The great whale hunt

Well, yesterday I went out with Kam, Paul and Ron, in Kam's boat looking for Beluga whales. Kam wanted to go about 20 km down the coast looking for whales but the wind which had been from the north picked up and went around to the southeast, just about the worst direction it could be, since the inlet that Kimmirut is situated on runs northwest by southeast. It was too rough to go out on Hudson Strait so we had to content ourselves with hunting around back bays for seals. We saw quite a few of them but couldn't get close enough to them to get a good shot. (Sorry, to those who don't like hunting, but it's a way of life here, and people make good use of all the things they hunt.)I tried several shots myself, but with the boat bobbing in the waves and the seals popping up and down it was pretty difficult. Even Kam who is a crack shot missed. The morning started out about 12*C and it was very cold on the water. I should have worn my new snowmobile boots but thought my rubber boots would be warm enough. I was wrong! Boating in cold weather has to be worse than snowmobiling because you can't move around as much. There won't be much more boating however, since the harbour is beginning to freeze up every time we get calm, cold weather. We came across several small bays that were frozen over and the seals were lying on the ice about 300m away. There was no sense in trying to shoot them because there would be no way to get them since the ice was too thick for the boat to break. Last night we had high winds and snow. There were lots of snowmachines out today. I had to get some work done at the school so I didn't get out. If the snow stays I'll try to get out sometime this week, although it is dark by 4:00 PM now and I don't often get home from school until after 5:00. I've only got one picture that's worht including from our boat trip yesterday. It was too cold on the hands to have the camera out often.
'Till next week. Jim