Pat's Pot

One of the seven.

Ice

The first pic is the Canadian Ice Service analysis chart for August 14th 2008, the day we got through the critical bit of the North West Passage. Note the thin blue line just left of centre between the white of the Boothia Peninsula and the light green of the 3/10 ice - the open water we squeezed through. (Between the M and the F) There was quite a lot of ice in that little blue bit of open water. The Boothia Peninsula was named after George Booth, the founder of the Booth's Gin Distillery and one of the sponsors of the Franklin expedition. The northernmost point, on Bellot Strait, just above the C to the left and above the centre of the chart, is the northernmost point of mainland America.

The second photo has solid ice right across the middle - hard to see the ice but a breathtakingly beautiful morning - pic taken around 0300.