Glen Vienneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( May 15/00) - An infusion of cash has put wind back in the sails of this summer's St. Roch II voyage through the Northwest Passage.

"We're extremely happy it's a go," said Steve Rybak, project coordinator, of Vancouver Maritime Museum.

The museum's project, dubbed Voyage of Rediscovery, has received a $200,000 pledge from corporate sponsor from Alcan Aluminum Ltd..

The money will enable the RCMP vessel Nadon to recreate the voyage of the St. Roch, a journey to raise funds to help preserve the historic vessel.

The effort was jeopardized when sponsors were slow to jump aboard the effort to raise $3 million to preserve the original vessel.

The aluminum-hull Nadon and coast guard vessel Simon Fraser will head out from Vancouver July 1, and will stop first in Barrow, Alaska, before going to Herschel Island, Yukon.

Sometime in the first week of August, the vessels will be in Tuktoyaktuk and will stop in Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, King William Island, Taloyoak and Pasley Bay, reaching the western Arctic at Pond Inlet by early September.