A sturdy Zodiac Rigid Inflatable Boat served our icebreaker as a transfer craft to carry landing parties between ship and shore. The Louis crew deployed the Zodiac by lowering it over the side of the ship with a crane.

The icebreaker was never able to dock and set us ashore by tying up to a pier, because there simply weren't any such facilities in this wilderness. A helicopter or landing craft is necessary to set foot ashore anywhere in the region because there are no deepwater ports in the entire Arctic.

That situation may change with the opening of the Northwest Passage to increased shipping by the ice-melt of global warming.