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
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