All good things come to an end
"You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy"
For the first few weeks of June my boss Mike and I spent most of our time de-winterizing everything to get ready for the new season. By mid June we were going pretty steady doing beluga whale tours. While doing the beluga tours I was able to see a mammal that I’d never seen in their natural habitat before and learn things that I’d maybe only read in a book. I learnt to hook up a hydrophone so that my guests and I on the zodiacs could hear the amazing vocals of these mammals. I became knowledgable on minor beluga whale detail such as, the first thing you are going to notice about them is the two different colours. The grey ones are what we refer to as young teenagers, it takes about 4-5 years for them to lose the grey colouring before coming white. The white ones are going to be your adults and of course the bigger white whales are likely to be the bulls. The white whales that you see with a grey growth on them is a mother and calf. We were fortunate to see a lot of new born calfs this season. When born the calfs are about 4 ft in length and have a creamy colour to them before turning grey.
Mother and Calf
Flow Ice
Jamie, Hayley and I
Cam
Remi
With a full crew we were able to get the other two zodiacs ready for the water, as well as preparing the Sea North II. The crewing of the SNII was more work then I had originally thought. Most of it was taking in a lot of information that I knew nothing about prior. I was responsible for communicating with Cpt. Mike as well as making sure the guests on the boat were safe and having a good time. However after crewing the SNII a handful of times it all becomes second nature. It was a fun filled experience to crew the SNII.
Mike teaching future Cpt. Remi how to
operate the SNII
operate the SNII
Me preparing the boat for departure with Jamie
By July the river had broken up and the ice was flowing nicely out into the bay. Mike had taken us all out on the zodiacs a few times so that we could get a feel for them as well as getting use to the whales. The idea was to be shown how to approach the whales while we had guests in the zodiacs with us as well as getting comfortable driving the zodiacs. Although I wouldn’t be driving the zodiacs too much due to my doing the Fort tours it was still fun and a great experience to learn how to operate them. Other then the Fort tours my job was to assist on Kayaking tours as well as crewing the SNII, which would be a whole new experience. August would be and was just as busy as July, so we never had the chance to have a dull moment.
Prior to starting my Fort Prince of Wales tours, Mike took Remi, Doreen and I to Sloops Cove. Now Sloops Cover is another National Historic Site in the area about 3 miles upriver from PWF. Sloops Cove has significant history as some may know- Samuel Hearne, who would later become the last Governor at PWF before its surrender in 1782 carved his name into the rocks when he was only 22 in 1767.
Sloops were small wooden sailing vassals used during the fur trade for exploration. Iron rings, which were driven into the rocks by the Hudson’s Bay Company men to secure the sloops. These are shown above are still visible today.
Mooring Ring
The cove itself is the result of a phenomenon known as isostatic rebound, which is the gradual rising of land elevations as it springs back after thousands of years of being crushed under the weight of continental glaciers.
Isostatic Rebound
July 2nd I was able to do my very first Fort tour, and at first I was expecting a small group but Doreen informed me that I’d be doing a double tour! I was a little scared at first because I had never done anything like this before not to mention my fear of public speaking. Well as soon as our boats landed on shore at the Fort and I guided my guests towards the Fort- the fear went out the window. My first tour went amazing in which I had about 30 people. I thought I’d dislike the bigger groups but I absolutely loved them. Over the next few weeks of doing tours I learned to appreciate the bigger groups more. I enjoyed how interactive they were, always asking questions and just overall being able to talk/joke with. I was able to throw in some humour into my tours and really show my love for history which people appreciated. I later realized that doing the tours with the smaller groups were hard. The reason I found this was because it’s hard to find one person in the group that you can appeal to while still making it interesting for others. Smaller groups I found don’t want to listen to my talk for 40-45min, instead they would like to go to the Fort and take pictures and look for polar bears. And then there is also the issue of appealing to the different age groups. I found that the big 30 person groups with older people were always good groups. If I had a big group of 30 with young children and teenagers, it was hard to keep or even get their interest in the history of the Fort. This I can understand, I was once their age too and at their age I don’t think I was as interested in History as I am now. But regardless, out of the countless number of tours that I was able to do this summer I only ever had 2 bad days. So because of this I will consider myself lucky. Either way good or bad, I loved doing the tours and apparently I have a natural act for being a tour guide.
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”
Kayaks ready to go out
Now the kayaking tours were a whole other story. Usually we’d have two people doing the kayaking tours, and I think for most of them it was Remi and I. We’d show up at the docks about an hour before tour time and receive the kayaking tour information (also known as sailing orders) from Doreen, which from there we’d know how many kayaks to get ready. There would be some days we’d only have 3 kayaks out whereas others we’d have all 10 out! And of course it’s not an easy task setting up for the tour. Most days we’d have to load the kayaks into the truck and carry them down to the water; this is because we always do out kayaking at low tide, however these kayaks aren’t exactly light! As summer went on and the more carrying of the hard plastic kayaks we did the more I was able to lift the singles by myself, now the tandems are another story, usually Remi and I would lift those together. We also have three inflatable kayaks that people are able to use; these kayaks are very stable and are neat because they have plastic see-through windows. People really enjoy these because as they are out kayaking and whalea go under their boat they are usually able to see them underneath. So prior to sending people out with the kayaks we always supply life jackets and spray skirts (for those who are using the hard plastic kayaks) and of course paddles.
Each and every day I worked it was always something different. I never knew what to expect but regardless of not knowing it was still exciting. I was able to work with an amazing bunch of people and because of that was able to make some amazing friends. The crew we had this summer clicked together so great, all of our different personalities and experiences or lack of made every day an adventure. However, there would be some time to relax before taking a tour out! 
Remi enjoying a quick snooze before tour time
The Crew
In the end I couldn’t have asked for a better job. Working with Sea North Tours gave me the opportunity to broaden my horizon and try things I had only imagined ever doing. Both Mike and Doreen took a chance at hiring an individual with absolutely no experience ever working with boats, or doing tours and I think in the end it defiantly paid off.
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience”
As the sunsets we all say goodbye. All good things
must come to an end, but if we're lucky enough we'll
be able to do it all again next year.
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