Last September (2023) in St. Johns, Newfoundland we disembarked our ship, the Ocean Endeavour. After two weeks in the Arctic. In July this year we got back on the same boat. This time we were in Iqaluit, Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic.. Its population is about 8000, more than half that of the entire island, which is the largest in Canada. We had a tour of downtown Iqaluit, The visitor center shares space with the library. Among the new books was Yiddish for Pirates, by Gary Berwin. Susan ordered a copy as soon as we got home.

Except for the addition of a versatile coffee maker, the ship was little changed from 2023, so I will not redescribe it. We were 162 passengers, 51 of whom had traveled before with the same company. Thirty-eight of us were American (one from nearby in Brooklyn), most of the rest from Canada. Some Wild Women were aboard, just as in 2023. Many lectures and slide shows in the lounge. A staff guest, Tom Kovach, astoundingly memorized the first names of 209 people on board in a single day. He demonstrated this feat to a lounge full of us. Other guests included Bruce Kidd, who ran for Canada in the 1964 Olympics and became a sports historian. We sailed southeast out of Frobisher Bay, then turned northwest along the coast of Baffin. First stop was Lower Savage Island, the ship’s first visit there. The familiar process: waterproof pants and boots, life jackets, and onto to the zodiac (rubber raft) for a few choppy miles to shore.

Next day to : Kimmirut (Lake Harbour), pop. 500. It has a grocery store. One long aisle was devoted entirely to potato chips. Subsequent stop farther NW: Kinngait (Cape Dorset). Another very small town, with a nice park and a print shop.

It was time to turn around and move SE down the Hudson Strait. The custom was to sail at night to the next destination, but when we woke up we were in the same place. The ship had developed generator problems (more about this later). By 9:15 we were in motion. We drank mulled wine and assembled on deck for a group photograph.

July 27: West Digges Island, a spectacular rocky place. It was calm and warm. By afternoon it was cold and windy, but we set out in zodiacs for great cliffs, where thousands (it seemed) of murres were flying about. Their nests were all over the cliffs, in improbable niches. This was also the day that we (but not I) spotted a loon and a swimming caribou. We returned to the ship in a light rain—the only such on the trip.

On the 28th we landed at the island of Salluit, which we were the first cruise ship ever to visit. There we purchased a black soapstone bear of uncertain gender. It weighed eight pounds and fit into our luggage.

That evening the ship had more mechanical problems. One passenger said, “I hope they get the engine fixed so we can get to Greenland.” We felt the same way.

At 1:00 a.m. we resumed sailing.

Next stop was Douglas Harbor, in Ungava Bay. After a very wet landing from our zodiac, we walked around and watched the tide come in fast. We knew we were heading east because we had to set our watches back an hour.

Then Resolution Island, where we saw some of our first icebergs and snow patches. We did see a polar bear, it was only a white spot on a distant shore. A long zodiac cruise among the bergs took us to a rocky peninsula, where we walked uphill and about. Note: although we had brought hiking boots, we often stayed with the waterproof rubber boots supplied by the ship.

July 31: sailing NE across the Davis Strait. We were reversing our 2023 itinerary. That returned us to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk. A warm day. We again had lunch there, and again skipped the “hot sled dog” (actually musk ox) on the menu. The next day we returned to the spectacular Kangerlussuatsiaq Fjord. There was more open water than last year, and less ice (it was still summer, albeit near the Arctic Circle).

Soon another charter flight took us to Toronto. There were no assigned seats, and we unusually found ourselves in first class.

Another successful trip, but things can go wrong . The ship’s generator troubles were more serious than first believed. It was scheduled to begin a northwest passage cruise the same day that we disembarked. In its condition the ship could not manage the icy journey. The whole trip had to be cancelled at the last minute. 160 passengers must have been extremely disappointed, not to say inconvenienced.