High Arctic Expedition Where Art Meets Land

Cross the Arctic Circle

Your journey begins in Kangerlussuaq, which means “big fjord” in Kalaallisut, and the name fits. The town grew up around an American airbase built during the Second World War, chosen for its sheltered inland setting and steady flying weather.

From the airstrip, a Zodiac carries you to the ship, and the fjord leads the way west. Rounded mountains rise over wide glacial valleys, and meltwater turns the shallows a milky turquoise. As the fjord opens toward Davis Strait, you cross the Arctic Circle and leave the land behind. Land, then fjord, then open sea. The North begins here.

Included Meals

Dinner on-board

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Greenland’s Rugged Western Shore

Cruise along the dramatic Sisimiut coast, where mountains rise sharply from the sea and small settlements cling to the shoreline. This region reflects Greenland’s seafaring traditions, with communities deeply tied to land and water. As you sail, shifting light continually redraws the
jagged peaks, revealing new textures, colours, and contours along the coast.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Where Icebergs Are Born

Ilulissat means “icebergs,” and you’ll see why the moment you arrive. At the head of the UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord, Sermeq Kujalleq is one of the fastest-moving glaciers on Earth. It sends enormous icebergs drifting slowly through the fjord and into Disko Bay, so the view never looks the same twice.

People have lived beside this ice for more than four thousand years, and the town is still lively. Fishing boats fill the harbour. Restaurants serve Greenlandic ingredients, and cafés and shops line streets full of locals and travellers. The Ilulissat Icefjord Centre is worth visiting. Ancient history, everyday life, and a landscape that is always changing, all at the edge of the ice.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Cathedrals of Ice

Today you sail among towering glaciers and drifting icebergs, each one a sculpture in white and blue that keeps changing shape. Listen for the crack and boom of calving ice echoing through the fjords.

Mountains rise sheer above water crowded with floes. It’s huge, raw, and never still. Stand on deck long enough and you’ll start to wonder how anyone ever tried to capture this in paint, on film, or in words. Maybe that’s the point. Some things you just have to see for yourself.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Upernavik: The Springtime Place

Here, Greenland’s coast breaks into a maze of islands, narrow channels, and drifting ice.

Upernavik means “the springtime place,” and it rises out of all that rock and water in a sweep of brightly painted houses above a working harbour. Fishing and hunting still anchor life across this archipelago, linking Upernavik to the small communities scattered along the coast.

Wander the historic quarter, the world’s northernmost open-air museum, where the old church, trading buildings, boats, and tools tell the story of an earlier era. Rock, sea, ice, and people who have made a life at the top of the world.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Northward Through Melville Bay

Today we keep heading north through Melville Bay, tracing Greenland’s coast toward Smith Sound. Icebergs drift past in a slow parade, and distant mountains line the horizon.

Keep your binoculars close. Seabirds wheel overhead, and there’s always a chance of whales. A full day on board gives you time to slow down and look closely.

Join a presentation or workshop, or pull up a chair with one of our educators to talk wildlife, history, and the cultures of the High Arctic. In between, the decks are where it all happens: someone spots a fin, someone else grabs a camera, and the North keeps unfolding around you.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Smith Sound: The Great Upwelling

Today we sail through Smith Sound, the narrow channel between Baffin Bay and Kane Basin, into the heart of Pikialasorsuaq. The name means “great upwelling” in Kalaallisut, and in Nunavut it’s known as Sarvarjuaq. Even when the sea around it freezes, this water stays open, making it the largest polynya in the Arctic and one of the richest stretches of ocean north of the Arctic Circle. Nutrients rise from the deep, and life follows. Whales, seals, and millions of seabirds gather here to feed. Grab your binoculars and a warm layer.

This is where the Arctic comes alive.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Kane Basin:
Where Two Lands Nearly Meet

Today we sail into Kane Basin, where Ellesmere Island and Greenland come within reach of each other. Glaciers tower over drifting sea ice, and the Arctic light changes the scene by the hour. Inuit travelled these waters long before anyone else.

Later, expeditions followed, some searching for Franklin’s lost crew and others racing for the North Pole. The basin takes its name from American explorer Elisha Kent Kane, who crossed it in 1854 during his own search for Franklin. Stand at the rail and take it in. So many stories have passed through this stretch of ice and water.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Mountains at the Edge of the World

Explore the rugged coastline of Ellesmere, Canada’s northernmost island. Towering mountains, vast ice caps, and deep fjords define a landscape of extraordinary scale.

Here, the High Arctic exceeds the images that first inspired us, revealing a world more intricate, dynamic, and alive than any single representation can capture.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Life in the Place That Never Thaws

Tucked between the mountains of southern Ellesmere Island and the waters of Jones Sound, Ausuittuq (Grise Fiord) is Canada’s northernmost civilian community. Its Inuktitut name means “the place that never thaws,” after the ice that holds fast above town.

In 1953 and 1955, the Canadian government relocated Inuit families here from Inukjuak and Mittimatalik, partly to assert Canadian sovereignty in the High Arctic. The hardship and injustice they faced are remembered in a monument overlooking the shore.

Today, Ausuittuq is held together by family, language, harvesting, and a strong sense of community.

Come ready to listen. This is their story to tell.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Whales, Ice, and Vast Horizons

Today we sail through Tallurutiup Imanga (Lancaster Sound), one of Canada’s largest marine protected areas. Watch for whales, seals, and seabirds as the ship slips beneath towering cliffs and past drifting ice, the water catching the light.

Then step ashore on Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island on Earth. Glaciers spill into the sea, and the tundra rolls out through wide glacial valleys. There are no roads, no buildings, and no noise but the wind. Find a quiet spot and just be here.

Included Meals

All on-board meals 

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Beechey Island:
Where the Franklin Mystery Begins

Beechey Island is where the Franklin story becomes real. HMS Erebus and HMS Terror spent the winter of 1845–46 here, then sailed south and were never seen again. Walk the narrow, windswept shore and you’ll find the graves of three crew members, the remains of their winter camp, stone cairns, and traces left by the search parties who came after. Beechey later became a base for that massive search, which ended up mapping much of the Canadian Arctic.

Inuit testimony was key all along. It helped trace the crew’s final movements and, generations later, led searchers to the lost ships. Today it’s a National Historic Site, and a place to sit with the bigger picture: what Franklin’s failure opened up, and what it meant for the Inuit whose homeland this has always been.

Included Meals

All on-board meals

Accommodations

Your cabin on the Ocean Nova

Qausuittuq (Resolute)
The Place With No Dawn

Our journey ends on Cornwallis Island, among gravel plains and raised beaches, in Qausuittuq (Resolute). The Inuktitut name means “place with no dawn,” after the long polar night. In summer it’s the opposite, with light that lingers around the clock.

The modern community began with the High Arctic Relocation of 1953. Since then, the Qausuitturmiut have built a place all their own, now a hub for northern research, transportation, and expedition travel. This morning we disembark and transfer to the airport for the charter flight to Ottawa. Inuit travel routes, explorers’ paths, and everyday northern life have crossed here for a long time. It’s a fitting place to turn south, carrying the North home with you.

Included Meals

Breakfast