DAY 1: THE JOURNEY BEGINS

It was an article in Canadian Geographic that caught our eye, a visit to the High Arctic with One Ocean Expeditions.  It looked like a good opportunity to see a part of the world that is difficult to visit freelance.  This Canadian company offers journeys to the Arctic and the Antarctic on one of two Russian ice breakers that were originally designed for scientific research and which are now fitted out to take curious adventurers into the lands of sea and ice.  A series of itineraries are available in our Fall to the Arctic and our Winter for the Antarctic.  We chose the first in the Fall series - Baffin Island: Jewel of the High Arctic.  Eleven nights on board, starting in Iqaluit and finishing in Resolute.

The organized part of the trip started in Ottawa and ended in Edmonton, convenient for us as it allowed us to spend a few days in Fall River with Philip and Yvonne and potentially a chance to see Andrew and Debbie in Edmonton and then Tim and Aileen in Kamloops.  Good in theory but, as it turned out not totally successful in practice as you will read later. 

After the few days in the Maritimes, where Philip took us away for a couple of nights , first on the Bay of Fundy and the second on Prince Edward Island, we traveled to Ottawa for one night and a very early start to meet up with our group at Ottawa Airport.  The ship wasn't one of the gigantic cruise ships all the vogue today, but cozy and small with 96 passengers and a total complement of 151 if you include the Russian crew and the One Ocean staff. We took a charter flight with First Air to Iqaluit, at the southern end of Baffin Island, about a three hour flight, straight over Quebec to Nunuvat, due North.

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First Air at Iqaluit Airport

There are few airports in the Arctic that are tarmac, the majority are gravel.  Before the advent of the modern jet aircraft Iqaluit (previously Frobisher Bay) was sometimes used as a stop on Transatlantic flights.  Pan Am had a base here.

Our ship, the Akademic Ioffe, had arrived that morning from a trip that had started out from Louisburg, Nova Scotia and it needed preparation for our tenure.  It was cool but not cold so our traveling clothes were sufficient.  We had a bus available and it took us to the Visitor Centre and it was then ready to take a tour around the town around for those who to chose use it.  At every stage it was obvious that this was going to be a well organised trip.  The Visitor Centre was very interesting, it also housed the Library, full of youngsters on computers, just like any library nowadays.  We saw a video on Polar Bear safety, something that was also covered early on when we got aboard.  Polar bears are pretty to watch but very dangerous.  They can easily outrun a person and swim quickly too. When we went ashore an advance party from the staff always went ahead to see that the area was free of bears and they then formed a perimeter with loaded guns.  We took it seriously.

Main Street, Iqaluit - large modern buildings

First glimpse of the Akademik Ioffe out in the bay.  There were no quays on our trip, more on that later

A very large stone carving in the Visitor Centre

A large wall hanging

St. Jude's Cathedral informally referred to as the Igloo Cathedral, was opened on June 3, 2012

Inside the Cathedral

The cross made of Narwhal tusks

It is never tidy in the Arctic

It was time to get to the ship.  With no formal dock, we were taken to a narrow causeway leading into the sea.  Time to learn how to get into a zodiac.  We were provided with heavy jackets and off we set at a seemingly great pace to the ship.  It was not that close to the shore as these parts are not that well charted.  Before we left we were given safety instructions in case we fell off the edge of the zodiac. Up the ladder and we were welcomed aboard by the tour leader and given a celebratory drink.  A good start.

Our luggage had already arrived in the cabin which was a good size and had its own bathroom.  We were in Cabin 514 on deck 5, the deck plans show where we were.

A word about the ship.  The Akademic Ioffe has a sister ship, the Akademic Sergev Vavilov.  They are almost identical and now both ply their trade in the Arctic and the Antarctic.  They were originally built in 1988 in Finland as research ships. One acted as a source and the other a receiver of underwater radio waves over very long distances (up to 3,000 km).  Some of the original equipment is still on board as it is too large to be removed.  Most of it was in the Mud Room on Deck 3 where we always changed into our gear, boots and life jacket, all provided by the tour.  Each person found his or her heavy jacket, trousers and Wellington Boots in the cabin on arrival there.  These had been pre-ordered to fit.  We spent a lot of time in this gear when on the zodiac and on shore.  It was quite hard work to get it all on.   We were also provided with Nikon binoculars.


First up was lifeboat drill, compulsory and we were checked off on a list, no escape.  It was then time for the evening meal in the dining room that was large enough for everyone to eat together.  Breakfast and lunch were buffet style but dinner was served.

We were briefed for the morning and ready for the adventure.




 Next Post: Monumental Island