Day 41: We continue to ponder the anchor dilemma and lament the loss of Tim and Paul

Well, today was one of those days when you periodically look at the sky and shake your head. We got a lot done so it was very productive, but a bit trying at times. We think the departure of Tim and Paul this morning threw us off of our game. Just as the helicopter was landing to pick us up, I realized we had forgotten the oxygen probe and went galloping off to the enviro-tent to retrieve it (while wearing waders). Our motor, zingy, was



Paul happy to see a trout and Tim doing a headstand on the tallest outcrop around

not so happy today and I regained my sailor mouth on a few occasions attempting to start her and lock the tilt. Grrr. I fell in the lake at about 10 this morning while attempting to get the cargo net around the boat to sling it to the next lake. There is this particular mixture of silt and boulder that sucks you in up to your ankles. You then trip because you can’t SEE the boulders while the silt is all stirred up. Long story short: Heidi is wet and clammy for the rest of the day. This happened to Kathryn about 3 days ago. Nothing like wet bum all day.

On the topic of anchors and tundra imponderables: how is it possible to have an anchor so heavy that you cannot lift it into the boat yet not heavy enough to keep you in one spot? We have now attached a large bag of rocks to our super-hooker (NOT SO HOOKY)!

Lamenting the loss of Tim and Paul. Tim and Paul from Golder have been here for a month and left today. They caught fish for us, helped us process samples late into the night, entertained us, laughed at our geeky jokes, brought us grapefruit, gas, and other supplies to the weatherhaven, picked up our samples, took our safety calls every evening….in short, Tim and Paul are fantabulous. And today they left. Sigh. We decided to write a song in their honour.

Ahem.

(To the tune of Hey Jude – Beatles)

Fish dudes
Where have you gone?
You’ve made us sad today
By leaving Windy camp
Remember, when you brought us all of those charr
And we stayed up la-ate, processing samples
Da na na na na na na na na na YEAH!
Da na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Fish dudes
Da na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
We thank you
Da na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Fish dudes
Da na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
We miss you

Ah, Tim and Paul, we hope that you are drinking beer for us as we write this. Tim, you also had other instructions. You can multi-task with beer if you like. And Paul, if you can pull it off, give ‘er. For us, because we can’t.