Gone North

@#$%$# Weather

2007-03-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

Well I get spend another day in Igloolik. My flight this morning was cancelled due to weather conditions. Apparently 50' visibility, 60 km/h wind gusts and a wind chill of -60 has caused the airline to cancel today's flight. Hopefully I'll get out on Monday. On the bright side originally I was supposed to be arriving back in Comox today but having changed my plans several weeks ago this delay hasn't turned into a logistical nightmare. Ultimately as long as I get to Iqaluit by Wednesday I should still get home Thursday.

I am still planning on teaching my interdiction course in Iqaluit starting Monday but it will now start at 1:30 and run till a little later in the evening and I should be able to make up for the missed morning section. It will just mean no questions and no breaks. Well maybe a few coffee breaks.

The high speed Internet I was using to upload photo's has been down for 4 days now so I haven't been able to post any new pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to add a few of Today's weather when I get to Iqaluit. (If I get to Iqaluit, maybe I am destined for a northern post after all.) Now that I've been here more than 30 days I'll have to see if staffing will show this as a transfer when I get back. Then when they come knocking I can say I've done a LDP.

Delayed

2007-03-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

Well I was all set to leave Igloolik on the 3:45P.M. flight on Saturday. Unfortunately when I arrived at the airport I was told that due to mechanical problems the flight was delayed out of Iqaluit. The plane was eventually cancelled at 5:30P.M. so lucky me I got to spend another night here. Unfortunately I had packed everything away and was loathe to start unpacking things.

I woke up Sunday morning looked out the window and things did not look promising. Visibility was about 200' with blowing snow. We have been hit by the first real big storm since I got here. Fortunately here its just a wind warning. 2 hours south in Hall Beach it is a full Blizzard warning so I am wondering if there will be any flights getting in today. The plane normally flies from Iqaluit to Hall Beach then here.

For me I can say that today was the coldest I have experienced since being here. I nearly froze on the two minute walk from the house to the office to write this. It is currently -38 with a wind chill of wait wait -60. Personally I think that's just a little too cold.

My flight today was supposed to be at noon and its currently 10:00. I should find out in about 1/2 hour what is happening with my travel arrangements. If I make it to Iqaluit today I'll be pretty surprised. If I don't well I'll probably post some sort of call for help on this blog.

last Day

2007-03-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

Well its hard to believe but 4 weeks has gone by already. Today is my last day here and I have to say I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I would recommend it to anyone. This morning I did my first and possibly last uniformed snow mobile patrol. We left just after 9:00 in -27 degree weather and a wind chill of -37. We headed west of town to an area where a number of locals including my co-worker Mike have cabins. It was small but cozy. We then looped around behind town and back to the office. Needless to say it took me a few minutes to warm up.

The last few weeks have been busy and I have dealt with everything from thefts to an attempt robbery so there is certainly enough to keep a person busy. The weather other than being cold has been great, clear blue skies everyday and lots of sunshine now that the sunrise is before 8:00 A.M. I can hardly believe that when I got here sunrise was around 9:30. In a month daylight has increased by three hours.

While groceries are on the expensive side I did not find prices completely unreasonable with the exception of pop which is now at $4.00 a can. The nice thing is you can actually get some fresh produce and fruit here and many of the locals get food mail from Quebec or Ontario on a regular basis. You order by fax and the food is shipped up. You pay approx $0.80 per Kg but it is still cheaper for many things than buying them here and it means you can get fairly fresh food. Last night I was invited to dinner and we had Pasta with fresh peppers and broccoli as well as a fresh salad.

The only real downside I've found is even with two you're always on call so you can't really take off on the skidoo for a couple hours as you need to be available for backup if required. For a month it wasn't too bad but after a few months I can see where that would wear thin.

I've taken a bunch more photo's and will try and upload those tonight or tomorrow before I leave Igloolik. After that I will be in Iqaluit for 4.5 days as I have arranged to instruct an interdiction course before I leave the north.

6 more days and I'll be back home. hard to believe

Last Week

2007-02-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well one more week to go. The last three weeks seem to have gone by awful fast. This last week in particular was very busy work wise with a number of files keeping me occupied. I wrote up a few reports to crown so who knows maybe I'll get called back for court so I can see Igloolik in the summer time. I've also managed to avoid doing traffic work even though at times the thought of pulling over a skidoo for excessive noise is overwhelming

Last night (Friday) There was a birthday party at the high school for one of the teachers. They opened up the gym and there was about 25-30 people there so we started out with a game of dodge ball. Now I haven't played dodge ball in a long time and it was surprisingly fun. However, they were not using the old hard rubber balls filled up to 20psi that I remember as a kid. Instead they were using softer Nerf type balls, somehow the fear factor of getting hit wasn't quite the same but lots of fun.

I had thought about taking the skidoo out today but its -40 with the windchill and that's just a little too cold. Hopefully I'll get out tomorrow as it is supposed to be a little warmer and hopefully a little less windy.

Sundog

2007-02-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

If you look closely you can see a halo around the sun. When I took this photo it was quite cold and windy causing ice crystals to get into the air and thus the halo. I am led to believe this is what is known as a sundog. If I am incorrect let me know.

Basketball

2007-02-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday night is drop in Basketball at the local school. I went with Mike the other member here. Aside from ourselves there was 9 Inuit so we had a pretty good game of 5 aside basketball. We played 2 1/2 hour halves so it was a pretty good workout. Everyone was there for a good time and quite a few of the players brought their wives and kids with them. There is also floor hockey on thursdays so I'll have to give that a try this week. So for anyone thinking of coming up here there are things to do in your off time if you look around.

No Public Service Staff

2007-02-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

One thing that takes some getting used to is having no public service staff. Anyone who takes P.S.'s for granted should have to come up here for pennance. I thought doing CPIC entries and looking after exhibits weren't too bad but there is a lot more work here than one would think that has little to do with actual policing. Friday Iqaluit crown faxed the subpoena list for court. They don't fax subpoena's its up to the members to type them up, then get them signed by a local Justice of the Peace then go and serve them. Needless to say with my typing skills it took a little over two hours to get them all done. We also do all our own informations up here. On the bright side I am learning all sorts of new things that no one ever does down south

Work

2007-02-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

Work is going well. So far I've only been called out twice since I arrived here. Last night we were called out at 3:00 A.M. needless to say I was a little disoriented at first but as soon as I got out in the -30 air to go out to the truck I was awake. I have to give the guys in these small detachments a lot of credit. Even though only one person is on call most after hours calls that need attendance require both members so you have to expect to be called out every night. I think that would wear thin pretty quick but the members are up here for two and three years dealing with this all the time. All I know is I will not miss the on call stuff.

Right now we are running about 1 file a day. Mostly thefts and break and enters. Not too bad, I even managed to get a confession on a break and enter so who knows maybe I'll get a summer trip back for court.

Hope everyone is doing well. Will write more later

Sledding

2007-02-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

This is a brother and sister that were out sledding in their yard. Age 3 and 5. They were having a great time despite the cold and the snow. It makes me think back to when I was a kid and you would be outside for hours even though it was -20 out. Now I'm out for 10 minutes and I'm thinking man I can't wait to get in where its warm.

Elementary School

2007-02-15T18:08:00.001-08:00

Here is the elementary school playground at lunch time. About 1/2 the kids run around and the other 1/2 play soccer, which seems to be the most popular outdoor sport during class breaks as you always see lots of the kids playing. I am told the school currently has about 65 students. There is actually a school bus here that looks like it would be at home in Courtenay. It picks kids up in the morning and then takes them home after school even though most of the kids walk home. The School is alsmost in the middle of town so none of the kids has more than about a 5 minute walk.

Snowmobile

2007-02-15T17:53:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I took the detachment snowmobile out for a cruise. I went north of town and as you can see once you get away from Igloolik there is not much out there. It's easy to see how people could get easily lost. It was about -25 when I went out but thanks to the magic of heated handlebars and a fair bit of layering I found it quit comfortable. Did not see any wildlife but considering how much noise the machine made that is hardly a surprise.

Questions

2007-02-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

If anyone leaves questions in the comments I will respond to these in the comments section as well so just click where you left your question and hopefully there will be an answer.

Sunrise

2007-02-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken at 9:45 on February 8.

Just a few Igloolik facts. The population here is 1600. 90% are Inuit and generally speaking everyone here speaks Inuktituk. Power is supplied to the town by four diesel generators. Fuel for those and the vehicles in town is supplied once a year by a tanker that comes into port and pumps fuel up to a three large fuel storage containers to the west of town. The houses are heated with fuel oil and water is supplied via a tanker truck that gets water from a well system just outside the town limits. The tankers supplying fuel oil and water are running pretty much 10 hours a day and just keep going from house to house. Each residence has heated storage tanks either under the house or inside the house that hold water and sewage. There are a couple of sewage trucks that come around and clean out the tanks. Sewage is disposed of at a series of open sewage lagoons east of town.

There is an Anglican and catholic church here. There are two stores, and two hotels both of which have small restaurants. The one hotel does pizza delivery and I had a chance to have their Arctic Char pizza (similar fish to salmon) and its was excellent. So far the people here have been very friendly.

The detachment boundary is approximately 35 miles south of Igloolik and 500 miles north and is somewhat egg shaped. There are no other communities within the area, however, there are a number of temporary camps that are used for hunting.

If anyone has particular questions post them in the comments and I will try and answer them.

Co-op Parking Lot

2007-02-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

As you can see snowmobiles are the primary means of transport. There are 1600 people here and only about 40 trucks. Everyone else owns a snowmobile. After taking this photo I went into the store to pick up a couple things. I got a box of crackers, loaf of bread and a package of lunch meat. Cost $16.45. Needless to say I may start eating snow.

Street Hockey

2007-02-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

The cold weather doesn't keep the local kids from enjoying Canada's game. At the time I took this photo it was -20 with a windchill of -28. It didn't dampen their spirit though. After I took this photo (I was working at the time) I stopped by to talk to the kids. They informed me that their goalie was better than Richard Brodeur. I figured I better put that assumption to the test. After a couple warm up shots which were stopped I joined in the game for a few minutes. I did manage to put one past the goalie, and no I didn't hip check the kids into the snow and then pepper spray the goalie to score.

For those that may be wondering there is a elementary school, a high school and a satellite college building here. The kids learn only in Inuktituk till grade 3 then they start taking English. Everyone here as a result is fluently bilingual. Most of the teachers here are on 3 year contracts, most are young and just out of University. For some Nunavut was the first place that offered them employment. That being said there are a few that have been up here for some time.

Igloolik Sunset

2007-02-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken at 3:30P.M. sunset here is at 3:45. Both the sunsets and sunrises are quite beautiful. For those who like watching the sun come up the great thing is you can sleep in till 9:30 and still catch the sunrise. Right now sunrise is at approx 9:45 with sunset at 3:45. The sun only rises about 20 degrees from the horizon and then tracks around to the west. There is no sun here from mid November till mid January. The average winter temperature here is -35 and there is a fairly constant wind. The wind chill generally subtracts about another 10 degrees. Today for example it was -28 but the wind chill was -37. And to all those I told the wind chill doesn't count, it does. While it doesn't make a big difference when bundled up it is very noticable on any exposed skin such as a person's face. I made the mistake of taking my mits off to deal with a lock and within about a minute my hands were freezing. When the wind drops off it seems alot warmer.

Work

2007-02-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

After a few days here I am starting to get into the swing of things. It is somewhat different in the fact that you do everything here. There is no public service staff so you do your own exhibits, CPIC entries, filing, maintenance ect. Today I started out by
obtaining make and model information for all the furnaces in the detachment, and the out buildings.

It also turns out we administer driving tests here for people who want a licence. Being a dedicated traffic man that task fell to me. Of course a road test here is a little different. There are no intersection lights and only two four way stops in town. There are no highways so the road test consists of making sure they yeild at the three yeild signs, stop at one of the stop signs and signal their turns. Parallel parking is also no existant so we just get the person to back in beside another parked vehicle. If they manage to do all that and not exceed the max posted limit in town of 50 km/h (Which is only on the 1/2 km trip up to the airport then they get a Nunavut Licence which I understand is only good in Nunavut.

Also had a couple warrants to execute today. I made the mistake of getting out at the first residence without my gloves on thinking how cold can my hands get in 1 or 2 minutes. Pretty damm cold. Walking from the truck to the house and waiting for someone to come to the door my hands nearly froze.

The weekend was remarkably quite so for those of you that like constant action you may want to give this place a miss. I know it's busy at times here but over the weekend (including friday) we had two complaints 1 theft of a computer and 1 domestic that turned out to be just an argument.

Its supposed to warm up a bit over the next few days but the wind remains pretty cold. It got up to -27 today but the wind chill since I've got here has never got above -40. I used to think the wind chill didn't really count but trust me it does.

If it does get a little warmer I hope to take out the detachment ski doo and go for a burn.

I will post more photo's but probably not till the weekend as I have to borrow a computer as the works ones will allow me to add text but not upload photo's.

Thats it for now. Take care

Out for a Walk

2007-02-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

Went out for a walk Saturday afternoon. This Inukshuk is about 1 km from where I am staying. Not too far but I did manage to get some frostbite on my face as it was -40 with the wind chill. I ended up covering about 3 km. The snow is packed like concrete so its easy to walk on. Even the drifts will support a persons weight. Now I know why I could never build an igloo as a kid.

Inukshuk

2007-02-03T22:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo of the moon rising over an Inukshuk just outside Igloolik. This photo was taken at 2:30 P.M. (click on photo to view full size)

At the Beach

2007-02-03T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here I am at the beach in Igloolik. I actually have a great beach view from my bedroom window. However, I haven't seen anyone going for a swim yet.

Igloolik Detachment

2007-02-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

This is the Igloolik detachment. The force housing is just to the right. The housing is quite nice. Two floors three bedrooms and hardwood floors. Nice big kitchens as well. The would actually work well for a family. Unfortunately you would be stuck in the house alot. When I took this photo it was -35.

Iqaluit

2007-02-03T20:58:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of an Inuksuk I took on the hill above Iqaluit. The view is towards downtown. If you click on the picture it will show it in an expanded size

First Day

2007-02-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

Well its my first day Igloolik relief. So far no calls which is a good thing because its -34 with a wind chill of -47. On the bright side its sunny out and I'm inside the detachment. Just had one of the locals come in and temporarily incarcerate himself as he thought he might get into trouble and wanted to take preemtive measures. Its too bad we can't get our southern clients to do the same. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as I really don't want to go outside right now.

No Photo's

2007-02-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

Due to technical problems I seem unable to upload photo's. Hopefully I will get this problem fixed in the next few days. In the meantime no pictures just ramblings

Travel To Igloolik

2007-02-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is doing well. I am now up in Igloolik after Three days of travel. I though I might not even get to leave initially because the Comox airport was fogged in but Westjet did manage to land. The trip to Calgary was great as each seat had its own satellite T.V. I could watch any number of channels for free. Although I decided to skip Discovery Chanel as they were running top 10 air disasters so I went with global news instead. Unfortunately no T.V.'s for the trip to Ottawa. Go figure TV for a 1.5 hour trip, no T.V. for a 3.5 hour trip.

Left Ottawa on the 31st and flew up to Iqaluit. The flight was uneventful however, on landing it turned out the exit door was frozen stuck and it took 20 minutes to get the doors open so we could disembark. As I had already had lunch I wandered around town and looked around. I walked up the hill behind town where I took the photo of the small inukshuk. I was later asked why on earth I would walk that far. It did seem like a good idea at the time although it was a bit of a climb to the top. However, it was a balmy -27 and I didn't really have much else to do. I did check out the local North Mart. It is Iqaluit's answer to Wal Mart only more expensive. 2 liters of Milk was $7.00 and Green Peppers were $6.99lb. However, it was handy to see that they had a large selection of Ski Doo's sitting beside the boxes of Diapers. I can just see it now explaining to Patti that I went for diapers for Rowan and came back with a brand new ski doo instead. Incidently the diapers were $69.99 for a box. I did have an excellent dinner at the Frobisher, Arctic Char with veg and a beer. Cost was $44.00. I don't think that was completely unreasonable as a similar meal down south would have probably run around $30.00

Flew out to Igloolik on the 1st. It is definitely colder here, -30 with a wind chill of -40, compared to Iqaluit where it was -25. Met Mike Siedman whom I am replacing. He seemed glad to see me as he was leaving on the plane I just got off of. I had a quick tour of town and then my co-worker Mike Simpson left me to my own devices. I had lunch and wandered around town checked out the two stores and walked down to the beach. I'm sure it’s a great place to get some sun in the summer.

That's about it for now. Please feel free to post comments so I know you haven't forgotten me.

2007-01-25T13:15:00.000-08:00

I received an e-mail from the Igloolik RCMP detachment
apparently the Starbucks closed down to make way
for a new factory outlet mall. As such I will be
unable to sip lattes and send e-mails over a wifi
hot spot. I think cell text messaging is also out.

However, on the bright side they just got a new
high speed Internet hook-up. I think they said
something about 28.8.

2007-01-25T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here I am with Rowan and Connor
Prior to leaving for Igloolik