Chilly Willie: Back to the north

View of Repulse Bay from the air

Well, I am back up north! School started on August 5th, so I have been pretty busy getting everything organized and put together for my class. I am still the grade 4 teacher and it looks like it is going to be another great year. I am also the computer contact person now, so that is keeping me busy!
I have also moved to a new apartment and I have a new roommate - Chris, my better half! We really like the apartment and are settling in nicely. Chris just started work last weekend as the local homecare nurse. He is liking that so far. Right now he is planning to stay up here until the middle of October. I will probably be home for Christmas, then come back up to finish up the school year.
Other than work and school, Chris and I have been able to go out on the land and by boat to see some pretty cool local wildlife. Chris was out in a boat with a local man and they saw two polar bears close up in the water! We saw another polar bear while on a boat trip with the staff from our school, although it was pretty far away.
Our first weekend up here we went out for a long walk just south of town. Someone went flying past us on an ATV and told us that there were some whales swimming off of the shore not far from where we were. So, Chris and I followed them and we got to see some narwhals swimming around. Several boats were out in the water as well . . . we weren't sure if they were just watching or if they were hunters (I knew that the locals had already had a big narwhal hunt a couple weeks ago and they used all of their tags). The boats surrounded the whales and brought them right in to shore not far from where we were. We watched as one of the men harpooned a narwhal! It just happened that he was from Rankin Inlet and he had a tag to kill it. I think narwhal are beautiful animals, but it was still pretty cool to see them hunt it (I am a hunter as well so maybe that's why it didn't bother me). They brought it in to shore and Chris and I asked if we could watch as they cut it up. The guy was really friendly and let us watch and take pictures. We even got to eat some of the skin/blubber. It wasn't that tasty but I had to try it once!
Repulse Bay has been given one tag for a bowhead whale! They get a tag about once every five years, so this is a pretty big deal!! The hunt started on the 16th and they are able to use the tag until December (hopefully it doesn't take that long!). The weather has not been very cooperative as we have had rain, fog, and recently the wind blew the ice right into the shore so no one can go out in a boat at all. It is supposed to be really windy (from the north) the next couple of days, so that may help to get rid of all the ice. A couple of men have offered to take Chris out on their boat when the whale has been killed. In case you are not aware of how big a bowhead whale is, they are the second largest whale in the world! They can get up to 66ft and weigh over 130 tonnes!! They are also the longest living mammal as they can live to be up to 200 years old.
The teacher's boat trip last weekend was a lot of fun. We stopped at the harbour islands (where we saw the polar bear running away over a hill). The whalers used to camp out on these islands as they helped to shelter them from the wind during the cold winter months. They would be stuck there after the ice came in. There were some graves there and even some human bones exposed to the elements. We had to drive around hundreds or thousands of huge chunks of ice floating around the water. We also saw a seal and a caribou and the guides did some Arctic char fishing (with nets). We had a delicious fish dinner that night!
Other than that, Chris and I have just been doing a lot of walking and exploring near town, but not too far out of town as we don't have a gun yet and don't want to get eaten by a polar bear!
I'm sure I have missed something, but I will write more in my next entry.
Here are some pictures from the last 3 weeks: