sea ice is 9 to 10 years old, with sporadic glaciers that are much older. So we sadly didn’t make it into Pangnirtung.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Leaving Kimmerut, we headed for Baffin Bay, anchoring at Lower Savage Island just at the end of Frobisher Bay. We spent a couple hours on the zodiacs, not able to set foot on the island due to the possibility of polar bears and walrus. We were hoping to see walrus from the ship as we circumnavigated the island, and polar bear while going through the interior channels on the zodiacs.
However, luck wasn’t with us, and the only wildlife we saw were birds through a heavy fog. The interesting rock formations, sea ice, icebergs, birds, and cold Arctic air made up for it.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Kimmirut is a community of about 500 people, with the buildings clinging precipitously to the sloping landscape. The day was surprisingly warm, with a high of 14 C and sunny skies. Children were lining the shore to greet us, and their inquisitive brightness was the highlight of the day. We were the one and only passenger ship into the village this year, and almost every villager came out to spend the afternoon with us. Some of the stories the children told me were rather tough, and it clearly isn’t easy making a life here.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Today we explored the Nunavut community of Cape Dorset, also known as Kinngait. Cape Dorset is a meta-incognito micro continent, which simplistically means that there are a lot of different rocks, but mainly glacially-sculpted granite. It is a crag and tail shape landform that the locals think looks like a polar bear lying down.
Monday, July 20, 2015
This is the first time we’ve been north enough for sea ice, which reinforces the fact that we are on an expedition, not a cruise. We traveled through 1-3/10 sea ice for 45 nautical miles, starting around midnight with high seas. This means that this particular ice is 1-3 years old. It provides a great opportunity for viewing wildlife, and we all spent much more time outside on deck than during the last three days.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Overnight, we entered Hudson’s Straight, where an immense amount of water comes from the Atlantic Ocean, creating massive tides and whirlpools of mythic proportions. With an early wakeup call, we headed to Kangiqsujuaq, a small community of 720 Inuit, a few of whom joined us on the ship for breakfast.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
In the Arctic, summer sunrise comes more or less immediately after sunset, but thanks to the ship’s portholes and calm waters, we slept through. At 6:45 a.m., a happy voice over the sound system awoke us earlier than expected, calling out four polar bears on the beach of Aktopak Island, just starboard of where we had anchored. Sleepy passengers gathered on the 8th deck, talking in hushed excitement.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Launching Adventure Canada’s Heart of the Arctic expedition, we left Ottawa at dawn by charter flight, landing in Kuujjuaq before lunch. One glance out the window of the plane reinforces that “open space” has a whole new meaning here.
Much of what we write about here on PlaceShakers has to do with dense urbanism and clustered rural development, as an alternative to auto-centric suburban development patterns that have dominated North America for the last 70 years. What we don’t talk about as much is that a big part of our raison d’etre is these compact patterns save our farmlands, rangelands, and wilderness from being gobbled up as quickly, and that walkable places reduce vehicle miles traveled and help with our global commons problem of climate change.
For the rest of July, I intend to turn a focused eye on rural settlement patterns, environmental issues, and preservation, thanks to the Heart of the Arctic expedition I’m embarking on with my family this week. Follow my husband, Stephen Borys, for the cultural perspective, as the Director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The WAG holds in trust the world’s largest Inuit art collection and has plans underway for a new Inuit Art Centre.
Lately I’ve been thinking about “health, safety, and general welfare” — the basis by which zoning is typically legitimized and measured — and wondering just how great a disconnect needs to form between our purported values and our land use regulations before we admit that something’s not working.
