65:54.31N 37:42.97W

27^th - Once water had been filled up Nigel Dave and I were dispatched ashore to cross from Marie Haven to a bay in Tasilartik fjord via what would be a sledging route in the winter. Al and Mike took the boat round, found a fine anchorage and waited for us. Our route took us up the valley via rocky ground, boulder fields, some small snow banks and topped out at about 360m. A quick stop for a biscuit and drink and then the descent began. Initially, the valley was filled with snow, (somewhat to our surprise there was much more snow on this, the south facing side of the col than on the north side), which provided an easy walk although, as the decent was equal in altitude to the ascent but over a much shorter distance, the inevitable occurred. The valley steepened and narrowed into a gorge. Our progress was interrupted by a number of waterfalls. The snow banks steepening towards the waterfalls added spice to the situation so we decided to head back up the valley a short distance and then circumnavigated the obstacles taking the mountain flank on the east side. Nigel is to be commended for his fine naviguessing throughout.

Al met us with the dingy and we all retired to Umiak for tea, coffee, biscuits, and stronger libations leading up to a fine Chinese inspired meal.

28^th -  A quieter night at anchor was enjoyed by all but this morning looked grey and uninspiring. The plan emerged to move on and hopefully cross Sermilik Fjord to find an anchorage in an area we had not yet visited. An important aspect of this plan was to find a secure spot to be whilst this evening/overnight’s gale blows through. By staying in the fjords and away from the outer coastline we should miss the worst of the weather anyway. Turning in to Ikasagtivaq Fjord the sky looked distinctly brighter ahead which was encouraging but by the time we had turned the corner into the narrows close to a small Inuit settlement called Tiniteqilaq it was raining and felt much colder than it had for some time. The narrows contained a number of icebergs, some of which were large and impressive but there was plenty of room to manoeuvre round them and out into Sermilik Fjord. This is about 10 miles across and appeared to be full of remnants of ice bergs that had drifted down from the huge glaciers, out of sight to the north of our position. Dodging and weaving around all these small but potentially damaging bit of ice is slow work but having reached the west side, options for anchoring looked pretty difficult and we turned about. We might have tried our luck going north along the east side of Sermilik Fjord but by the time we got back there the ice didn’t look too much thinner and we were also a bit disappointed that it was still raining. Consequently we crossed back through the narrows and into another cosy and attractive bay, not far from the village It was deep all the way in but eventually shelved enough at a stream outlet for us to anchor and gratefully get out of wet gear.

Ian