Sailing the Northwest Passage, 24-day Expedition from Greenland

Night in Copenhagen.

Flight and then embark on La Louise late afternoon.Navigation in the Ummannaq Fjord.

Ummanaq

Our journey begins at Ummanaq at the foot of a rocky peak below which icebergs pass.Embark for a discovery of the city on foot: the church surrounded by peat houses and the museum which brings together exhibitions dedicated, among others, the mummies of Qilakitsoq.
Possible hike in steep terrain for Santa’s summer cottage overlooking Ummanaq and the sea. Navigation continues north.

Upernavik – Ice Fjord

Stopover at Upernavik, located 800 km north of the Arctic Circle. Upernavik’s location offers fabulous views of the Davis Strait and Apparsuit, one of the world’s most breathtaking bird cliffs. Upernavik’s main activity is halibut fishing and hunting. The city was the starting point for attempts to cross the Northwest, between Greenland and Alaska. We will visit the fjord where giant icebergs accumulate.

Melville Bay – Greenland Cape

We pass Melville Bay, recently set aside as a nature reserve before navigating between icebergs and landing towards the Greenland ice cap.

Qaanaaq – Siorapaluk

Qaanaaq (Thule) is the first region of Greenland colonized by the Inuit of the West.Discovery of the city on foot: the Knud Rasmussen Museum and the church. Guided walk in the mountains in the heart of a splendid nature. Located only 1360 km from the North Pole, Siorapaluk is the most northerly community in the world. Discussion with one of them about the life of this remote village, the hunting and rituals of their community. It is the homeland of “Sila”, the Snow Maiden. The economy relies on hunting narwhals, seals, walrus and polar bears.

Smith’s Detroit

Navigation to the pack ice of Smith Sound, north of Greenland. We will try to move as far north as possible between Ellesmere Land and North West Greenland. We will look for seals, walrus, narwhals, polar bears; Sea ice and giant icebergs will be our daily life. The glacier Petermann gave the summer of 2010 an iceberg of 260 km².

Gray Fjord – Ellesmere Land

This Inuit community is the administrative and economic node of the Ellesmere and Devon Islands. Landscapes are forged in the rock, and several glaciers come to calve at the seaside. Visit ancient Inuit camps, bird colonies in the evening. Ellesmere Land is the most secret island in the Canadian North Archipelago and cruises go only very occasionally.

Devon Island – Beechy Island

Depending on the pack ice, we will sail north or south. These regions are rich in musk ox and polar bears that we should observe several times. Ellesmere Land and Devon Island are the most spectacular in the Canadian North Archipelago, close to the autonomous Nunavut, they are waiting for the promising future of the free passage of ice … It is on this bare land that the sailors of the expedition died  unfortunately  with Franklin (1845-46) and the tombs erected in this desert of pebbles recall the tragic hours of the quest for the Northwest Passage. The remains of this expedition were searched by hundreds of ships before they were found in 2016.

Baffin Island – Inlet Bridge

You will live a real “unknown land expedition”, in the land of eternal ice. Still little explored, Baffin Island is the island of immoderation, immense and cold, the silence, the infinite spaces of deserts of ice and snow, vertical landscapes, dotted with fjords, glaciers and valleys with a thousand beauties . The horizon of these virgin lands protects an exceptional fauna: polar bears, whales, seals, belugas, narwhals, killer whales and migratory birds

Back to Greenland and Disko Bay 

We will cross the Baffin Sea towards Illulissat in Disko Bay. We will find civilization again, but icebergs will always be present thanks to those coming out of the Sermimuit glacier, the ice fjord that produces the largest number of icebergs in the northern hemisphere.

Night in Copenhagen