The wind blew our tent all night and we thought maybe we’d have the same following sea as last evening but alas the SW forecast came true and we battled into 20 knots making about 2-2.5 knots progress. It wasn’t enough to motivate us to keep going and we stopped after only about 6 nautical miles. The prospect a 4 and 6 mile crossing at a snails pace not inspiring us. We landed at a headland 3 hours after HW where the long portage up to the high tide mark was “only” about 400 metres on mostly gravel and stones. It was as good as it was going to get! We didn’t set up the tent at first as it was a beautiful warm, sunny day and we hoped the wind might drop later so we could paddle on. We went for an explore of the tundra and found lots of carribou scat and fur and a dusting of tiny flowers. As the sea went out further we marveled at the massive power of the tides. It was windy enough that we hadn’t seen any mosquitos for 24 hours but as soon as we decided to sit in a rock and enjoy
the sunshine, they appeared in a swarm around us. The wind still felt like 10-15 knots but it must have dropped enough for the hardy Arctic stinging machine to tolerate. As gusts came, the mossies disappeared but with every lull they gathered forces and returned en masse with the sole mission of funding any tiny millimetre of exposed flesh. We rallied our defences and braved the battlefield for a while longer. Then suddenly in an instant the wind swung round to the North West and intensified. I went from hot to needing 2 jackets and a wooly hat in 5 seconds. The only saving grace was that we never saw another mossie for the rest of the evening.

We cooked udon noodle soup with homemade deer jerky, filtered some water from a nearby pond and watched with admiration, and then alarm, as the sea came further and further up that beach towards us. JF quickly studied the tide tables. It was almost 2 hours until high water and we could expect it to rise another 1.5 metres. Oh dear! We reluctantly moved the tent, kayaks and pack alarm to higher ground, This time going above the highest grounded iceberg! Its now 45 minutes before high water and would be under a foot of water eighty now if we hasn’t moved! Its a learning process and a grand adventure.

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