Voyage on the Amundsen
The Amundsen is an icebreaker operated by The Canadian Coast Guard that works with ArcticNet, doing scientific operations in the Canadian Arctic. This summer it left Quebec City in mid-July headed north. I joined up with Amundsen on September 25 in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, just as it was set to travel back through the Northwest Passage. I spent the next two and a half weeks onboard travelling through the passage, down Baffin Bay (going in and out of fjords along the way), into Frobisher Bay, down the Labrador coast, and up the St. Lawrence River. Along the way we collected samples that I will be analyzing for my masters project, which involves the coring of submerged deltas in order to establish past sea-level history for the Cumberland Peninsula of Baffin Island. This was accomplished using a piston corer, which is essentially a ten metre long metal tube with 2000 pounds of weight on top that is lowered into the seafloor, allowing for retrieval of the underlying sediments. Other work being done on board involved: box coring, water sampling, releasing weather balloons and trawling. All very interesting to see firsthand.
Sailing through the Northwest Passage has been a dream of mine for a while now. Knowing that we were sailing the waters that Ronald Amundsen, John Franklin, and other celebrated explorers had sailed so long ago made some of the harsh realities of past arctic exploration so much more real for me. The Amundsen passed through the area where the HMS Erebus was just recently found and it really hit home for me just how isolated the men on that boat would have been in their last days. Beyond the historical side of the trip there was also the beauty of the land. Everywhere we went the land had a very rugged, untamed quality to it. We deviated from the original planned course and were able to go into some spectacular places. The most notable of these being Bellot Strait, a body of water that is less than one kilometre wide at its narrowest point, and Navy Board Inlet, an inlet at the north of Baffin Island with some truly amazing scenery. Also notable are the fjords. In some of them we were so close to the sheer rock walls that you felt as if you could reach out and touch them. I have never been in such a dramatic landscape before. It made the ship seem tiny in comparison.
Being onboard the Amundsen was such a valuable experience for me. Seeing the science carried out first-hand and actually taking part in the sampling for my project made it seem that much more real for me. Beyond that, being able to interact with a large group of scientists from varying fields was valuable beyond measure. This trip is something that will stay with me for a very long time.