Northwest Passage report

Berrimilla Down-Under-Mars: 7355 09542 and a serious point at the end

And now we have ice - not too serious but a lot of it all around us. Blue, old ice in big lumps. Heading direct for Limestone Island - just visible 9 miles away in the murk.
...
We are about 50 miles from Beechey, where Franklin spent 2 winters (I think) and where Torrington, Brayne and Hartnell are still. Sadly, there's no chance we will be going there - all the signs say get out of here as fast as possible.

More on this later, but we have been astoundingly lucky so far and I don't think we could have got through a day earlier. If all the six or seven boats that we know about get through this year, there will be a hundred trying next year. For their benefit, I think I should say loud and clear that it isn't as easy as it might look. It has been the most difficult thing I have ever done - makes Cape Horn look like a jolly by comparison - and we have done it in an easy year. If just a couple of things had gone the other way, we could have been in very serious trouble - and we're by no means on our way home yet.