We finished paddling at 11.30 this morning which might make us sound lazy. But the alarm went off at 3.30am and we were paddling away before 5am. We set up our tents inside our tiny cabin last night, fly sheets almost touching, to protect ourselves from the many mosquitoes who appeared for the first time yesterday afternoon. They were celebrating the sun which appeared with a flourish and warmed our bones, bronzed our faces, dried our gear and charged our batteries. I flew my drone to see where the nearest water source was ( at least that’s my excuse) and JF and I went for a short hike to fill the water bladders. The msr gravity filter system worked great. We wandered around and enjoyed the rolling grey and green tundra speckled with blue ponds of various shapes and sizes.

Today a fresh wind behind us nudged us on our way, past endless low mounds of rock; long pointy islands, big black domes, and small smooth tan colored rocks that will be hidden by a rising tide. There’s not a tree to be seen and only dwarf plants like juniper, Heather and Labrador tea can get a foot hold. As we head north we see more and more ice. Offshore is a large bank of white, maybe a big chunk of sea ice from the winter that hasn’t broken up yet. We paddle past car size icebergs beached on islands, sparkling in the sun. They are getting bigger and more frequent. We stopped early today after 30km because there’s another cabin here. This time a bright red one, well maintained and mosquito and mice free. It’s on a tiny island with a Stella view of other craggy isles rimmed with glimmering ice. It’s the last cabin we will pass for 4 or 5 days so we’re making the most of feeling secure from the bears and getting a full nights sleep without being on watch. We’ll leave early again tomorrow close to high tide so we don’t have far to walk and we can make the most of the ebb current which flows north.

Morale is good. IT’s been Sunny the last 2 days until about an hour ago when it turned overcast and cold. We all put 2 jackets on! Time to cook dinner and get an early night!