Farewell to Eureka...

The day broke with scattered cloud and promise of good measuring conditions. The temperature at the station was a pleasant -30 C. Too bad it was our last morning in Eureka. We ate a leisurely breakfast and finished packing our personal gear. At 9:45 AM, the team got everything together and loaded the trucks to head up to the airstrip. Once the gear was loaded into the plane, we took a group photo in front of the Twin Otter.

The pilots were in the middle of warming up the engines and getting ready to take off when there was some commotion with one of the Korean journalists. Keeyoon stepped in as translator and we found out that the journalist had left a bag containing his video tape of the Korean Arctic expedition in the vestibule. Richard M. asked the pilots if they could radio the station to see if someone could find the bag. About five minutes later, Paul came to the rescue. He had located the tape and delivered it to the plane. The journalist was much calmer once he had the tape in his hand.

The flight to Resolute took about 3 hours because of the headwinds. The scenery was intermittent because there was a lot of cloud cover. We discovered that the Kenn Borek Twin Otter appears to only have two temperature settings - on and off. The team could either swelter or freeze so we alternated between the two extremes.

We got down to the South Camp Inn just in time for the end of lunch. Jennifer, Clive, Richard M. and Michael were to catch the 3 PM jet today so they checked their luggage with First Air before we left the airport. Annemarie, Keith, Keeyoon and I will be staying on in Resolute for the next three days to do some work at Qarmartalik school (the local K-12).

By the time lunch was over, Aziz had announced that the flight to Ottawa had been delayed by 2 hours. By later in the afternoon, the four First Air passengers had to collect their luggage because their flight was not coming. It looks like the entire team will be staying at Aziz's this evening. The current plan is that a Hawker will pick up the stranded Resolute passengers tomorrow afternoon and take them to Iqaluit. They will overnight in Iqaluit (at their own expense) and go down to Ottawa on Friday. They are hoping to be back in Toronto late on Friday (or early on Saturday).

I kept Annemarie, Keeyoon and Keith up late working on some material for our visit to Qarmartalik school tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow morning, we will meet with Brian Manning, the principal of Qarmartalik school, to discuss our plans.

Our plan of staying in Resolute until Saturday is not looking so bad right now, but I shouldn't speak too soon. You never know what the weather can do. Right now, we have a blizzard warning in effect for Resolute Bay. This afternoon it wasn't looking too pleasant outside and now the wind is howling.

Best regards,
Kaley.