Yeva, in Bylot

 

Ella Hibbert and the Yeva left Pond Inlet on Baffin Island around 10:00 am yesterday and sailed north through Navy Board Inlet toward Lancaster Sound on the Northwest Passage. 

The route was somewhat doubtful as high winds the previous day could well have blown floating sea ice into the inlet, resulting in an ice jam blocking the way. The forecast, however, showed clear conditions along the route, and she went a little over 100 miles north and pulled into a fjord on the west coast of Bylot Island for the night. 

Her current latitude is 73° 29', the furthest north her trip has taken her so far, and she's only proceeding further north from there.       

Bylot is technically an island, surrounded by Baffin Bay to the east, Lancaster Sound to the north, Pond Inlet to the south, and Navy Board Inlet to the west. But geologically, it's really the northeastern part of Baffin Island (fifth-largest island on Earth), separated from the rest of the massive island by the two inlets. In fact, the entirety of Nunavut, Canada is really one big, partially submerged land mass, a subsiding continental craton further carved up by glaciers. The fjord in which the Yeva is currently sheltering was carved by glacial ice, and as an indication of post-Pleistocene climate change, the glacier that carved the fjord has retreated nearly five miles up the valley, leaving behind two miles of open water and three miles of a braided alluvial fan. Some classic, textbook glacial geology right there.

No one lives on Bylot - it's reportedly one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. However, it appears there's a man-made jetty at the mouth of the fjord the Yeva's currently anchored in, and aerial photos show what might be a single, uninhabited building nearby. The island is used by the Inuit for hunting and the north shore is a polar bear maternity den area, so be careful out there, Ella.   

Anyhow, this apparently is Day 57 of the Yeva's voyage, which has covered 2,888 nautical miles of the roughly 8,800 anticipated. That's an average of about 50 nautical miles per day, meaning at the current pace there's still 118 days left. Although that would put completion of the trip well into the Arctic winter, many, many days were lost with virtually no mileage per day in Greenland repairing the Yeva and waiting on equipment to arrive, affecting the daily average. Arctic ice usually doesn't reach its seasonal minimum until September, so to complete the trip by mid October, the Yeva would need to average at least 80 nautical miles per day from here on out.