Temperature: 32 F  Weather: partly sunny with periods of snow, winds 25 knots

This morning we saw a Snowy Owl in Amundsen Strait, the west entrance to the Northwest Passage in Canada, just south of Banks Island. The owl flew past the ship, but did not land. Last year in this same area three of them spent time perched on the front of the ship. After so many days far offshore, it feels good to be close to land again. Even though I can't see it, I like knowing it's there.

(Photo: Explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to complete the entire Northwest Passage, from 1903-1906)

See this map to track the Healy's route.

I caught myself thinking "ahh, we’re only 50 miles offshore today," then realized that a couple weeks ago I'd have never thought of it that way. Being on this ship has definitely changed my perspective on the sea and on the scale of these places. In that way, I've gotten just what I'd hoped for out of this trip.

I've also had the time to really feel my days passing. This is to the point of boredom at times, but having that luxury to slow down, to contemplate, and ultimately just be present with no agenda at all, is precious. That is when experience is unobstructed. When you feel moments pass like discreet small packages of time, like freeze frames in succession, rather than the often blurred film in fast-forward that a too-busy life can be. It makes me think a lot about the early explorers that discovered this place, how they experienced the passing of time.

From 1903 to 1906, after 400 years of attempts by others, Roald Amundsen was the first to complete the entire Northwest Passage. He had a small crew of just a few people which made it easier to sustain everyone, and he had a small boat which made it easier to pass through narrow and shallow areas. Both of these things contributed greatly to his success. Along the way they spent three winters locked in sea ice, waiting for the thaw to free the ship, waiting to keep moving onward. What, I wonder, did he think about all that time? How did he pass his days? How long did a life feel when every moment was unobstructed by technological distractions?

After Amundsen completed the Passage, he then skied 500 miles south to the town of Eagle, Alaska, to send a telegram announcing the victory, and then skied back to the ship. What sufferings did he encounter on his 1,000-mile solo ski trek, which is but a footnote in history among his greater accomplishments? After completing this journey, he was the first person to reach the South Pole.

I wish I could sit down with him, with a cup of tea, and pour over our maps of this area—Amundsen pointing out secure harbors, telling stories about encounters along his path, and I showing him today's atlases and some satellite images he'd so wished he had along with him. He'd ask, and I'd explain, how it is that I could send photographs and emails from the Arctic Ocean via outer space to a world-wide web of information. I'd ask, and he'd explain, how he kept the hull of his ship from being crushed by the winter's ice and found food all year long.

Mostly I just love thinking about how these two times, in this same place, were so different, but also quite the same. Unlike most places at lower latitudes, this area of the Northwest Territories is basically unchanged since Amundsen's time. One of the gifts of the Arctic is getting to experience places that feel timeless. If he came through today I think he'd be quite happy with the state of things here in the strait that bears his name: no gaudy developments, superb navigational systems, world-wide communication capabilities, and much less sea ice blocking the route he spent three years exploring. I only get one or two days. I better hold on to every slow moment I can.

Melanie Smith, Landscape Ecologist, Audubon Alaska