White paint and patience

     Okay so this isn't the third in the series of Arctic trip posts but I'll get back to them, I promise. This morning at 6:30 my eyes popped open and I couldn't get back to sleep. (Stop laughing all of you larks who love to mock my night-owl ways!) I lay there for a while and had a lovely think which usually sends me right back to sleep. Not this morning. After about an hour I decided to get up and make some tea. I thought about writing a blog post and then realized I was a bit chilly and what I really wanted was to put on the puffy vest I bought aboard the Ocean Endeavour this summer. The vest was downstairs sitting on the desk beside the sewing machine.

     It's a bit of a story. I've discovered that aboard a ship the crew is always painting something. I don't think there was a single day that passed that I didn't see a crew member, paintbrush in hand, touching up railings or trim or something. Most of the time there were signs posted or areas were roped off, that is unless you happened to inadvertently get into an area you weren't supposed to be in. There were sliding glass doors on either side of the reception area which led to the stairs when the ship was docked. When the ship wasn't docked the stairs (gangway?) were stowed but you could still get out the glass doors. I had seen other people out there admiring the ice as we went on our way and I was in need of some fresh air so I went through the automatic doors and onto the small platform.

     I took some photos and, when I'd had enough fresh air, turned around to go back into the ship. Nothing happened. I waved my arms around, tried standing in different places. Still nothing happened. By this time I was getting a wee bit chilly and I also felt pretty stupid. There were people roaming around on the inside of the ship so I tried to get someone's attention. No luck. I didn't want to knock loudly on the glass and attract everyone's attention. I just wanted one kind soul to notice me and walk towards the doors so I could get in. Knocking on the glass was definitely an option but I decided before I did that I would try to see if there was another way in.

     I left my post by the door and walked toward the bow. Dead end. I walked back to the door and walked toward the stern. This was a bit trickier since the gangway was folded up and there wasn't much space between it and the side of the ship. I went as far as I could to another dead end. On the way I must have brushed against something. I went back to my station outside the glass doors and before I could knock, someone stepped into the magic zone that opened the doors for me. I walked inside trying to look nonchalant. No one took particular notice.

   After dinner that night I noticed there was something white on my vest. It didn't seem to want to brush off. No worries. I'd wash it out in the basin and all would be well in the morning. Nope. The substance on my vest wasn't coming out. When the vest was wet it looked hopeful but as it dried the white splotches where still there. I tried again when I got home pre-soaking the stain first. No luck. It must be white paint and the only place I can think of picking that up was on my little adventure outside the glass door.

     When I was in the library in Pond Inlet I picked up a patch to sew on my pack. It was bigger than most of the other patches and I wasn't sure where I'd put it. When I realized the stain wouldn't come out of the vest, I tried the patch to see if it would cover the white marks. It did so I pinned the patch on and then got distracted by something else and left the vest by the sewing machine. This morning when I was debating about what to do I decided it would be a good time to sew on the patch.

     As with most things the process wasn't straightforward. The patch needed to be sewn on above a pocket so I had to be careful to just catch the top layer of fabric. Also patches are nasty tough things and hand sewing isn't my favourite indoor sport. I started in, had to pull out several stitches several times and eventually got the patch on the vest. The house was quiet and as I sewed I thought about building the ukulele. How many times did I have to redo things? How many times did things actually got smoothly? Now many repairs have gone into it so far? I realized that I wasn't cranky when I had to pull out stitches. If I wanted the patch to lie relatively flat I had to fix the mistakes when I noticed them. It would take the time it would take.

     I don't know if I was a patient kid. I've long known I have patience for some things and not for others. What I realized this morning is that, on a good day, I can be patient when my usual response is irritation. On a good day...

They did what on a snowmobile? Arctic adventure #2

This shows the area we were in

The colours in Sisimiut

This summer we decided to pull out all the stops and take back-to-back trips with Adventure Canada. The one we took in 2015 to Newfoundland and Labrador was to have been a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We really liked it and we're getting to the age where it's better to do things now than later so off we went. The first trip was called an Arctic Safari and we were to visit places in Greenland and the Canadian North where there was a possibility of seeing wildlife. The second trip was Into the Northwest Passage and we hoped to visit the Franklin graves on Beechy Island as well as the national historic site that marks the wrecks of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

I left off with us sailing up the coast of Greenland and I'll pick it up there. We visited the town of Sisimiut twice, once on the Arctic Safari and once on the Into the Northwest Passage trip. The first time it was overcast and grey and the second time it was sunny. We were warned about people in Greenland being crazy drivers but there wasn't very much traffic and I didn't see anything that I'd call crazy. We did try to walk on the sides of the roads and not be stupid pedestrians.

We wandered around town, took photos and on our first stop there Richard and I both bought neck tubes made from muskox wool. They are very soft and very warm. I have a pair of socks that a friend gave me years ago and they travelled with me on this trip so both ends were warm thanks to the muskox.

I decided to go right back to the basics of photography by setting the camera on manual and shooting only in that mode. It was very instructive and, in a way, much simpler than learning what to do with all the whistles and bells on the contemporary cameras. If you like what's in the frame take the picture. If it's too light or too dark change one of the settings. I can't quite do that at lightning speed but it really helped me to make better choices rather than just setting the thing on auto.

We enjoyed the bright colours of the buildings in Greenland and found out that originally there was a colour code. Government buildings and the houses of government workers were painted a certain colour (can't remember which colour was which). Fishermen's buildings were another colour. It made for a good deal of visual interest against the grey sky.

The lake on the first visit

When we returned to Sisimiut for a second visit the sun was shining and the folks from the town were getting ready for snowmobile races. Yes, August and snowmobile races – on a lake – that wasn't frozen over! 

I couldn't imagine a snowmobile skimming across the surface of the water and was convinced they would get a few feet from shore and then sink. I was wrong. I hate to even think how the drivers got good at this but most of the ones we saw successfully remained upright as they took off from one end of the lake, drove to the other end, went around an orange buoy and then raced back and up onto the shore. 

This guy got a little cocky

We had to go back to the ship before the actual races began but it was a blast watching the two or three guys scoot around the lake in preparation for the real deal. I think they may have decided to take a spin because of the preponderance of 'blue penguins'* that lined the shore.

This is the result

The atmosphere was festive and we found a a good lookout spot on a rocky outcrop. As time passed more and more of the local people showed up. Some had coffee with them; others looked as though they had brought a picnic. There were lots of little kids and it was clearly a family affair.

Getting ready to roll

On both occasions in Sisimiut we were treated to a demonstration by a championship kayaker. It was incredible the number of ways he could roll the kayak. He did it with the paddle behind his head, with one hand on the paddle, with the paddle held against the hull of the kayak and at one point he did five rolls in quick succession. He wore a dry suit but had no gloves and his face was bare. I found out later that each kayaker usually makes his own kayak and that they are custom fitted so that water stays out and the kayak becomes a physical extension of the paddler. Although the covering materials have changed the kayak frames are still laced together. The wooden frames are covered with either canvas which is then oiled or nylon fabric which gets a coat of polyurethane. The Inuit used to salvage driftwood that washed up in order to build frames.

And under he goes!

On our first visit there was another cruise ship in the harbour. I got chatting to one of the guys travelling on it. According to him the ship had scraped an iceberg and divers were below checking the hull. I didn't get any more details than that and I wonder still what the whole story was.

I'm not sure how to end this elegantly so I guess I'll fill you in on the blue penguins and then stop. In the hotel in Ottawa one of the staff told us that we could recognize Adventure Canada staff by their white shirts and their black vests, kind of like penguins. Later when we were in a zodiac and a number of us had already landed, our driver commented that all the blue expedition jackets must be blue penguins. The name stuck.

Stay tuned. I'm not sure what I'll tackle next but I do want to get the trip recounted while it's relatively fresh in my mind. The organization may be a bit ragged. Luckily I'm not doing this for a grade. ;-)

Where have all the photos gone? Arctic Adventure #1

View from RCGS lunch

Where have all the photos gone? I'm not actually sure. Are they on my computer, in the Google cloud, in my camera, on my phone? That is partly why I haven't written a blog about the fabulous summer in the Arctic. I'm far from organized but I must start somewhere or I'll never get anything written or get any photos posted. This series of posts isn't going to be a chronological record but I will start at the beginning and try to pull a few photos from the pile.

Time for heavy clothes

We flew to Ottawa on Sunday August 5 expecting to spend the night and then fly to Resolute where we would meet the ship Ocean Endeavour to start our adventure. The adventure actually began in the hotel on Sunday night. Matthew James Swan our expedition leader welcomed us and gave us a quick lesson on ice charts. I'd never heard of ice charts before and I would say I'm quite familiar with them now. They are put out every 24 hours by the Canadian Ice Service and they ruled our lives for the month we were on Ocean Endeavour. On July 25 the passage into Resolute was completely clear. After that date the pack ice drifted in and choked the entrance. We were not going to Resolute. The ship had turned around half way across Baffin Bay and was heading back to Greenland. Thinking about the logistics of returning to Greenland made my head spin and for the first of many times I was extremely grateful that someone else had to handle the details.

Ocean Endeavour was hosting the “Students on Ice” program and the students had expected to get off the ship in Resolute and the fly from there to Ottawa on the planes we were planning to fly in on. Also, Resolute was to have been the resupply point for the ship. I don't know how all of this got worked out other than many people with a lot of experience worked many hours.

Our plane to Greenland

Our charter flights had to be cancelled and another carrier found who could, within 36 hours, get the proper paperwork for an international flight from Canada to Greenland. The company that managed to organize that was Sunwing. We all had a good laugh at the irony of that name.

In order to get everything arranged our departure was delayed. We were to spend Monday in Ottawa and fly overnight to Greenland. Suddenly Adventure Canada had over 200 people in Ottawa for a day and needed to do something with them. We had to vacate our rooms at noon and members of the Adventure Canada took turns babysitting our luggage during the day while we went on guided tours. In the morning we went on walking tours then were bused to The Royal Canadian Geographical Society for lunch. In the afternoon we went across to Hull to visit the Museum of Civilization and then back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner we changed into our warm clothes (Did I mention it was in the high 30's in Ottawa?) and boarded buses for the airport where Mother Nature gave us another taste of what we were in for. There was a wild thunder storm and all planes were grounded until it passed. The commercial flights had priority so we spent 4 hours in the airport before we were able to board the planes and take off. We arrived in Kagerlussaq at around 7 a.m. I got a bit of sleep on the plane but not much. We boarded buses and cleared Greenland customs. One official boarded each bus and walked down the aisle looking at our passports. When all was in order we drove to the dock transferred to the ship via zodiacs. 

Looking back at the dock in Kangerlussaq

Breakfast was waiting for us on the ship but before we could get underway there had to be a a boat safety drill. We ate breakfast and zombie-like followed instructions about lifeboats and lifejackets.We managed to get the lifejackets on and then off and when the drill was finished we went to our cabins for a few hours of shut-eye as the ship sailed up the coast of Greenland to Sisimiut. So ended the first lesson in Arctic travel: you may have plans but the wind, waves, and ice may have other ideas and it behoves you to pay close attention!

Critters on Lost Loon

Lost Loon Island

Grackle

 For an island of less than an acre in size, Lost Loon has quite a variety of wildlife and the birds were the first to command my attention. Within seconds of our arrival the grackles were commenting. John called them his management team because they vociferously supervised any activity on the north end of the island. When the chicks were hatching, the adults became aggressive and dive-bombed him regularly. By the time we got there the chicks must have fledged because the grackle community was content to scold us from the tree-tops. I don't know if we have grackles in Alberta but, if we do, they certainly aren't common. Instead we have magpies. There wasn't a magpie to be seen on Lost Loon. While the grackles aren't the prettiest of birds, they did give me a chance to practice with my DSLR camera, zoom lenses and teleconverter. I thought I could hold the camera pretty steady until I put the tele on and zoomed the lens out to its maximum. My technique became find the bird, aim the spot focus in the general direction, press the shutter and hope for the best. It's a very good thing that digital photos are easy to delete.

Song Sparrow

     None of us is an expert birder and one little bird had us puzzled for several days. I thought it sounded like some kind of sparrow but I had difficulty finding it. I was looking up high in the trees. It's call was loud and close but I couldn't seem to find the bird. On about the third day I saw movement in one of the bushes closer to the ground and heard the call. From then on I began to look in the bushes rather than the trees but it was Richard who got a good photo of it. He was also able to record its call. We checked bird books and online resources and identified it as a song sparrow. There were also critters on shore and in the water around the island.

Sandpiper

     I once spotted a river otter. Mergansers and loons hung around off shore, and a bald eagle flew by once with a fish in its claws. No photo of that unfortunately. My favourite bird on the island had a nest somewhere near the shore on the north end. We thought it was a killdeer. It flew low over the water and peeped repeatedly trying to draw attention away from one large rock. I never wanted to investigate where the nest was and, as long as I stayed in one spot, the bird wandered around the rocks or puttered in the shallows. Today I showed the photo to a friend who knows much more about birds than I do and she was sure it wasn't a killdeer. Out came the bird books again. We now think the little bird is a spotted sandpiper.

     One evening when we arrived back at the island by boat, I heard the sandpiper and stood absolutely still. As I watched, one other adult and three chicks scurried around on the rocks and then disappeared behind the big rock. After that I never saw more than one birdat a time.

     I met one of the garter snakes just outside the main cabin. As I stepped from the last step to the ground I noticed a movement to my left in the grass. I stopped and the movement stopped. As I continued to watch, a garter snake moved gracefully from the cover of the grasses and across the path a few feet in front of me. It was visible for a few seconds before disappearing into the foliage below the solar panels. I waited for a while but the snake didn't reappear and I didn't see it again. This snake looked like a pretty healthy one with a very attractive pattern of yellow and green on its back and sides. I'm not sure what it found to eat although I think I may have seen a vole or some other small rodent. There didn't seem to be any mice on the island. We weren't too sad about that.

Mayflies

 Then there were the insects. I'd never encountered May flies before. There were abundant which might have pleased the fish and the spiders but didn't exactly thrill the humans. Since we had a decent cell phone signal I Googled Mayflies, also called fish flies, and learned that Mayfly nymphs spend most of their lives in the water. They emerge from the water into a pre-adult stage and fly to foliage where they moult into sexually mature adults. Their claim to insect fame is that they moult once they have fully functional wings. I gather no other group of insects do that. Mayflies don't have working mouths so they don't eat and live for only a few hours or days at most. The Mayflies bugged me most when when they landed on my glasses. I flicked them out of my hair and when any of us came into the cabin the others did a Mayfly check, plucking the insects off clothing and tossing them out the door. When they landed on my glasses the need to get them off seemed much more urgent. Dead and dying Mayflies were entangled in many a spider web and there seemed to be several different kinds of spiders which showed themselves mainly at dusk.

     I heard and swatted a few mosquitos while on the island but the black flies were much more bothersome. They seemed very fond of my socks which I never understood because I wore shorts and there was an ample expanse of bare leg just beyond the top of the socks. I had a few good lessons in concentration when I tried to focus the camera as several black flies ordered dinner through my socks. The black flies won and I packed up the camera gear and retreated inside behind screens on windows and doors.

     I was not sorry to leave the black flies and the Mayflies behind but, on the morning we left, I made a point of going to say goodbye to the little sandpiper. There it was, only distinguishable from the granite by its movements. I hope when we return to Lost Loon next year the sandpipers and song sparrows will already be in residence. Perhaps next year I'll be able to get some good photos of loons.

Wool clothing on Lost Loon

It’s a rather grey day on Lost Loon. It rained overnight and the weather is coolish. No complaints here. While I’ve been here I’ve been making a number of observations, some about wildlife and some about clothing.  I’ll warn your right now this is going to be about clothing and it may well fall into the category of too-much-information.

        While I’m not much on fashion in the regular sense, I’m always on the lookout for outdoor clothing that is comfortable and practical. For years I’ve been going with the synthetic shirts and underwear because they dry quickly so I can wash them out at night and they will be dry in the morning. The main problem, other than having to hand-wash clothes every day, is that the synthetics tend to get stinky fairly quickly. Despite the wicking technology, they are also hot and sticky. Enter wool.

    I first ran across the Ice Breaker brand several years ago when someone I know was working in an outdoor store and said his goal was to gradually replace all his fleece clothing with wool. Wool is heavier than fleece but doesn’t take up as much room.  Like fleece, it retains warmth when wet and it’s not supposed to get stinky. I was reluctant to try wool because it has always made me itch. The merino in Ice Breaker clothing, and probably Smart Wool as well, is supposed to be itch free. I also hesitated because it ain’t cheap but I did buy a t-shirt. Richard eventually got that one; it was slightly itchy.

    I’m not sure why I decided to give it another try but I bought another t-shirt and actually found that it was really good in the heat. The only time it was a bit itchy was when I had something over top of it pressing it against my skin. The seatbelt in the car was one culprit. The discomfort wasn’t that bad and I decided I could teach myself to get used to it. Over time I acquired 3 short-sleeved and 1 long-sleeved t-shirt, a heavier weight pullover and a jacket that was 50% off.  On this trip I bought the 4 t-shirts and the jacket. I also brought one cotton t-shirt to sleep in. I put on t-shirt number one the day we left. I wore it for 6 days in temperatures from +17C to +32C and it didn’t stink. The only reason I switched shirts is that we went to Gun Lake Lodge for supper last night and I thought it would be respectful to at least wear a clean shirt.

    The lightweight shirts I have are made from merino wool and a fiber made from eucalyptus. Both are renewable and the combination makes the shirts light and fairly quick to dry. The synthetics dry faster but I also need to wash them much more often. I’ve ordered items online from an outlet in Kelowna BC and there is now an Ice Breaker store in Calgary. I’m not brave enough to try the underwear as I think it might just be too itchy with other clothes on top of it all the time. I must admit it is very tempting but if it doesn’t work for me I can’t exactly give it to Richard. I have pretty much switched from synthetic socks to merino wool socks bought at Costco.

    I’m finding the more I wear the jacket (Did I mention I got it for 50% off) the more I like it. It’s not good for -30 but being wool, it breathes and is good in a wider range of temperatures than I would have expected. When we head out on our Adventure Canada trips I’m going armed with one cotton shirt to sleep in, 3 short-sleeved T’s, one long-sleeved T, a heavier pull-over, and my jacket. I’m convinced that by wearing various combinations of layers I’ll be set for anything. I’ll keep you posted as I continue to test the clothing system.

Lost Loon: island life #1

    I didn’t think I could understand why people would want to own a cabin. I always thought it was all I could cope with to try to keep one property going.

Now that we’re here at a friend’s cabin on an island in the middle of a lake, I can understand the attraction even though maintaining one property is plenty for me. When I was younger it was exciting to take off for three weeks or a month in a canoe or on a bicycle to get away from the regular routine. Those pursuits are not nearly as attractive as they used to be. I very much appreciate a roof over my head a fridge to keep food cold and ice to make cold drinks even colder on a hot day. I appreciate being able to hang out in the shade if I want to and the opportunity to go and cut a limb off a tree that has fallen in order to get wood to carve. There are chores and projects to do and we can undertake as much or as little as we want to at our own pace.

    This morning I lay in bed and listened to the colony of grackles that inhabit the north end of the island. Yesterday I saw a killdeer in the shallows and mergansers sitting on a rock. I heard loons although I haven’t seen any that are close enough to photograph. Later I’ll get out my camera and go and sit by the shore so I can practice up on using the zoom lens and the teleconverter to photograph birds. At the moment I’m happily on my second cup of tea and I haven’t yet decided what my next move will be.  At home there are so many distractions, things that I should be doing. Here the primary goal is to do whatever I feel like doing without guilt. Time on this island is a gift as is the friend who generously shares his space with us. Many thanks John!

Technology is great - when it works

This is another rant about technology. I really do have a love/ hate relationship with it. I have an iPad that is 6 years old and it will no longer accept the latest IOS. I’m looking for a text creation program and I thought I would just install Pages. No dice. I need a higher IOS. Fine let’s try Google Docs. Nope, needs a higher IOS. Having just experienced a technological storm at the writing retreat I’m not at all impressed with the iPads. In this writing workshop each person must print out their writing for the day and hand it in by noon. Reasonable. The problem came because iPads don’t talk to any kind of printer using a cable. No USB port. Thank you Apple!

    Did I mention that we were at a writing RETREAT? That means they encourage people not to use their portable devices and their wifi is not the speediest or the most reliable. Result: more than slight unhappiness all round. Many people came with new or almost new iPads only to find they couldn’t connect to a printer. None of us was a technological genius but among the group we eventually got the problem sorted out, not without a fair amount of anxiety and regular offerings to to gods of technology to help the network to operate at the times we needed it to. One of the suggestions before the workshop was to bring a portable typewriter if you had one. There were moments i was wishing I had kept my old turquoise portable with me. One trick was to take our devices downstairs right outside the room where the router was and then email each other. My printer was connected to my laptop with a cable so once I received an email I trotted upstairs and printed the writing. Not exactly seamless but it worked.

    As you can imagine, I was not amused when I came home and found my iPad wouldn’t do what I wanted it to. I think its days are numbered and I don’t think I’ll be buying a new one. My Galaxy 9 has as much memory as the iPad, plus it has an additional storage card. It has already replaced my much-loved and much-used iPod touch. Again the phone has more storage. I’m writing this on my phone with the help of a very light keyboard, bluetooth of course, that I bought for Richard to go with a tablet he had. I’m in Google Docs and things seem to be working just fine. I don’t have a trackpad or a mouse but that’s not a big deal. The only downside I can see to this arrangement is that when I touch the screen on my phone it tends to move. I’m sure there is an easy fix for that one. So, for holidays and travel it’s goodbye to the iPad and hello to the phone and the little keyboard. I don’t think I’ll need to print anything while on holiday and for now, I think Richard may have to wait in line to use his keyboard.

    I’ll try to copy this and upload it to my blog. If you’re reading it the experiment has been a success and the laptop and the iPad will be staying at home when we go on holidays. As to the writing workshop next year, I’m sticking with the laptop and the printer that attaches to it using a USB cable. In some cases I’m just fine with the older technology.