Mikes blog: Coral Harbour NU

Coral Harbour NU Oct 19^th to 26^th 2011

Before I left Repulse I emailed the Hotel in Coral to see if I was getting a lift as the airport is 10 miles from town. I was told they don’t provide this service and they gave me the number for the taxi. Good to know in advance. I got in and found the only payphone in the airport was dead. Nice going NWT. The lady in the “control tower” called a cab for me and I set about to read my book. Soon the place empties out except for me and this lady. Once the daily flight is over, no need to hang around.

After about a half hour wait I ask if she can call again. Evidently he hasn’t come home from his other job and until he does, I must wait. He eventually shows and up proceeds to drive close to 100k on a winding gravel road to the lovely “Leonies place” hotel. $20 for a 10 minute drive. I’ll be expensing that one for sure.

Work is literally 240 feet away. I paced it out. I get over to site and find my equipment is there as expected. We sent it well in advance. However, a critical data switch I need (in fact all data equipment for the community) has yet to come.

So I make a few calls and find out it was shipped the day before I arrived. Ahhh. Shipped via Canadian North, who don’t fly to Coral Harbour. They likely hand it off to Calm Air in Rankin Inlet, NU.

Should come soon I think. Yah right. The weather turns bad. I still can’t figure out how to tell if they will fly into a community. If it’s a “low ceiling” (I should look that term up) they won’t attempt it, at least in smaller towns. For a few days it turns overcast, and it’s snowing. So it seems that’s no good for flying.

So no flights in Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Sunday a flight comes, but no parts.

By Monday I’m so fed up with this waiting game. I truly wonder who is running these projects. I suspect no one in reality. So I call Canadian North Cargo in Iqaluit to track the parts. I get told to call the Rankin office to see if it was handed to Calm Air. So I call Rankin and was told “I don’t think we go to Coral harbor”. I said “I don’t believe you do either” and go on to explain how I was told the parts would likely go to Calm Air. He then suggests I call Calm Air. The same people I call several times a day to see if my parts arrived in Coral Harbour airport yet. So I call the airport and was told “some parts” did come and they will drop them off at the site I am working at.

So Monday at 10ish, 4 of 14 boxes arrives and of course the one I need isn’t one of them. Another call and I’m told another plane arrives at 3:30 so perhaps they will come. So I sit at site, like I have now for 6 days and hope someone shows up with parts.

Tuesday morning I go to the common area at “Leonies place” and there is Dan, one of the network techs we are working in conjunction with is sitting there.

So I take Dan on the work site tour. We start in the area I’ve been waiting to complete. Next we go to school. I popped over the day before around 3 to check out the site as it will likely be a future work site. As we open the doors between my site and the school, low and behold, all the fucking equipment I was waiting on is sitting there. They delivered it sometime after 3 and never bothered to tell me or evidently, anyone. That’s so Nunatypical.

I finally finish my work and train the customer. I hope I can finally get the hell out of here.

Don’t get the wrong impression. This town was okay. I walked around and took a few pics Saturday. It was a tad cold but clear and nice. That’s why when the flight didn’t come in that morning I was surprised. I walked most of the town in about 1 hour. Sunday I started to walk again but the wind had picked up too much. It was too damn cold to walk.

I was surprised how many dogs where tied outside on short leases. In the north dogs are everywhere and naturally you see huskies, that I assume pull sleds, usually in groups and spaced far enough apart that they can’t reach each other. Sometimes there will be a makeshift dog house nearby for them but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the dogs use them. But in this town I saw a few dogs (non-huskies) that where tied up with really nowhere to go. I’m not sure I understand why. If it’s a pet, why is it outside? They don’t appear to be work dogs to me, but WTF do I know.

Leonies place is okay I suppose. Any northern hotel where you didn’t have to share a room, is a good hotel. The room was typical I suppose, except that between the mattress and box spring was a sheet of fiber board. That’ll stiffener up. Oh and the last day there was no water in the morning. The truck fixed that up an hour after I arose. Though I seemed to sleep okay (It’s not 30 degrees or no odd “whirrrrr, bang”), a few times I awake at odd hours. 1:30. 3:00 etc. And I’m wide awake. Watch Conan for an hour, wide awake. It was odd. Maybe the place was built on an ancient burial ground.

Anyway, I may be back some day to complete the rest of the town. That won’t be bad as long as the parts are there first. Please God, let the parts arrive first. lol

In the case at the school. Hes been there at least 20 years.