On Friday night, as soon as I picked up Deon from the airport (long story on why he couldn't return to Tuk in the morning with me), we went out on the boat to see if we could find some fish. We first travelled west of Tuk out to Kiniksik, where there are said to be many fish.
Some ducklings swimming near the shore at Kiniksik.
However, when we arrived on the shores of the channel, we had a few mishaps. Deon ended up boot-deep in mud that just kept pulling his boots in deeper. He managed to free one boot, and then used some large, flat rocks to create a platform that he could stand on to dig the other boot out. Pulling eachother didn't help, because soon the person helping would start sinking into the mud as well.
Fishing under the midnight sun (well... this was at around 11pm).
We didn't end up catching any fish at Kiniksik, so we travelled back towards Tuk to
"the Hangar," which is just near the airport. We fished until about 11:00pm, and determined that it was time to go back to town, because none of us had caught anything.
A view of the Tuk DEW Line from the Hangar... 11pm.
It was a great trip, and so nice to be out on the water. While we were travelling on the boat, some mirages over the ocean were very apparent. Earlier in the evening when I was waiting for Deon to get in on the plane, I noticed mirages to the south of Tuk, making it look like there were huge hills in the distance. Of course, other than the pingos, which are pretty easy to differentiate from the surrounding landscape, there are really no hills directly around Tuk.
Looking back at Tuk from out on the Arctic Ocean... if you look really closely you can see that there is a mirage making Tuk look taller than it actually is.
More mirages out over the ocean.
On Saturday, we went out to "the end of the road" to have a picnic, and to do some more fishing. The weather was beautiful, perfect for hoodies and pants, no jackets or mittens required. We had hamburgers and hotdogs over the fire, and Barry's mom sent us some muktuk to try. I've never tried proper muktuk while living in Tuk, so this was something new for me. I expected it to have a strong marine flavour, and my expectations were relatively correct. Barry showed us the proper way to eat it, by cutting the pure fat part off the bottom of the hunk of meat, and the skin off the top. His mom had already boiled it, so it was right ready to eat- although Barry prefers it with some HP sauce, we tried it plain to get the true flavour. I had a few pieces, and refrained from eating any more. The flavour is very strong, and I have never been a "seafood person," and I only eat fish or seafood when I have no other choice... However, it was very kind of Barry's mom to give us some to try, and I am glad I tried it, because it is a local favourite, enjoyed by many in the summer months. I am guessing the muktuk we tried had been frozen since last year's beluga harvest, because I haven't heard any word on beluga presence around Tuk yet, but they should be here soon!
Mmmmmmmmmuktuk.
After eating our food, we travelled a bit farther to our usual fishing spot on the other side of "Shit Lake." We started casting, and soon after, Deon pulled out the first fish of the season. Now we all have to pay up, as we had pooled money ($10 each) for the person who caught the first fish of the season, so that fish made Deon a nice $30 profit!
A few casts later, I caught a fish as well... It was bigger than Deon's, the perfect size for Barry's dog Bronx. We put the fish on the shore, and Nugget, the little dog spent some time chewing on the fish cheeks.
Nugget gets in on the fun.
Nugget likes fish cheeks... just like someone else I know! (you know who you are!)
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