July 17 3:30 am (Central time) Winnipeg: Under starry sky, four very sleepy scientists were waiting for the arrival of the charter flight carrying about 60 Coastguard crew and scientists from Quebec. Amundsen Chief Scientist for leg 10a, Gary Stern; graduate students, Lauren Candlish and Amanda Chaulk; and I (Research Scientist of Environment Canada, Hayley Hung) were half-asleep when we boarded the plane at around 5:30. We were making our way to Yellowknife where we would split into 2 Convair flights to Kugluktuk. It was a very long journey even if the charter planes did not stall twice and delay for 5 hours in total. At Kugluktuk, we were transported to the ship on a helicopter. To move 60+ people onto and off the ship in a helicopter was a very slow process. We finally all made it to the ship by about 4 p.m. (Mountain time). There, I met up with Fiona Wong (Environment Canada) who managed to show me everything in the laboratory and on the deck before she disembarked from her last expedition out of three on the Amundsen. When our luggage arrived well after midnight on July 18, it was still nice and sunny outside. The ship was then located at 67° 50.559 N, 115° 07.654 W…and it was 25.5 °C on the deck at 5 p.m. when I checked on the mercury vapour analyzer…perfect weather for sandals and beaches in the Arctic!


Boarding charter at Winnipeg – Gary, Amanda and Lauren


Fiona and I at the helicopter deck