Idlewild: Father and son Northwest Passage to circle the globe
07:00 pm CDT Jun 23, 2005
Father and son Ben (66) and Brad Gray are out on an expedition of their lifetime: 16 months sailing 60.000 km around the world, through the NW passage.
Dad co-designed the 57 foot powerboat M/V Idlewild, with a 55 hp motor. It sleeps four people plus a sea berth in the wheel house. "The boat is proportionally quite narrow for efficiency."
Next up: Dunvegan, Alberta to the Arctic Ocean
"A couple of portages, one 10 miles on the Peace River and one 13 miles on the Slave River will add to the challenge. The 10 mile portage 50 miles east of Fort Vermillion Alberta has a trail but no road. The other portage at Fort Smith NWT has a good road to make it easier. The first 800 miles of river is not charted. The last 1200 miles is charted on Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River ."
Arctic Ocean (The Northwest Passage)
"Our plan here is at the whim of the ice, how it melts and which way the wind blows it. What we hope to do is come out one side of the Arctic Ocean and use that as a starting point, go back all the way through to the other side and continue around the world. We will probably be able to get out to the west before the east."
Latest dispatch
June 16, 2005
"Anchored not far from the Slave River. We saw several cabins in beautiful spots along the river. June 15 with an early start we soon got to the point where the Peace turns into the Slave river and carried on from there. We have had alot of new river experiences and certainly this section is different than we had seen. Now depth is generally good but the large granite boulders are an issue to steer clear of even in 50' of depth."
"The swirling currents they provide have swung us around not to mention the "Vidar" jet boat that encountered a large whirlpool. "Vidar" is the replacement support boat generously provided by Brian Peterson of Grande Prairie."
"A communication mixup and we ended up on a sand bar"
"We had good charts provided by the fine people of Ft. Chipewyan also Kevin Gray and John Laniniga did chart some sections to be sure of the river conditions. At 5:30 PM there was a mixup with communication and we ended up stopped on a sand bar. The “Original Muskrat” quickly pulled the Idlewild sideways and was soon free and clear with the assistance of a wake from ‘Vidar’. We carried on to near Fort Fitzgerald to anchor for the night. "
Stuck on Boyer Rapids
"With the rainy dawn on June 16 we prepared and soon had both jet boats out and were pulling the Idlewild out of the water with a loader provided by Dave Hehn and Glen Friend. With a couple wheel problems that were started when we were stuck on Boyer Rapids, and we were delayed a few times and got into Fort Smith Northwest Territories with total mileage to date of 870 miles from Dunvegan."
Cheers from the crew of the Idlewild."
The route will take the sailors through the Northwest Territories' Slave and Mackenzie Rivers Northwest to the Arctic Ocean, the Northwest Passage to Greenland, Africa, Australia, Japan, Alaska, the western section of the Northwest Passage and back home to Canada.
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