Cambridge Bay hosts 4 Northwest Passage-bound yachts

There's an unusual sight this week in the western Nunavut hamlet of Cambridge Bay: not one, but four sailboats, all docked at the local harbour while they're trying to sail through the Northwest Passage.

It's uncommon to see so many ships docked there at the same time, even though Cambridge Bay is the largest community for vessels needing a stopover along the fabled Arctic waterway.

More ships are expected to stop in the hamlet of 1,500 in the near future, as more people take advantage of shrinking sea ice to make their attempt to sail the passage.

'Mystic' passage

"My dream was to come here and do the Northwest [Passage], the mystic Northwest Passage," Philippe Poupon, captain of the French yacht Fleur Astrale, told CBC News on Monday.

"I would like to do that and see the country, Arctic and people in the Arctic, everything around here."

Poupon and his family entered the Northwest Passage from the east. A Canadian 40-foot yacht, the Silent Sound, came in from the west, having departed from Victoria in June.

"We feel we've been quite lucky with the weather and with ice so far," Cameron Dueck, a journalist and the Silent Sound's captain, said in an interview.

"We have encountered some ice, but not as much as we maybe expected. Speaking to hunters, they say there is a lot of ice, but we've been quite lucky the wind's been blowing our way, I guess."

Raising awareness of climate change

The two ships are also joined by the Ocean Watch, a 64-foot yacht from the United States, and the Baloum Gwen, a Belgian-flagged yacht.

The crews of the Silent Sound, Ocean Watch and Baloum Gwen are documenting their journeys and highlighting the issue of climate change in the Arctic.

"The number of boats are increasing every year … so we think we have a very good shot of getting through," said David Thoreson, a photographer aboard the Ocean Watch.

"As we all say, it's good for us and maybe it's not such a good thing for the planet."

Ocean Watch captain Mark Schrader said it's a problem that so many boats can move through the Northwest Passage, with the ice-free period steadily expanding in recent years.

"There's a window of opportunity in the Northwest Passage that used to be a couple of weeks, and now in reality it's probably two and a half months," Schrader said.

'A personal livelihood story'

The Silent Sound's Dueck said he's been intrigued with northerners' perspectives on climate change, compared to the views of people living in southern Canada.

"We have a certain perception of climate change, and it's a policy story and it's a scientific story for us usually. And coming up here, it's much more of a personal livelihood story, really, for a lot of people," he said.

"It's been interesting hearing climate change ... kind of stripped of its policy and morality, of, you know, 'should you be turning your lights off?' or 'should you drive an SUV?' and all these sort of things."

Instead, Inuit and other northerners have told Dueck's crew they've started seeing beavers and other animals that they've never seen in the Arctic before.

"It's as simple as that, and that's been refreshing to hear," he said.

The increased amount of marine traffic in Cambridge Bay is good news for residents like Vicki Aitaok, manager of the Arctic Coast Visitors Centre.

"They're spending time learning about the community, they're spending time shopping, and they're spending time eating and you know, meeting people and using our facilities and our services, and it's every good for everybody," she said.