Hurricanes and safety dudes

I have previously mentioned the abundance of safety dudes on site this year. One day, after a safety dude saw us in a boat and had a conniption, Marilynn was approached by one of the staff in camp.

Direct quote: “Does it ever get rough when you’re in the boat?”

Marilynn looked at this person in stark amazement. “Does it ever get rough?” she thought to herself. At which point, a raft of answers flooded into her mind.

Marilynn (in her head): “Well, we are at WINDY Lake.”

Marilynn (in her head): “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re in the ARCTIC. The BARREN lands.”

Marilynn (in her head): “You know when it’s too windy for the planes to land? And we’re in the boat?”

Marilynn (in her head): If by, “Is it ever rough,” you mean, “Is it ever so horrendously windy that you zip up two rain jackets to your eyes, bail while driving, drive with only one eye open, and zig zag for two miles across a lake wreaked by 18 inch waves while a bear eats your gear on shore,” then “Yes, sometimes it’s rough.”

In any case, Claire and I were one day off of finishing the August water sampling. We could smell the finish line. We could taste it. Anticipating the sweetness, Claire processed an entire day’s samples on her own one evening while Heidi went out and sampled 7 more streams just to bring the finish line that much closer. So, it was the last day and we were on Hope Bay. It was a TITCH windy. As in, it was Hurricaine Hope. Perhaps we should have waited until it was less hurricainey, but we didn’t.

Beatrice (gazing out into the swells): “Claire, I believe this is going to be the EASIEST thing we have EVER done.”

Fast-forward approximately one-half hour.

Heidi: “Windy logistics, do you copy Heidi on channel one? Yes, we’re going to need an extra hour at this site.”

Beatrice: “Claire, according to the GPS we have dragged the anchor 300 metres since arriving. I think we’re going to have to lift the anchor and move it back to where we’re supposed to be. And then we’ll have to re-sample. RATS.”

Claire: “Right. But, ummm, Heidi, the anchor is about a million pounds at this site.”

Heidi (pondering): “Okay, let’s just get it off the bottom. Then we’ll tie it off on the handle of the boat and long-line it back to the site.”

Claire: “Is this: a) a good idea; or, b) a bad idea?”

Heidi: “B. Bad idea. But it is significantly less painful than: a) lift anchor 25 m into boat.”

So, off we went. Do you know how easy it is to drive a boat in 1- 1.5 m swells while you are pulling an 80 lb anchor approximately 15 m below you? I should mention that the wind was a headwind at this point. Not easy, let me tell you. But we made it and re-established our position. We also let out more slack, in an attempt to reduce our drift.

Heidi (glancing at GPS, then yelling): “RATS. Claire, our strategy has proven ineffective. We are still drifting like an SOB. [Thinking]. Okay, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to attempt to drive the boat in reverse into the waves while you deploy the Kemmerer. That way, we MIGHT have a chance of getting a vertical sample!”

Claire (looking dubious and recounting the loss of the DFO zooplankton net and the Aqua-Vu camera): “Isn’t it sort of likely that you’ll cut the rope while driving?”

Heidi: “Ha. Yup. That would really suck, especially because this is a brand new Kemmerer. Okay, let’s go. Hey Claire, is it ever rough when we’re sampling?”

Claire: “Do you have any cookies?”

I had 2, and an hour later we were shivering triumphantly on shore, with Claire remarking that her hands had never been so cold in her life. Luckily, dexterity is not required for eating cookies.