The following is an email I received from friends who are attempting the NW passage. They are aboard a Bowman 59 - Cloud Nine, is not a trawler, however I thought it may be of general interest. The writer, a retired Panama Canal Pilot, is a crew member. August 4, 2005 Location; Resolute, Cornwallis Island, Barrow Strait, Canadian Arctic My last report came from Upernavic, Greenland. On Cloud Nine we were on our way up the west coast of Greenland to pass around the sea ice which blocks ones passage across Baffin Bay to Lancaster Sound and access to the NW Passage. In the winter all of Baffin Bay freezes with sea ice. The first opening in this ice across Baffin Bay occurs on the north West Coast of Greenland around Melville Bay. They're for the necessity to travel up the Greenland coast to this latitude. This year the ice reports indicated that we would have to get above 75 degrees north before heading west for Lancaster Sound and the Canadian arctic. We left Upermavic on July 23 with our destination being Devils Thumb. Devils Thumb has a small settlement and a potential anchorage for our departure across Baffin Bay. Devils Thumb is a large rock spire, which rises approximately 1,500' above the island it sits and was a landmark the early whalers used to determine their location on the coast. Our rout took us through a coastal route inside many islands and across iceberg filled fjords. There is a lot of ice, which comes off the icecap of Greenland, which can be easily seen form our route. Part of our route took us out into Baffin Bay. These ice burgs are scattered all over the bay. We arrived at Devils Thumb late that evening to it occupied with many ice burgs. Too many for us to anchor safely. There was a small ship at anchor there loading fist for export. It was a ship we had seen earlier. They gave us about 25 gallons of diesel, enough to top off our tanks. The town is small, maybe 75 houses, small store and community building. Seeing as we could not stay we retreated to the next port of refugee 30 miles south, Kraulshavn. We arrived at Kraulshavn early on the morning of July 24. It was Sunday and the only thing open was the church. It was confirmation Sunday and the service lasted most of the day. The organ was a foot pump organ and had to work franticly to keep the music coming. Many of the locals were dressed in their native finest. Very impressive. We found that we could get showers ashore and wash our clothes. This was done in a community building. The showers cost 10 Danish Krons as did doing a load of laundry. To do laundry you had to sign up in advance. You then had to show up on the morning you signed up for to buy tokens for the wash machines. After completing our laundry and topping off our fuel tanks we were on our way across Baffin Bay. Our track took us to 75 degrees 26 minutes north. This will be our highest latitude for this passage and is the latitude recommended for safe pass. For the nest day the coast of Greenland and its ice cap were visible over 40 miles to the northeast. Two days later we sighted Devon Island which marks the north entrance to Lancaster Sound. Our destination was Resolute, Cornwallis Island. The distance so far from Greenland was around 400 miles. Resolute was another 300. These islands are almost barren with little vegetation. It is a frozen desert. We stopped at Erebus bay on the West End of Devon Island. This is the bay where Sir John Franklin spent his first winter in their search for the final section of the NW Passage. There are three graves here of crew who died that first winter. He and all of his party later parishes when their vessels were trapped in the ice of Franklin Strait. We also saw another sailboat in the harbor and stopped to visit them. We got an ice report from the other sailboat for our passage to Resolute. It was not good. It showed more than 6/10 water coverage. 3 to 4/10 is about all our boat can manage. However we left and hoped for the best. We were lucky. There was no wind and we found our way through. We arrived late in the evening at Resolute with a rising wind. We have been anchored for two days now waiting for the wind to drop so that we can get ashore. There is a town here. A Russian ship arrived the next day and were able to put passengers ashore and aboard. A Canadian IceBreaker was also in port to help the passenger ship through the ice. They also sent the ships ice officer to us to update us on the ice conditions for our attempt through the Canadian Arctic. They do not look good at this point. Ones needs more than global warming to make it through. Here we will wait to see how the ice breakup progresses. If it comes too late we will be unable to complete the whole passage. Roger does not plan to winter the boat along the route. More lately. Doug Finley, Cloud Nine, Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Canadian Arctic July 8,2005 We have been here for four days. The first two were spent at anchor as the wind was too strong to get ashore. Winds were out or the NE averaging in the high 20 kt range with gusts over 40. Two days ago we did get ashore. Checked in to Canada at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police station. There are only two officers stationed here. It was a busy day. There is a Indian who was born in Africa who seems to have all the contacts or items we need. He also own the "South Camp Inn". He was able to provide us with all the diesel fuel we needed as well as to top off our water tanks. We got showers and were able to get our laundry done. We are ready to proceed. More later Doug Finley, Resolute Bay, Canadian Arctic.