A few more photos

These were missed out of the chronological flow..

Aaron Lawton, the One Ocean expedition leader and
Tony Beck, photographer and naturalist from Ottawa.

Atuat, one of the Inuit students.

Harlequin drake.

Abram Ioffe, Russian physicist, 1880-1960 (see Wikipedia).

Has crater on moon named after him as well as 

Polar oceanographic research vessel Akademik Ioffe.

Ted and Patricia, two of the Inuit students.

The Fergusons of Peterborough stayed up till 1 am
to catch this photo of the northern lights.

Jacques Sirois eating mussels (in St- Pierre?).

Jim Payne about to be hoisted overboard in a Zodiac.

Purple sandpiper

Razorbill.

Spotted sandpiper

Two whales.

Jim Payne in wet weather gear.

Icebergs and birds.

Iceberg at sunset.

Happy Valley - Goose Bay

23 July 2012.

This is the final route we took, from St John's to Goose Bay

 We arrived at Goose Bay early in the morning, and put our packed bags outside our cabins at 6 am. The MV Northern Ranger was at the dock so the Akademik Ioffe had to anchor, and luggage and passengers were transferred to the dock by Zodiac.
Between mid-June and mid-November (depending on ice conditions), there is  a ferry service operated by the Newfoundland and Labrador Government. The ferry boat is the M/V Northern Ranger and provides weekly service from Goose Bay along the Atlantic Coast, with stops in Rigolet, Makkovik, Postville, Hopedale and Natuashish. Nain is the northernmost stop on the route.

MV Northern Ranger 

Loading bags into a Zodiac.

Closer view of the Northern Ranger.

 We were taken to the airport by bus, about 8 am to let people catch 9 am flights, but my flight didn't go till 1 pm. So I wandered around near the airport, looking at the parked planes and the fluffy clouds.

Voodoo.

Air traffic control tower.

PBY Catalina Canso water bomber.

Memorial to the crew of a crashed search and rescue plane.

RAF Vulcan XL 361, with airport buildings behind.

Goose Bay airport. 

Air Labrador flight loading.

My flight took me back east to St John's by way of Deer Lake.
This is some post-glacier landscape near Deer Lake.

Near St. John's.

Then I had another 4 hour wait before a flight to Ottawa by way of Halifax. Arrived home about 11 pm  (an hour later by body clock). The plane landed in a thunderstorm, so we had to wait on the runway until it was safe for the ground crew.

Students on Ice

Last night Students on Ice were on the local news. Apart from the fact that SOI is based on PInk Road in Aylmer (Gatineau), mere kilometres from here, I wondered what ship they used for their expedition and looked them up.
Students on Ice Arctic Youth Expedition 2012
Turns out that it was the RV Akademik Ioffe!  And two weeks after we diverted from Frobisher Bay there was still ice blocking ships from reaching Iqaluit. 

"New update from Expedition Leader, Geoff Green, August 2, at 7 pm:

Due to truly exceptional ice conditions, we were not able to reach the ship again today. We are still in Iqaluit and will be spending another night at the Arctic College. Members of the community are saying they have never seen anything like this - particularly this far into summer. Huge blocks of ice, some up to 5 meters high, are blocking our passage to the ship. All vessels are stranded and no one is getting in or out by sea."

There were finally able to board late at night on August 3, with the help of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Des Groseilliers which ferried the passengers and luggage out to the RV Akademik Ioffe and then escorted them out of Frobisher Bay.

Rigolet, Labrador

22nd July 2012.
The ship didn't have paper charts for Lake Melville (Churchill River), not expecting to go there, but of course it did have digital maps and GPS. This map shows the position of Rigolet at a narrows at the end of Hamilton Inlet. We arrived at Rigolet with the incoming tide. It would be hard to go against the combined current of river and outgoing tide.

One of the Environmental Technology students from Arctic College, Iqaluit, comes from Rigolet. Kerry hadn't expected to see her family until Christmas, so this was a treat for her. Many of the people we met were her close relatives, this community being only about 300 people. There seems to be great pride in their community with projects such as the "second longest boardwalk in the world," a Net Loft museum, craft shop and replica Hudson's Bay Co store manager's house. See also the Rigolet webpage.

This is probably the incoming tide meeting the river flow.

Approaching the dock at Rigolet in Zodiac dinghy.
The Net Loft museum is on the left, with the red roof. 

A jury anchor.

Inside the Net Loft museum. HBC rented nets
for particular fishing grounds.

A public noticeboard. No shame about mentioning menopause here.

Bunchberry, Cornus canadensis.

View eastwards from HBC manager's house.

The replica HBC manager's house.

Lupins, wood storage, RV Akademik Ioffe anchored in the distance.

Four qamutiks (or qamutiit, the correct plural), sleds.

Northern Lights Academy - the school. 

Ship at anchor.

Boardwalk sign.

Low tide, with Rigolet across the bay, a pretty town.

The boardwalk and ship.

Twinflower, Linnaea borealis, among many
beautiful plants along the boardwalk.

Twinflower, Linnaea borealis.

Me again, near the boardwalk.

Another view of Rigolet from the boardwalk (4.4 km long).

Silverweed, Potentilla anserina.

Zodiac dinghy being hoisted back on board ship. On
the way back to the ship we saw a Minke whale again.

Captain Sazonov could not attend his own
captain's dinner on the last evening because
of the tricky navigation required to reach
Lake Melville, but we toasted him.

Eva, the Swedish hotel manager
on the ship for One Ocean Expeditions.