Will we ever get home?

After enjoying our extra day in Resolute, the morning came early for most. When we went to bed, the plan was that we were supposed to be at the airport to catch a 7:30 am flight. At 6 am, Ozzie phoned about half of the team to let them know that they didn't need to get up so early because the flight had been delayed until 9:30 am. Richard B., Richard M., Tobias and I did not get the message so we were down for breakfast at 6 am.

As seems to be the custom in Resolute, the flight was delayed once more for good measure. We arrived at the airport check in at 9:45 am to find that there was no plane in sight. However, by the time we all were checked in, the plane had arrived and the number of people in the airport had tripled with the addition of all of the disembarking passengers and their loved ones.

The Hawker Siddley plane was divided like the jet we came up to Resolute on. The front half holds the cargo and the back half the passengers. We watched as Jeremy and the other First Air cargo ground crew person loaded all of our freight on to the plane. PARIS, MAESTRO, SPS and all our equipment would be travelling down to Iqaluit with us!  By 10:30 am, we were ready to board the plane. The "security check" on the way to the plane consisted of Jeremy and Mavis (the third First Air employee) saying "Bye", "Have a good flight" and "Sit wherever you want". There were no boarding passes issued for this flight!

The flight to Iqaluit took about 4.5 hours. At breakfast, we had been listening to CBC North and had found out that the temperature in Iqaluit was -35 C but with the wind chill it felt more like -76 C. We were not looking forward to walking across the tarmac to get to the terminal building. Paul, one of the pilots who flew us down from Eureka, said that the wind was predicted to die down in the afternoon. He thought that it wouldn't be that bad when we got there. I beg to differ with him. The winds might have weakened but it still felt really cold when we got off of the plane.

The plane to take us to Ottawa was still there when we got to Iqaluit. Unfortunately, no one had told us that we were taking the "milk run". We would get to stop in Kuujjuaq (in Nunavik - Northern Quebec) and Montreal on our way to Ottawa. Almost as soon as we were in the terminal building, they announced that our next flight would be boarding. To get on this flight, we had to go through a security check so we knew we were getting closer to home.

With the stop in Kuujjuak, which involved leaving all of the doors of the plane open for more than fifteen minutes to freeze all of the passengers, it took about 4 hours to get to Montreal. Here we were allowed to get off the plane and stretch our legs. People phoned home to let their loved ones know that we were finally down south. 

Just after 11 pm, we arrived at the Toronto airport on the last flight of the night from Ottawa. All of our luggage arrived and we hoped that our equipment would be treated as well by First Air. With lots of yawns, the team dispersed to their homes for a well deserved rest after a long day of travel. I think that I won the contest for being the last to get home - 1:45 am on March 12. As almost always happens, I was the last one off of the airport shuttle in Waterloo.

Best regards,
Kaley.