Picture this. You are standing by a boat where six and a half hours earlier, you would have been completely submerged. This was where we were standing this morning: by the Ithaca, which is a single hull riveted ship. The Ithaca was an ore ship that sank in September of 1960. One of the theories regarding how it sank was that it was purposely grounded during a vicious storm, but since it was insured the captain was not too worried about leaving it there.
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| The group standing inside the Ithaca |
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| Looking out towards the water from inside the Ithaca |
Greg’s footnote: For his 17th birthday, Andrew got a very pricey gift from the group... A live, two centimetre long krill found under a rock during our time at the Ithaca. In short, he ate it. Live.
It was a very rusty and old boat that took a lot of effort to get to. Since the beach was covered by the tide, there were a lot of rocks with slippery seaweed attached to them, as well as lots of puddles everywhere. Unfortunately, if you did not have rubber boots on, your feet got pretty wet.
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| Larissa standing in one of the many puddles |
Greg’s footnote: Shawna fell backwards into a puddle during our escapade back from the Ithaca. It was hilarious.
After we ate lunch, we went to Cape Merry and were separated into groups of two for a study on the beluga whale population. We sat watching our assigned zones for two hours, recording numbers every tenth minute. It was windy and quite cold but it was an exciting experience trying to spot the ridges of the belugas.
Greg’s footnote: Emma and Andrew were by far the most successful. They found fifty WHOLE fiftieths of a full beluga. In case you were wondering, they found one beluga whale.
Once this two hour excursion was over, we headed off to Churchill to explore the area and buy souvenirs.
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| At a park in Churchill before we headed off to dinner |
Dinner at Gypsy’s was great and everyone enjoyed the food. Andrew got two more gifts from the group- one, a card signed by each of us, and two, a Nanaimo bar as a replacement for birthday cake. The best part was that all of this was on Doug’s tab! After dinner, we made our way to visit Cape Merry.
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| Andrew with his "birthday cake" |
Greg’s footnote: At dinner, Larissa ate an entire 12-inch pizza, and to this point of the night has not yet thrown up.
At Cape Merry, we learned about edible plants that can be found in the Churchill tundra area. Listed are some of the more interesting and delicious plants that are seen throughout Churchill: fireweed (used for jelly, completely edible), Labrador tea (when prepared properly, delicious), sphagnum moss (extremely absorbent, used as bandages), and crowberry (root used as medicine, berry used in jelly and pie).
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| Sphagnum moss |
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| Fireweed |
Greg’s footnote: Troy had previously enjoyed some Labrador tea uncooked and unprepared- not the safest thing to do, but he spat it out after he discovered Harry WASN’T joking about it being poisonous. Also, many of the edible plant samples were consumed by Harry and Troy. Too many :P.
All in all, it was a great day, filled with lots of interesting information. Happy Birthday Andrew!
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| Andrew on his 17th birthday |
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