Weathering in Tuktoyaktuk

The approach to Tuktoyaktuk turns into an interesting experience in itself. As we steer south to enter the approach along the dredged and marked canal to Tuk, we also turn into the wind and take down the sails. The brisk sail comes to an end. We are still under clear skies but we can see thunder and lightining raging above Tuk on the horizon. To avoid entering that storm, we slow down to 2-3 knots and let the cell dissolve, which after an hour has happened. We go back to our 5.5-knot economy cruising speed and follow the marked channel. Notably, it is a bout a quarter of a mile off the charts. By now we are somewhat accustomed to inaccurate charts: rather trust your eyes, the radar and the depth sounder. Don’t trust the compass nor the charts. Even though the compass has regained a lot of its original accuracy that it lost in northern Greenland.

We enter the lagoon of Tuk and it looks very much like other towns we have seen: abandoned huts and disused equipment litter the landscape. Notably, the landscape here is flat with pingos, frost-formed hills that look like giant molehills, being the only landmarks. The tricky thing is that they also exist in the water and can rise to 70% of the water depth.

I also notice that the water is very brown. It’s the MacKenzie River that carries sediments and driftwood in abundance. For us this means that we can’t rund the watermaker, at least not without quickly clogging the filters, and that we better be careful to avoid driftwood when sailing.

We tie up mid morning and go ashore for a bit of reconnaissance. We quickly find that Tuk exceeds it’s reputation: not too bad at all! We visit Grandma’s Kitchen for lunch, and do a small grocery run before returning to the boat. Vanuily is now also arriving and we offer them to tie up alongside. During the night the two-person crew of Vanuily reduced sail for safety and comfort and thus we arrived a couple of hours sooner than them.

Tuk has always been planned as a stopover because Jörg will disembark here to fly home. His trip includes a two-hour hitched car ride to Inuvik, then a flight to Yellowknife, followed by a flight to Calgary and finally a flight to Zurich. We celebrate his last evening abord with a feast of lamb chops and invite the Vanuily crew. It’s a bit sad and we will miss Jörg. On the other hand, all of us can double our chocolate consumption and still the overall chocolate burn rate will be lower.

Weather dictates that we stay in Tuk for 3 nights total. Leaving earlier would entail heading into 30 knots of wind for at least half a day, which could be done if need be but is better avoided. The second day in Tuk is wind-free and sunny. Temperature rises to a staggering 20°C. T-shirt weather! With the dinghy we make an excursion to the pingo park.

During the second night the weather hits: it starts blowing 30 knots from north around mid night. At 5 am I get up to check on the situation and find that the water level in the lagoon of Tuk has risen by 1 meter. The wind is pushing the water into the lagoon. The dock’s edge is now considerably below the freeboard of the Hafiz. I add a shore line, optimize others and lower the fenders to the waterline. Fortunately the wind is not pressing us against the dock…

The winds continues to blow for the entire day. We make it an indoor day, I catch up with office work, write this blog and sort photos. In the afternoon we go for a walk and I wish I had taken my gloves. T-shirt to gloves that’s the temperature range and it changes in an instance with the wind direction: south vs north.

Tomorrow at 6am we want to depart to Herschel Island, a 140 NM leg and the last stop in Canadian waters.Read more