Strong Winds /March 27, 2012 by Caroline Van Hemert

As you can see, strong winds are affecting all modes of transport. Pat is helping a Canadian fellow whose vessel ran out of batteries due to the headwind.

Follow @sunisacompass on Instagram

Nome was good to us! Muskox, grandparents, gold dredgers, rainbows, and new friends. Next up: the Bering Sea!

I can see Russia from my window (porthole)! At the entrance to the Bering Strait, Little Diomede (Alaska) and Big Diomede (Russia) are separated by only 2 miles.

As we cross the Arctic Circle again, we toast the unofficial completion of the Northwe

Chukchi Sea magic. Walruses cavorting in the sunshine and a frenzy of shearwaters that went on for miles. (Watch the full video to appreciate the astounding number of birds.)

Day 5 of our passage from Herschel Island to Nome and we’re waiting

Rounding the top of Alaska and celebrating our halfway-around-the-world mark (180+ degrees of longitude since Greece!). We had a spectacular show of thousands of shearwaters grazing the water, Arctic terns circling the mast, and humpback and bowhead

Qikiqtaruk-Herschel Island, where sky and water meet. This was the first familiar view on our Northwest Passage journey. Pat & I stopped here 13 years ago after paddling down the Mackenzie River and hiking & packrafting along the Arctic Coast

What a difference a day makes! In the wake of the storm, which clocked 84 mph at our anchorage and resulted in a storm surge of >5 feet in the Northwest Territories community of Tuktoyatuk. The first photo shows some of the ice that smashed and cr

Well this one was a doozy. Storm-force winds, oncoming ice floes, steep waves, sleet, and freezing spray. Grateful to be coming out the other side. We had luck on our side, plus a bomber mooring buoy and good neighbors @polarpodexpe to share in the i

A week of exploring and celebrating Dawson’s 9th birthday in Nunavut, Canada. Fish, berries, swimming, hiking, buoy swinging, elephant-eye rocks, and a whole lotta midges (note Dawson’s bar-fight look). Much more fun than the round-the-cl