2 August

Hello from Egg Island,

Just in case any of you were wondering, not everything is work here on the Arctic coast. We have managed in between grueling watch assignments and potentially dangerous scouting missions to have just a little bit of fun here on this tiny island we call home.

Two days ago we were experiencing reasonably warm temperatures and a steady 15 mph northerly winds. We decided to take advantage of this ready supply of clean renewable energy as we fashioned a sturdy box kite out of the little solar drying tent ( a 4' x 4' minature dome tent) supplied us by Martin and the good people at Mountain Hardware. To our surprise the tent flew beautifully and we had enough string to fly it a good fifty yards out from camp. We got a big laugh at the thought of any off shore oil rig workers seeing us from the drilling platform through binoculars; "Look George, they're flying a tent. They've finally lost their minds." Oh well, it's always good to keep them guessing! Then yesterday emerged as quite possibly the best weather we've had so far on the trip. It was warm and calm without a cloud in the sky making perfect paddling conditions for the kayaks. So Doug, Ingrid, Liz and I paddled our two 2-man boats (about a mile) west across the sound to the neighboring Long Island for a little exploring. Long Island is also a long skinny gravel bar like Egg Island but something about it's more north to south orientation allows for it to grow a minimal amount of vegitation and makes it more prone to catching ocean-born junk on its beaches. Imagine our delight to find abandoned ladders and milk crates and aircraft tires and firehose and navigational bouys and light bulbs and whole bottles (though empty) of J&B scotch amoung the many variety's of shells and flat rocks that make up the beach. It made for wonderful scavaging as we looked for items to add to our eclectic collection back at camp.

The trip was capped off when Doug discovered a wonderful set of polar bear tracks that ran quite distinctly for about a hundred yards in the sand along the island. They were quite large (about eight inches across) and we guessed they were probably left there this past Spring as they weren't exactly fresh. Even so, there is something remarkable about seeing large bear tracks that is always exhilerating (maybe even more than seeing a bear itself) as the phantom tracks leave so much for the imagination to run away with.

We left Long Island paddling along its windward side, carefully steering our way through the small icebergs left their from the previous days of wind. The wonderful blue-white color of the bergs makes for a lovely backdrop for a late evening paddle. We arrived back at camp to a warm meal of soup and rice which our teammates had ready. A healthy gesture of comradery for ones so lucky such as us.

No, all is not work for the members of the Arctic Base Camp. We manage to keep our spirits high in such a wild and beautiful place.

Cheers! Woody
Greenpeace Arctic Base Camp