Flashline-16 Daily Report 30-06-2024

Author: Michael Andrews – Crew Logistics

The crew awoke at Resolute Bay with the main priority of traveling to Devon Island, but we learned by 8:00 AM that weather conditions continued to worsen (i.e. low cloud ceiling and incoming rain). To make the most use of our time here, we came up with these contingency objectives:

• Perform a local practice EVA walk to gather water samples for our nanoplastics and permafrost studies
• Continue to consolidate items and reduce un-needed weight from our Yellowknife shipments

Resolute Bay is certainly not known for its forests. Vegetation grows among sharp rocks and polar cold. In this photo, you can see a book left behind near the town. Our way of living affects the beauty of the most remote places, but in this case, nature endures and continues to thrive.

We had originally planned to take water samples in Resolute Bay, to compare them to samples on Devon Island. And with our flight plans delayed another day, there was no time like the present! A small body of water near Char Lake (directly north of the city) was selected, and we rented a hotel truck for transport. The team was split into two main roles: a science team of 4 and bear watch team of 3. The science team would be able to fully focus on recording observations and taking samples, while the bear watch team would create a perimeter and maintain situational awareness. In terms of equipment, the science team pulled the necessary supplies out of our luggage, and the bear watch team inspected their shotguns and called the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to confirm local regulations. The team arrived at the site (adjacent to Char Lake) and began their expedition at 9:30 AM.

The expedition was a huge morale boost for the whole crew, and all team members gained a lot out of the experience. Chief Science Officer Nicholson’s report and photos follows this daily report. For the bear watch team, Crew Engineer Robbins and Mission Specialist Woods identified some good practices to modify once we are on the island. The simple science objectives and very low chance of polar bear encounter made this an ideal training experience.

After our team brunch and expedition debrief, we broke up into separate tasks. I worked on powering up our Starlink unit, Officer Nicholson worked on her science report, and the rest of the crew went to the plane hangar to retrieve some of our items that shipped from Yellowknife. Some of the team went through the excess food and further reduced our cargo weight, and dunnage removal allowed us to reduce our box count.

The team finished up the day with dinner and a hike to a local river. The conditions were originally rainy, but slightly cleared up and allowed us to travel much farther than planned. The beauty of the scenery here cannot be properly stated, so I’ll let the pictures below tell the story. Tomorrow’s weather forecast appears to only be worse conditions than today, so we are keeping expectations low that we may be in Resolute for another day.