Northwest passage 3, Monday September 1, 2025 Kugluktuk

Kugluktuk on a bright sunny day

That was a pretty full day and the beginning of it seems like it was ages ago. We were up at 6 in order to get ourselves ready and get some of the continental breakfast. I’m going to be eating breakfast on this trip which I don’t usually do but it’s the best time to be able to get a good amount of beans and grains. Unfortunately this morning, there weren’t any of those on offer, scones, and other floury things with jam, honey or marmalade. I was hoping for some peanut butter but there was none to be had.

The sky was almost clear today so there was actually sun that we could see. We boarded buses that took us to the airport. They were of the school, made-for-small-children variety, and I ended up sitting over a wheel with my pack on my lap.

Crammed onto a school bus

I couldn’t see ahead but I could see out the side window and I took full advantage of that. We were on the second of three flights, and much to my surprise, we didn’t have to go through security. One of the people on staff who is doing a bird count from the ship, explained that if you go south you need to go through security but if you are going within the territory or between territories you don’t have to.

Our plane was an Avro RJ85 -RJ100. I don’t know if ours was RJ 85 or RJ 100. I just copied the info off the safety card in the seat pocket. I was on the aisle and, much like the flight to Yellowknife, I couldn’t see out a window. It was a short flight just over an hour and they served us a ham and cheese sandwich, with carrots and cherry tomatoes on the side, some sort of cake/ pie, and an orange which was very good. The veggies were fresh too. Then they came around with Oreos or Cheezies for a snack. I thought it a bit odd to have a snack right after lunch but I went along with it.

In Kugluktuk we boarded buses that took us to the recreation complex. In the hockey arena side there were people selling handicrafts. Some were very nice but I’m not really in the market for any more Inuit crafts unless the are drop dead spectacular. We went to the museum which was small and were welcomed by a diminutive woman who told us her name was Nancy. She had traditional chin tattoos and crinkles at the corners of her eyes.

There was a taxidermied golden eagle right out in the middle of the room, not behind glass or anything. I knew eagles were big but there’s something very sobering about standing beside one that comes up to your waist.

Stuffed eagle

There were also several kayaks. That’s not the Inuit which I should have written down and didn’t. One was a model made of skin; one looked like it was covered by treated canvas, and the third one, which was full size, was also covered in skin.

Kayak skin-covered I think

We got into a conversation with another one of the passengers who is a model-boat builder. He has built a model of the Erebus partially based on a video clip taken by someone on the Adventure Canada trip the year they got to visit the dive platform. He knows a lot about historic ships of the Arctic and it will be interesting to talk to him again at some point.

Next on the agenda was a presentation at the rec centre. I can only describe it as a concert with singing and drumming. One of the younger women explained that she and a number of others in her age group sat down with the elders to learn the traditional songs because they were dying out. I can’t remember off hand how many took part in the performance. There was an elder man, a teenaged boy, and a line of women. In the past I’ve mostly seen the men drumming but the women also took turns with the drum.

Detail on her amauti

Elder woman drumming

Photo by Michael Winsor

The singing is what I’d describe as speak singing and the interplay of the voices and the drum was really interesting. At times the beat of the drum seemed to match the singing and at other times it seemed, to my ear, to be off but my ear has had very little practice listening to this type of music. The concert lasted for about an hour with various people taking turns with the drum. Sometimes there were others besides the drummer dancing. One of the woman played the drum and danced with her child in her amauti.  The child wasn’t a tiny baby either and I admired her stamina.

Woman with baby dancing and drumming

I forgot to mention that they also offered us caribou soup which was very tasty and a kind of fried bread. It wasn’t bannock, at least the kind I have had before. They also had cookies and fresh fruit, cantaloupe, grapes, pineapple, and apple sections. The fruit was very fresh and a nice accompaniment to the soup and bread.

Women singing

caribou soup and bannock

We found a little corner from where we could stand and watch the performance. There were a couple of Inuit women sitting in front of us and one offered me her seat. I explained that I would rather stand so I could take photos. At the end I thanked her and she told me that she was teaching Inutitut to students from grade 9 to 12. She said she had started teaching them in kindergarten, then in elementary school, and now in high school. In this was young people are learning their traditional language. As we left she smiled and wished us a safe journey.

It was a short walk to the beach where the zodiacs cued up to take us to the ship. We hung back because we didn’t want to be in the crush trying to get on the first few boats. Everyone was going to get picked up eventually so why worry about it? We got into our splash pants, jackets, gloves, and toques before we left the building and were among the last on the beach. Richard found a life jacket and someone brought one over to me. They are a different style than we’ve had in the past and it took a few minutes for Richard to get his so it was fitting properly.

We weren’t the last zodiac. There were probably two more behind us. John Houston was our driver and we had a bit of trouble getting the boat off the bottom. John gunned the engine and when that didn’t work the helpers on shore pushed and we moved from the shore side pontoon into the centre of the boat in order to get it launched. One of the guys made a joke that John was a great driver and usually got 75% of his passengers safely to the ship. We all laughed appropriately. John said that we were the drama boat.

Our zodiac's not going anywhere

When we had covered about a third of the distance, the engine coughed and died. John swapped out the empty fuel tank for a full one but still couldn’t get the motor started. He then tried to bleed some of the air out of the line but the thing still refused to start. In the meantime, three other zodiacs had come over to offer assistance. With the third offer John and the other driver decided to transfer us to the other boat.

The suggested method for this was to sit on the pontoon of our zodiac, put one leg into the other zodiac, and then kind of flip yourself into the other boat. I ended up needing quite a tug to get me from one boat to the other. Some people chose to go between boats on hands and knees and I think that would have been easier. Despite the lack of graceful manoeuvring, we all made it into the rescue boat leaving John and one of the seaman to wrestle with the offending motor. I saw John on board later so they must have persuaded the engine to start.

Before we could embark we had an ‘abandon ship’ drill. This time we didn’t actually have to put on the lifejackets which saved quite a bit of time. Then we had a briefing, and a boot fitting. Both Richard and I ended up in smaller sized boots this time. Not sure why but the smaller sized seemed to work better.

New this year was the biosecurity protocol. We took packs, boots, and any clothing that might harbour seeds to a designated spot where they were examined and vacuumed. We were cautioned to be very aware of Velcro or mesh and to check it each time we came back to the ships. We also had the soles of our boots scrubbed with some sort of disinfectant. After that it was time for supper. Tonight was a buffet but most nights you order off the menu.

After supper we spent some time in the Meridian Club on the uppermost deck watching the scenery go by and chatting with others. At breakfast we met Ursula who is from Cologne Germany. She says she only has high school English but her English is about 100 times better than my high school German! She said that the people on the mic spoke too fast for her to catch much. We offered to help her whenever she needed it. She had some questions at supper and Richard helped her with the schedule for tomorrow. Later Alana, the host, came by our table and said that there were three other people from Germany on the tour and that two of the AC staff spoke fluent German. She was going to introduce Ursula to the other German speakers. I’m sure we’ll check in with Ursula fairly often. She’s lively and cheerful and has a great sense of humour. I wouldn’t do nearly as well if you plunked me down into the middle of a ship of German speakers.

The last thing of importance today, and one of the highlights, was connecting with friends from previous expeditions. We met Robert Comeau very briefly at the airport in Kugluktuk. He was coming off the ship and heading home. He said we were in for a great trip. Even though we only saw him for a minute or two it was great to meet him in person after keeping track of him via Facebook for the last few years. Jon and Julie are assistant expedition leaders so we will have more time to catch up with them. Derek, Darrell, Liz, Marissa, and Chris are all members of the team we know from previous trips.

Julie told me part of the story of our thwarted Into the Northwest Passage trip that I didn’t know about before. I’ll relate that in another post. I’m done for the night. It’s been a long full day and we have to be up at 6 to hit the zodiacs at 7 tomorrow morning. My CPAP mask has not been co-operating so I hope I get a better sleep tonight. I had one really good night’s sleep with it at home and, foolishly, thought I had the problem solved. Apparently I don’t.