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LIFE | travel
travel | LIFE
ice ice baby
Anil Thadani’s yacht
Latitude tows support boat
Khisko along a narrow strip
of ice-free water in the
Bellot Strait
The Great
Arctic Adventure
Amid the spectacular scenery of the far north, Singaporean
tycoon Anil Thadani plies his yacht through ice jams and
avoids hungry polar bears in his quest to follow the perilous
19th-century Arctic exploration route
largely unsurveyed
waterway through the
Canadian Arctic, the
Northwest Passage has
fascinated traders and
adventurers alike for hundreds of years. The
waterway held the promise of a shortcut
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and it winds
through some 1,600km of breathtakingly
beautiful landscapes that are home to a
variety of wildlife.
From the 15th century to the first decade
of the 20th, European sailors tried to find
a navigable commercial route through this
enticing passage. Many of them lost their lives
in the attempt, the most well known being
those from the John Franklin expedition that
set sail from England in 1845. The voyage
ended with the disappearance of both ships,
the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus, and all
129 crew members. (Last year, the wreckage of
the Erebus was finally discovered.)
travel | LIFE
country’s west coast, stopping at anchorages
along the way. Every morning we awoke to
a view of fjords, icebergs and mountains,
each more beautiful than the last. We finally
docked at the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, to
replenish our fresh food supply for our trip up
to Ilulissat.
Greenland’s third largest city, Ilulissat has a
population of 4,500 residents and 3,500 sled
dogs. Its landscape is breathtakingly beautiful,
but more significantly, it’s home to the largest
glacier outside of Antarctica.
We stayed there for a few days. During this
time, we hiked to Ilulissat Icefjord, a Unesco
World Heritage site, got on a helicopter and
took it to the top of the glacier, landed there
and wandered around—it was the closest I
have ever come to feeling like I was walking
on the top of the Earth.
become more aggressive following the decline
of their traditional food supply of seals.
Fortunately on this first trek, the only thing
we came across was a polar rabbit.
The trip through the passage from Pond
Inlet to Cambridge Bay took a total of
20 days. Along the way, we anchored at
Koluktoo Bay, where we spotted several
narwhals—a very rare and shy whale known
as the “unicorn of the sea” thanks to the
animal magic Clockwise from top: A male polar bear cub;
icebergs in Greenland; a humpback whale on the Labrador Coast
POLAR oPPOSITEs
smooth sailing Majestic views of the Canadian Arctic are enjoyed along the
Northwest Passage
Two Decembers ago, as I was observing a
giant world map hanging in the main salon
of the 45-metre steel-hulled Vripack motor
yacht Latitude, which I had just acquired, I
asked Captain Sean Meagher, the master of
my yacht, to suggest an unusual trip we could
do instead of a cruise around the Caribbean.
He pointed to the passage over the top of
Canada, where Franklin and his crew took
their last voyage. That’s how my four-monthlong expedition began.
As with all great adventures, it started
with a planning period, during which the
crew and I educated ourselves on travelling
through the Arctic—something that was new
to all of us. Sean gathered detailed notes from
a captain in France who had done the route
before, while we bought Mustang Survival
suits for everyone on board, which are
typically worn by coast guards and industrial
marine employees—and a must for any trip
through ice.
In mid-July last year, I boarded Latitude
with my wife, Coonoor, and a group of friends
at Newport, Rhode Island. We also towed a
35-foot sportfisher we call Khisko as a tender
and support boat, to access fjords and rivers
that Latitude couldn’t.
During our first week at sea, we cruised
around towns and villages of Massachusetts,
from Martha’s Vineyard to Hyannis, and
on to Nantucket and Provincetown. From
there, we headed up north to the Canadian
province of Newfoundland and Labrador,
where we explored Conception Bay, Elliston,
Twillingate and Battle Harbour.
Near Elliston, we spotted our first iceberg,
and also had our first sightings of Arctic
terns, humpback whales, puffins and seals.
Sean even jumped into the icy water and
swam within three feet of one of the vast
yet graceful whales. At Battle Harbour, a
heritage fishing village peppered with summer
family homes, we were initiated by the locals
into their tradition of “screeching”, which
involves eating a fetid piece of dried fish and
downing a large shot of whisky. Only after
seamlessly narrating a local folklore passage
they selected for us were we finally accepted
as one of their own.
After two days in Elliston, we set sail across
the Labrador Sea to Greenland and up the
On our way to our next stop in the Nunavut
region of Canada, we crossed the Davis
Strait, passed a beautiful Inuit village called
Uvkusigssat, and cruised around Clarke Fjord
and Scott Island, where we spotted our very
first polar bear. Eventually, we arrived at the
stunning old Inuit hamlet of Pond Inlet, which
is also the entrance of the Northwest Passage.
With tanks full and supplies replenished,
we set off to the uninhabited Ragged Island.
This was late August, more than two months
after our expedition started. After docking,
we hiked up a steep hill to two small, beautiful
lakes. Besides our personal belongings, three
of the crew also carried loaded firearms—we
had been warned to bring them each time we
left our boat to explore on foot as a precaution
against polar bears, which have reportedly
hong kong tatler . month year
5
LIFE | travel
two-legged visitors, he walked down to the
edge of the water and, to our surprise, got in
and swam out to within a few metres of us.
At that moment, we realised we were actually
being hunted and the bear was trying to
figure out a way to get on board to grab one
of us for lunch. After lingering for almost four
hours, the bear finally gave up and swam away
in search of easier prey.
ICE HAZARDS
into the wild From left: Thadani in Nuuk, the capital of
Greenland; the Unesco-protected Ilulissat Icefjord
impressive tusk-like tooth that protrudes
from its head.
At the spectacular Dundas Harbour on
Devon Island, we hiked on tundra, chanced
upon another shy mammal, this time the
prehistoric-looking musk ox, and got very
close to a pair of polar rabbits. We also
explored Croker Bay, where we discovered a
huge walrus sunning itself on an ice floe and
had the thrilling experience of watching a pod
of sperm whales swim calmly alongside our
boat for a good few minutes.
At Radstock Bay, a
waterway off the south coast
of Devon Island, we had a very
memorable and close encounter
with a male polar bear, which
was standing majestically up
on a hill metres away from the
water’s edge. As we tried to get
closer to it, the bear spotted
us as well. Instead of fleeing
like most animals would, he
made his way down the hill,
occasionally pausing to observe
us. Clearly intrigued by his new
Two days later, we anchored off Beechey Island in the aptly named Erebus and Terror
Bay, where Franklin’s first camp was in
1845. There were haunting sights of several
gravesites and the remains of a building called
Northumberland House—it was left behind
by the crew of one of the five ships sent by the
British Admiralty to search for survivors of
the doomed expedition.
Later, we visited Resolute, one of the
world’s coldest habitations, with an average
annual temperature of about –16°C, before
moving towards Fort Ross at the entrance
of the Bellot Strait. As we ventured further,
we had another priceless experience with
a family of polar bears. On a huge ice floe,
a mother was with her two grown-up cubs,
all unperturbed by our presence, even as we
approached to take a closer look. Each cub
displayed distinct emotional behaviours and
personalities; upon noticing us, the female
cub huddled close to her mother, while her
curious brother fearlessly inched closer and
interacted with us in various ways—even
appearing to dance for us—from a distance,
despite his mother’s continuous warning calls.
The 20km Bellot Strait resembles a fjord
filled regularly with ice and experiences
strong currents of up to eight knots.
According to our ice pilotage book, we
were strongly advised to “exercise extreme
caution” and not pass through the area
“without icebreaker assistance”.
As we didn’t have one to help us, a
few of us decided to
first investigate the
waterway in our support
boat, Khisko, before
attempting to take
Latitude through. This
got us stuck in the worst
ice jam of the expedition,
only returning to the
main boat eight hours
later to meet with a huge
snowstorm, zero visibility
and two polar bears
roaming our icy vicinity.
After 10 exhausting
“At that moment,
we realised we
were actually being
hunted and the bear
was trying to figure
out a way to get on
board to grab one of
us for lunch”
hong kong tatler . month year
7
IMAGES: ANIL THADANI; JOHN ISAAC
travel | LIFE
due north Clockwise from top: Latitude navigates the perilous
entrance to the Ilulissat harbour; an Alaskan grizzly bear with its
fresh catch; a chartered seaplane at Kodiak Island
Aleutian Islands and docked at Kodiak Island
on the south coast of Alaska. For a week, we
travelled inland on seaplanes, on the lookout
for Kodiak brown bear (also known as the
Alaskan grizzly bear) so we could witness
them hunting thousands of salmon before
their winter hibernation.
As the expedition entered its final leg in
the latter part of the year, our sailing schedule
to the Alaskan capital of Juneau and to our
last stop in Canada became dependent on the
weather, with some serious storms brewing
in the Gulf of Alaska. I can safely say we were
all looking forward to returning home to our
creature comforts.
By the end of our four-month-long
expedition in late October, Latitude finally
docked at Vancouver. Along the way, we had
seen no less than 19 polar bears and traversed
some 10,000 nautical miles over the course
of 100 days. It was certainly the trip of a
lifetime—one we’ll never forget.
set sail
Embark on your own journey through the Arctic with one
of these luxury cruise operators
silversea
Explore the Arctic via
Greenland or Canada
aboard the Silver
Explorer, a small yet
sturdy vessel specially
designed to chart
remote and extreme
environments.
Disembark for ice
hikes and wildlife
spotting; the ship will
make three more voyages in August and September this
year before shutting down for the season. silversea.com
abercrombie
& kent
Sail around Greenland,
Alaska, the Bering Sea,
Norway and Iceland on
one of two Arctic trips
Abercrombie & Kent
has left for the season.
Spanning 13 to 21
days, the journeys will take you to traditional Inuit villages,
Unesco world heritage sites and stunning geological
features. All trips take place aboard the elegant Le Boreal.
abercrombiekent.com
hours of pushing through massive ice floes
and stemming five-knot currents, Latitude
traversed the waterway the next day.
Soon after, we learned from a
downloaded map that the shorter route
to Cambridge Bay, our final stop along the
Northwest Passage, via the Victoria Strait
was completely blocked with ice. This
meant making a 145km diversion through
the James Ross Strait and around King
William Island.
Sailing to Alaska proved a long and rough
run. Most of our guests disembarked at
the Alaskan city of Nome, while the rest of
us continued past the towering, volcanic
“We travelled inland on seaplanes, on
the lookout for Kodiak brown bear to
witness them hunting thousands of
salmon before the winter hibernation”
lightfoot travel
With offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, the
regional luxury tour operator has a package that takes
travellers through beautiful fjords and Norway’s Svalbard
archipelago to view the majestic beluga whales and orcas.
Aside from wildlife watching, guests can also opt to go sea
kayaking or hiking. lightfoottravel.com