I’ve been blogging about the Northwest Passage for a while now and I just realized that the details of this place have not always been in the forefront of my writing.

Encyclopedia Britannica defines the “Northwest Passage” as

“Northwest Passage, historical sea passage of the North American continent, representing centuries of effort to find a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic archipelago of what became Canada. One of the world’s severest maritime challenges, the route is located 500 miles (800 km) north of the Arctic Circle and less than 1,200 miles (1,930 km) from the North Pole. It consists of a series of deep CHANNELS through Canada’s Arctic Islands, extending about 900 miles (1,450 km) east to west, from north of Baffin Island to the Beaufort Sea, above Alaska. To reach the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic requires a hazardous voyage through a stream of about 50,000 giant icebergs, up to 300 feet (90 m) in height, constantly drifting south between Greenland and Baffin Island. The exit to the Pacific is equally formidable, because the polar ice cap presses down on Alaska’s shallow north coast much of the year and funnels masses of ice into the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Siberia.”

Here is a link to Britannica’s web page http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/420084/Northwest-Passage

Now that we are clear of the Northwest Passage, on the continent of Greenland, we will aim our sights on other  lands, off the beaten path. But not before telling the rest of our voyage through the beautiful, challenging arctic.