he was heading up a narrow lead of clear
water up the coast of Banks Island in the
Parry Channel. We were disconcerted by
this news. David had been convinced that
the Hallberg-Rassy boat would have been,
by now, firmly stuck to the northeast of us.
We were right to have doubted the story
that they had headed into the central area
of the Melville Sound.
All along we had thought the Hallberg-
Rassy boat, after leaving Resolute following
repairs to her steering, had become caught
in pack ice somewhere well to the northeast
of us out in the Parry Channel. It seems now
that, following advice, they were instead head-
ing up a narrow lead of clear water close to the
shore of Banks Island. The question now was
whether they were ahead of us, or behind.Originally David was taking a middle of
the road route through Viscount Melville
Sound, until we were confronted by this
huge quantity of redistributed ice which had
been broken up and then blown by the wind,
piling up on top of itself. This was when we
consulted Peter as to where he thought we
might find a lead. He suggested that we
would find several channels if we headed
more to the southwest and crept round the
back of the ice pack, close in up against the
northeast side of Banks Island, in the vicin-
ity of Russell Point. All this time we were
shrouded in intermittent fog which was
most hazardous at this particular juncture.
At this moment, another pall of blanket fog
settled over the whole area. The difficulties
to making forward progress seemed endless,
and doubly hard through exhaustion from
lack of sleep. I cannot imagine how David
managed on his own on earlier voyages. He
certainly has no shortage of courage—some
would say foolhardiness. He has told me
how a few people he has met over the years
professed a willingness to accompany him,
but when it came to the point, there always
seemed to be a good reason why they were
unable to. It crossed my mind that the char-acteristics of Polar Bound must have proved
daunting. With her rounded shape, and only
drawing 5 feet, 6 inches, she does roll; it is, of
course, this shape that makes her eminently
suitable for this kind of expedition.
We crept along the Parry Channel head-
ing toward Banks Island with an endless
sea of frozen ice shapes stretching beyond
the horizon. We strained our eyes trying to
catch fleeting glimpses of the shoreline we
knew was there if only the fog would lift.
At one moment it did thin and we saw the
low, black shoreline of Banks Island. It had
an icing of smoky katabatic mist drifting in
diaphanous pockets over it. We felt very un-
easy, even frightened. We couldn’t trust our
eyes anymore; we couldn’t be certain wheth-
er we were looking at landscape or cloud.
In the midst of all this, David turned on
the radar and, after silent contemplation for
quite some time, announced he had spot-
ted a tiny yellow blob on the screen, keep-
ing its distance behind us—in other words,
traveling at the same speed. Whereas we had
been convinced the Hallberg-Rassy had sto-
len a march on us of many hours, there was
no doubting that what he was looking at in
these hundreds of miles of empty wildernessQuality Marine Equipment
Since 19813<ΖΖQF
ZZZS\LLQFFRP
/HDUQPRUHDW
ZZZVKDIWVHDOFRPTHE PSS PRO FEATURES...
Commercial design with
unmatched durability.
Reinforced silicone bellow
increases pressure and
temperature limits compared
to nitrile bellows.
Upgraded materials prolongs
lifespan in comparison to the
Type A PSS Shaft Seals.Vitrifrigo America LLC
2200 N.W. 32 St., Suite 1200 Pompano Beach, FL 33069 - Ph: 954.979.7737UPGRADE YOUR BOATING EXPERIENCE
Made in Italy
http://www.vitrifrigo.comDRAWER REFRIGERATORS
AND FREEZERS
ICEMAKERS
WINE CELLARS
COOLING UNITSOCTOBER 1-3, 2019
%RRWK