Abel
Tasman
Logbook

The crew of the Northwest Passage Ocean Science Expedition are flying the Climate Stripes to share a powerful message - our planet is rapidly warming. The Climate Stripes represent increasing global temperatures from 1850-2023. Each red stripe warns of our warming world. The Arctic helps regulate global climate - but it is warming 3-4x faster than the rest of the world. We need to rapidly ACCELERATE ACTION ON CLIMATE to preserve the the world’s refrigerator.

The crew set sail for Cambridge Bay through Queen Maud Gulf. Just south of the Abel Tasman’s route was the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary - home to the largest variety of geese in North America, and the second largest Ramsar Wetland in the world. As they sailed, the crew saw many geese flying over them in v-formation.

After setting sail from Devon Island, the Abel Tasman encountered its first sea ice, at the mouth of Prince Regent Inlet - having to drop the sails and carefully motor through 3 long bands stretching across the channel. As the crew get further into the Northwest Passages, they must constantly check the winds, currents, weather, and sea ice maps to ensure a safe passage - navigating carefully around blocked areas and with several of the crew at the bow to push large pieces of sea ice away with poles. The sea ice shifts rapidly and can quickly trap small boats for an entire winter season, as the window for navigation is very narrow (3-4 weeks between July/August and September).

It’s been smooth sailing for the Abel Tasman across Baffin Bay - with good steady winds and bright sunshine. Perfect conditions for data collection and acoustic recordings. The crew stopped several times across the bay to visit icebergs and capture content of the crossing.

The Abel Tasman is setting sail towards her first stop in Canada. The full crew will now be onboard all the way to the final destination in Nome, Alaska.

On the way to Upernavik, the crew found a stunning anchorage and decided to try out the paramotors for the first time. Kester and Sylvestre went flying amongst the icebergs to gain a new perspective of Greenland's spectacular coastline. The film team were busy capturing the action, whilst Karina scaled an iceberg for a better view.

On 20 July, the Abel Tasman anchored for a short while in Fortune Bay on Disko Island for some time to kayak and scuba dive amongst a sea of stunning icebergs.