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On Sept. 7, local RCMP boarded the vessel and immediately seized 200 liquor bottles with as estimated “street value” of $40,000 (in the dry community, black-market alcohol prices can run to hundreds of dollars per bottle). Mounties also seized $15,000 worth of illegal fireworks.

The officers appear to have been acting on a tip-off from the community. “The Cambridge Bay RCMP would like to thank the public for their continued support in combatting illegal activities in the North,” police wrote in a Sept. 20 news release.

Mr. McDonald was charged with providing liquor to a minor and possessing liquor “other than when authorized.” Each charge carries a fine of $5,000.

“They have until November the 15th to pay those fines,” said Sgt. Kristine Wood. of the Cambridge Bay RCMP.

It is not known whether Mr. McDonald intends to fly back to the remote community to face justice. But a $10,000 cheque Mr. McDonald left with Cambridge Bay authorities bounced, according to Nunatsiaq News, and on September 20th the Fortrus successfully entered the Pacific Ocean, via the Bering Strait, and is now headed for the Panama Canal.

On the Australian website Sail-World.com, fellow sailors worried Monday that their country’s reputation in northern waters may be at risk, as the Fortrus incident could “affect all Australian cruising sailors in the future who try to transit the great Passage.”

Details of the raid were carefully omitted from the expedition’s official blog, TrackingFortrus.com. “Due to some weather, we decided to stay in Cambridge Bay for a few extra days,” reads a Sept. 10 post.