LORITA Newsletter #13 Alert, Nunavut 25 April, Tuesday The weather is still too poor to fly helicopters out to the ice, but it is good enough both here and farther south to do a pilot exchange. The Twin Otter left this morning for Eureka and Resolute. The Otter pilots, Jim Haffey and Gabriel Lluberas, are going south for a bit of a vacation – as are the helicopter pilots, Bill Denomme, Colin Lavallee and Gerard Hartery. Also going south are three engineers that keep the Otter and the helicopters running – Kevin Riehl, Mark Foley and Jason Simms. So far, I haven’t shown any pictures of the engineers. I regret this because they are very important to the project. Without them, we wouldn’t go anywhere. Rounding out the Twin’s passenger list are two of the Lorita people, Dave Snyder and Kelly Bentham. As I understand it, they will all go to Eureka and then switch to another Twin Otter. The pilots bringing up this second Otter will then fly ‘our’ Otter (C-FDHB) back to Alert. Since there isn’t much ‘hard’ news, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to show pictures of some of the people who tend to keep a lower profile – people who, for one reason or another, haven’t been around when pictures were taken. -1- The first is of Dorothy Edwards, our very favourite cook (and friend) who has been with us so often on Arctic jaunts. I took the picture in the Alert kitchen, and the thoughtful look on her face suggests that she’s “adjusting the seasoning”. I received an email from Allan Pope, who complained (in a very charming way) that he hadn’t yet heard anything of Dorothy. It was this email that got me thinking that there were quite a number of people who hadn’t yet had the pleasure (or the misfortune) of showing up in the Newsletters. -2- The second picture (taken by John Boserup) shows Kevin Riehl, who made sure that the Twin Otter was always in good repair. His is a very important job, and we appreciate his work. Mark Foley and Jason Simms (pictures #3 and #4) look after the helicopters, just as Kevin looks after the Twin Otter. When we are a hundred miles off-shore, with seaice stretching off to the horizon in all directions, we are glad that they know their stuff and that the helicopters are reliable. -3- (Jason Simms) Sean Williams (Everone called him Opee) and Doug Briscoe are here to help Jim Milne with all the many jobs he has to do – not the least of which is loading and unloading aircraft. I understand that one of the principal reasons they came was for the adventure of seeing the High Arctic. This pircture shows them doing their bit for Canadian Arctic sovereignty. (Opee on the left; Doug on the right.) -4- Jim Haffey (picture by J. Boserup) is our Twin Otter pilot. He was excellent at finding suitable sites for our fuel caches and for the shot sites that we did with the Twin. He and Gabriel Lluberas flew long hours hauling fuel, explosives and general camp equipment, and they did it in weather that was not terribly pleasant. Gabriel Lluberas (picture #7 by J. Boserup) was the co-pilot on the Twin Otter. His mother is Canadian and his father is Spanish. He has fascinating tales to tell about living in South America – particularly in Uruguay. -5- Dave Snyder is a scientist working for the Geological Survey (GSC). He worked hard at preparing the recording boxes for the ice and then recovering the data after the boxes had been recovered. This picture was taken by John Boserup as Dave was waiting for the Twin to take him south. Kelly Bentham, our photographer, took lots of pictures, but, in return, we took lots of pictures of him. This one was taken by John Boserup as Kelly waited to get on the Twin Otter. -6- This picture, taken by Christian Marcussen, is of Dave, Peer and Kelly. I include it just because I think it’s a good picture. (It wasn’t posed even though it has that look.) -7- Soren Rysgaard and Martin Blicker (pictures #11 by Dorothy and #12 by Trine) are what I would call chemical biologists. They are very interested in the chemistry of CO2 that goes on at the icewater interface. (Martin Blicker) -8- Arne Olesen (taken by Jon Biggar) is responsible (with Jon) for measuring bathymetry and gravity along the tracks followed during the seismic work. In this picture he is taking a gravity measurement. Arne (Danish) and Jon (Canadian) are doing this work together – whenever the weather relents enough to let them get get out in the helicopter. Best regards, Ron Verrall Send comments to: Name: ronverrall Address: gmaildotcom -9-
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