CASARA Training Flight

Jacquie and I decided to join CASARA (Civil Aviation Search and Rescue Association).  Last Thursday night (July 26, 2012) we attended the 3 hour in class portion of the training and then yesterday (July 28th) we had our training flight.

The organization trains volunteers to assist with spotting in search and resue situations.  We learned search and spotting techniques and what to look for in certain situations. 
The day was wonderful for a flight;  clear and sunny.  Altogether we were away from Iqaluit for about 5 hours.  We took off and flew south east towards a place called York Sound. 

At the beginning of the flight we saw the ship that has our vehicle on it that we are bringing up on the sea lift.  The ship was 10 days late getting into Iqaluit and as we travelled over Frobisher Bay, we began to understand the issues that the ships were having with the ice and iceburgs.  The ice is packed in certain areas and there are a lot of iceburgs.

During the briefing at the beginning of the flight we were told to look for a white plane with blue trim.  Apparently it's a plane that had gone down many years ago and has been one of the training targets for CASARA for a number of years.  We were also told that the flight would be between 2-4 hours in duration.  Further were were told to yell out any sighting of wildlife like seals, whales, walrus and bears. 

Our flight path was over Frobisher Bay along the shore line.  We flew at 500 to 1000 feet above the bay.  Jacquie and I kept our eye's peeled on the water and shore line and both began to realize how difficult and tiring this job can be.  We went for about an hour without seeing anything but ice, iceburgs and the odd boat. 

Then all of a sudden, Jacquie yelled out " polar bear at 3:00 oclock"  She had spotted a mother polar bear and two baby polar bears swimming.  The plane took a quick full turn and sure enough, there they were 3 beautiful looking polar bears.  It was tremendously exciting seeing polar bears in the wild.  One of the things that I had hoped for when moving to Iqaluit. The other great thing is that there was no danger in seeing them as we were 500 feet above them.  Also I was tremendously proud of Jacquie.  Of the 14 traninee's on board, 7 on each side of the plane, it was Jacquie who spotted the bears.  We flew by them a few times to give everyone a good look and then off we went to look for the fallen plane.

One of the very positive things about seeing the polar bears aside from the obvious amazing experience is it gave Jacquie and I a perspective of the size of things.  Even at 500 feet, the mother bear looked to be 3 inches long with the babies less than half that.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, since I have flown many times and of course when you take off and watch cars, streets, houses, and the like, they get pretty small pretty fast.  Anyway, I was surprised how small the bears were and it gave me an appreciation of how difficult it will be to see a lost person from the air.

As we moved forward, I saw a number of seals in a cluster (interestingly a group of seals can be referred to as a pod, herd, rookery or harem).  We also saw a few single seals.  Seeing these animals, gave us experience calling out our sightings.  The spotters main responsibility is to search for the target and once spotted to take control of the plane by calling out the direction and distance of the sighting, while never taking their eye off what they have spotted and communicate to the pilot to guide him or her to whatever has been sighted. 

By this time over 2 hours had passed and it was time for a break.  So interestingly enough the pilot looked for a place to set down.  At York Sound which looks like a left over gravel field from a recent glacier, the pilot landed.  Now let me make myself clear - there is no landing strip, no wheel tracks, the only evidence that any plane has ever landed there before was some left over barrels.  However there were many rocks, some uneven ground, a river and a number of drop offs.  The pilot flew over the sight at a hight of 10 - 20 feet 4 or 5 times to look for the best landing area.  Then down we went.  It was bumpy, however the twin otter lands and stops in a very short distance.  We had one gutsy and skilled pilot!

The take off was even a little more bumpy, however after a 1/2 hour break off we went, back looking for the white plane with blue trim.  Actually we never did find the downed plane, which again was a great training lesson for us.  Sometimes, you just don't find what your looking for, no matter how hard you try.  On the way home, Jacquie (by this time nicknamed "eagle eye") saw 3 more polar bears, which may have been the same ones again, a single polar bear, which I had the pleasure of spotting too, a pod of wales and a few more seals. 

All in all the rugged beauty was spectacular, seeing all of the animals amazing and other than the fact that we didn't find the plane, the day was a wonderful success.  Jacquie and I are happy we had such an awesome opportunity.  We are now certified CASARA volunteers and with some trepidation look forward to our first real search and rescue call.

Cool Man

Jacquie and I were out wandering around and "down by the bay" and guess what......... we saw a pile of ice. Admittedly, we have all seen a pile of ice before, however this is the first time I've seen ice like this on July 16th. 

Now I turned 180 degrees and took this picture of boats out on the bay.  I really thought it was amazing!!

Dogs go Swimming in the Ocean

We were out exploring today (July 15, 2012) and went to the other side of town, past the airport to one of the boat launching spots for those who want to go boating on Frobisher Bay. 

As a side, Frobisher Bay is 250 miles (400 KM) long from it's mouth to Iqaluit.  Anyway while we were down by the boat launch, the dogs decided to take a swim.  Of course Holly and Quinn love the water, however we weren't sure whether the cold water of Frobisher Bay would be that apealing.  However they seemed to really enjoy themselves and were in the water for 10 minutes or so. 

Here are a few pictures of them swimming around!  Have fun you two!!!!

Nunavut Day

Monday July 9th was Nunavut Day.  All government offices were closed and there were a number of events that took place.  Canada AM was broadcasting from just behind the Legislative Assembly building.  Jacquie and I woke up early to watch Canada AM on TV.  It was quite entertaining seeing some of the people we have gotten to know on TV.  The crew did a great job in talking about Iqaluit, Nunavut and some Inuit traditions.  We really enjoyed the broadcast

There were a number of events that took place throughout the day like seal skinning, a breakfast put on by the Rotary Club, an artisan's display and sale to mention a few.

At lunch there were muskox burgers that were being given away, however the line up was huge so Jacquie and I decided not to get in line. 

Then there was one event that took place that happens at many festival's in Nunavut.  We have seen it a few times in Iqaluit.  Local hunters donate a portion of their catch which are displayed and ultimately given away.  A large tarp is placed on the gound with cardboard and plastic over top.  A myriad of different meats are placed on the tarp and the tradition is that the elders inspect and get first dibs on what they want to take and then the balance is open to everyone in the community.  This year there was seal meat, whale meat, Muktuk (whale blubber), walrus, char, caribou, musk ox, bannock and other things that we couldn't identify.  It is actually quite interesting in that all this meat is just thrown out on the tarp for people to take. 

We were able to get some caribou, whale meet and seal fat.  Not sure why we took the seal fat and all I can say is that in the heat of making choices sometimes wrong choices are made.  We tried the whale and ate the caribou.  The caribou was excellent, the whale......... well lets just say, neither Jacquie or I would order it in a restaurant. 

All in all an interesting tradition!

Jacquie's First Fish

We have had the awesome opportunity to go out Arctic Char fishing 3 or 4 times now.  We go out near the mouth of Sylvia Grinell River and fish along the river bank.  We were out last Monday (July 9, 2012) fishing and Jacquie caught a one pound Char. 

It was kind of funny.  On our previous fishing expedition, we had caught each others lines and at that time, she thought she had a fish and got quite excited, only to be faced with the disapointment that she had only caught me.  So, on this trip, she casually said, "I caught you again".  And I said, "you can catch me anytime and if  I'm a little too fast I'll slow down........... however you didn't catch my line because it's not out in the water".  That's when she got quite excited and brought in her very first fish.....ever!

Although we stayed for a little while after catching her fish, we didn't catch any more.  We did go home though and filleted the fish and ate it for lunch.  It was fantastic!  Thanks for lunch J!!!

Fishing for char

Jacquie and I went on our first char fishing trip yesterday (Monday July 2, 2012)  We went out west of Iqaluit to the Sylvia Grinell River.  We were able to drive the jeep within 100 metres or so of the River.  We took the dogs with us, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake because everytime we cast the lure the dogs went in after it.  After trying to get the dogs to settle, Jacquie finally took them back to the jeep. 

There were a number of others fishing at the river too.  And we knew there were fish since one of the fisherman just down the river caught a good size char.  That exited us thinking that we were next to bring in the big one. 

About my third cast, the reel got all tangled up.  I ended up having to cut the line and start over.  In the mean time, Jacquie was casting and fishing up a storm.  In fact this was only the second time Jacquie had ever been fishing. 

When fishing in Nunavut we are not allowed to use live bait, so we had a number of red and white spoons and meps which are spinnng lures.  I was using a meps with a rubber worm and Jacquie was using the red and white spoon. 

In years gone by I have done a lot of fishing, however almost always with live bait.  When fishing for bass or northern pike, I almost always used frogs, minnows or worms.  Anyway, it showed as Jacquie was by far the better fisherman.  My reel kept on getting tangled and after the third time that I had cut the line and re-fitted the rod with a lure I managed to cast out and watch as the line went right out to the end and kept going.  Well, I had no more line to use.  My fishing for the day had come to an end.  :-(

About the same time Jacquie got her line caught on a rock and I thought I would give her a hand.  Well, her rod separated at the join and half the rod went into the water.  Ooops!  While I was thinking about what might be the best approach to this, I handed the rod back to her and she was able to get the lure free and reel in her lure and the top end of her rod.  It ended that the end of the rod was all we were able to catch on our first fishing trip for char, however it didn't dampen our enthusiasm and we expect to be out there again this weekend if the weather is good. 



We will catch some char this summer, there is no doubt about that. 

Photo from web image