We're overwintering in Cambridge Bay because we wanted to find out what it's really like to live here in temperatures and conditions that many would find uninhabitable. So far, not surprisingly, the dominant theme is that the weather controls everything.
During our first month living aboard TP (tug Tandberg Polar), weather has been dominating our thoughts. Last week's blizzard has come and gone. That was the fourth blizzard already and it's only
-30C (-47C if you count windchill), a few days ago, was the lowest temperature we've experienced here so far. When we lived in the backwoods of Ontario, -40C wasn't that unusual, so, we know what's coming. Temperatures that low can create a sense of unease and foreboding knowing how close to the edge of a survival situation you are. At least in Ontario, there was always the woodstove and copious amounts of firewood to fall back on, guaranteeing some warmth and a way to cook. Here in the Arctic, there's no wood, no coal, only diesel-driven heat and electricity. The only electrical/plumbing business in town is working flat-out to keep up with no-heat calls. If your boiler goes out, you're only a few short hours away from disaster. This whole town lives and dies on its diesel supply and mechanical equipment. It all seems rather temporary and unsustainable. The town's electricity is generated locally using 47 year old diesel generators. A few days ago, there was a breakdown and the whole town was put on rotating, 45 minute blackouts which lasted a day and a half. A repair crew had to be flown in from Gjoa Haven. On Friday, it happened again although the blackouts only lasted for about half a day. We had no interruptions because we're still running on our own generator power aboard TP. If the town uses 47 year old generators, hopefully our one year old generator will continue to run and keep us warm and toasty like it has been doing.
The buildings here all sit on stilts embedded in the permafrost. The houses are stick-frame construction and don't seem to be built with any special regard, other than mudroom entries, for the extreme conditions. Every house has tanks for diesel, water and waste. All day, every day, large trucks drive around town on regular routes to top-up the water and diesel and take away the sewage. Sewage is driven to a lagoon outside town. People pay $250 monthly for just the trucked water supply. If they run out of water on a weekend, it's an extra $150 callout fee to top up.
Being a fly-in community also creates many issues around affordability, sustainability and quality of life. An airline ticket to Edmonton is about $2,500 return. All food, except 'country' food hunted by locals, has to be flown, or, barged in. Nutrition North does provide freight subsidies for people who fly in food. We availed ourselves of this and flew in a large order from M&M meats in Yellowknife. It seemed a ridiculous, wasteful thing to do, but, Yellowknife prices are 'southern' prices and with the freight subsidy (for things like boxed meats, not desserts or prepared foods) the end price was cheaper than buying food in the local store. A neighbour also gave us some caribou and muskox steaks. It all helps to try and keep our food costs down. We're also still using supplies purchased in the UK and Greenland last summer.
The airport, like everything else here, works on 'Northern' time although, unlike other, warm weather locales where 'x' time (replace 'x' with the location) means a general relaxed attitude of the workers, here it's more a fact that weather drives everything. Some days planes arrive, but, can't land and they turn around. When you have a ticket it usually means going to the airport every day and waiting to see first, whether the plane arrives, then if it lands and then whether there is a seat available. Seat availability depends on how many days the planes have been prevented from arriving and how many passengers are thus backed up. You can never count on getting in or out on a schedule.
The only other method of transport, barges, have their own set of problems. Barges arrive, arrive late, or especially this year, don't arrive at all due to factors such as ice, water levels in the Mackenzie River, unforecasted storms etc. That last barge of the season I previously wrote about never did arrive. It was left in the ice a few miles away. The plan is to unload it with a cat train over the ice in March. All orders that included anything damaged by freezing will be useless. Maybe you also heard about the Canadian 'barge at large' which broke away from its tug during an unforecasted storm outside Tuktoyaktuk and is now locked in the ice about fifty miles northwest of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.
There has already been lots of print written about the social problems in northern communities and Cam Bay has its share. There are lots of inequities in housing/jobs and incomes here and nobody seems to have any solutions. One peculiar antisocial activity for the local kids is their penchant for rock-throwing at boats. I've read about this in other sailor's blogs and we've experienced it also, not just here, but, in all the Arctic communities we've visited so far. There doesn't seem to be any malice involved, it's more of an attention-getter, but, if you don't respond they can ramp it up.
Although not without problems, it has been very interesting to step into a world so unlike anything we've experienced before. We've been told that the runup to Christmas over the next few weeks is an exciting time for the whole community. Next week it's the Christmas bazaar at the community centre followed the next week by an outdoor parade, hope the weather cooperates for that! We'll have lost the sun by then, so, it will be a twilight parade.
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| Sunrise, 10:30 a.m. November 16 |
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| Sunset, 15;00 p.m. |
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