Quiet day

A quiet day at sea sailing south. Beautiful sunrise, blue sky all day, strange to be just above zero degrees, no ice, lots of interesting talks to attend. We are now anchored off Herschel Island on the north coast of Yukon near the US border.

The first European to sight the island was Franklin, 20 years before his final voyage.  It had a big whaling station from the mid-19th century until 1966 when commercial whaling was banned in this area, mainly catching Bowhead Whales. There is still a small amount of subsistence whaling by the native peoples. The Bowhead Whale population is listed as “vulnerable”.  Wonderfully we saw one this afternoon though too far away for a picture.

Late change of main image from sunrise to moon rise - just past full, but blood red.