The Burton Winters tragedy

I have decided to write about this story now despite it having occurred about two months ago. Burton Winters was a 14 year old boy from the community of Makkovik, Labrador. He had gotten lost in bad weather after visiting his Grandmother and perished on sea ice 11 km from Makkovik. He was first reported missing Jan 29, 2012 and was found three days later Feb. 01. There are two things that really stand out in this story. One is Burton's sheer determination to make it back home and his apparent will to survive. He had gotten stuck and abandoned his snowmobile. Apparently he walked 19 km before he succumbed to hypothermia. The other thing that really stands out in this story is SAR's response to the incident. They failed to show up in time to save the boys life. Their assistance was requested but by the time they arrived it was too late. Admiral Gardam of DND's response was that the two CH-146 Griffon's(secondary search assets) in Goose Bay were out of service, it was not their responsibility to call back to confirm if military search and rescue assets were needed or requested(it is interesting to note here that this so called "time tested call back protocol" was never even heard of by search and rescue officials) and that their primary search and rescue asset the CH-149 Cormorant could not be used in case a major event occurred at sea. The third reason was particularly cruel given the fact that a CH-149 Cormorant picked up the Minister of National Defence from a fishing lodge and flew him to the Gander Airport. CBC's The Fifth Estate did a story on Burton Winters and turned up more questions than answers. http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2011-2012/lostontheice/

Just got hit with a major storm

Everyone is digging out after our first big storm of the winter, winter being almost over. It started Monday March 26 and we didn't see the sun again until yesterday, Friday March 30. I figured we had around 100 cm of snow from start to finish and I wasn't far off. We had more than 90 cm I think. Snow is almost up to the eaves of our house. Some peoples houses are almost buried over. Dad went to Goose Bay for medical appointments on Monday and never got back till Friday afternoon. There were quite a few people waiting for the road to open to get back from Goose Bay. James was quite happy to try out his new snow shoes as you can see.

This and That

The summer will soon be over, the nights are getting shorter and kids will be heading off to school again. So far it has been very busy for me with the new addition to our family, very little time for anything. Other than that this summer has been like other summers. There are lots of people visiting some just passing through some moving back for the summer to get their fish or bakeapples etc. This summer it seems like there are more people coming through even though there are fewer people travelling on the Sir Robert Bond. Phase III of the TLH is completed or almost complete and there is a lot of traffic coming through, some of the people have not been back here in a long time. We came back from Goose Bay on the Bond after Jazmin was born and it was possibly our last trip on her ever again as there are rumours that she will stop running at the end of August with the completion of Phase III of the TLH. And it was a good trip. Unlike years previous we had no trouble getting a room at all. There was hardly a soul on board compared to other summers when she would be packed. I counted just 8 vehicles when we got on in Goose Bay.
There are a lot of people coming and going in boat this summer. Mostly people visiting their summer places like Packs Harbour, Dumpling or Hare Harbour. You would have a hard time finding any bakeapples if you didn't get at them early because there were so many people out picking them. There were lots of whales and icebergs this summer. There were very few icebergs down on the Island portion of the province. A company that harvests ice from icebergs to make iceberg vodka had to come to Northern Labrador to find ice this year.
The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Mathew was here for several days doing underwater survey work I think. I heard about a fast boat travelling from St. John's in 12 hours. I heard she had three 300 horsepower engines and could do 70 knots and that she burned 9 drums of fuel by the time she arrived in Cartwright. The crew is supposed to go North to the Arctic, through the North West Passage and on to Vancouver.
Another bit of local news; Dr. Lisa Rankin and her crew finished up their second summer at Indian Island and had an open house invitation to the general public to come out and see what they are doing. Dr. Lisa Rankin is an archaeologist for M.U.N. and just completed the Porcupine Strand Archaeological Project a few years ago.
There was a Come Home Reunion at Indian Tickle last week.

Our new addition to the family

Our daughter, Jazmin Charmaine Holwell was born July 13, 2010, just over a month ago. She was 8 lbs 11 oz and delivered by c section. Were were a month or more waiting and Dr. Rawluk decided a c section was best because he didn't want the baby to stay in too long. Although the baby was moved down the cervix wasn't softening. The nurses and doctors, especially Dr. Rawluk and Nurse Browne were really great, they were really nice and helpful. We were very happy and after we got home we were glad to see our son James as well. We missed him very much(he was waiting at home with his nan and pop).

Small Plane Missing

A small charter plane owned by North Wind Aviation went missing this morning on it's way to Cartwright from Goose Bay. It was about 15 minutes from Cartwright and the pilot radioed that he was about to land but the plane didn't arrive and nothing was heard. The weather was very bad with rain and drizzle and low overcast skies. The area it is believed to have gone down in is very hilly and rugged. The single passenger on the plane used to work up to Domino when I was fishing with my Dad.

Tragedy Strikes Labrador Families

Last week May 18/10, tragedy struck hard for three Labrador families. Three young men, one of them Roy Sainsbury from here(Cartwright), went over Muskrat Falls in a small aluminum boat. Not much is known. They were too close to the falls and got caught in the current. Their girlfriends were on shore and could only watch in horror as they were swept away. Apparently two of them jumped overboard and tried to swim to shore. The other two were Ryan Russell of Charlottetown and Randy Rose of Goose Bay. They were all about to Graduate from the College of The North Atlantic in Goose Bay. So far all that's been found is a pair of sneakers and a few pieces of the boat.

Roy's memorial was held Saturday May 22/10. A lot of people showed up for the memorial including people from out of town. It was one of the biggest memorials I had ever seen in Cartwright. There was standing room only in the Anglican Church and adjacent Parish Hall. After the service there was a reception at the school. There was about 250 to 300 people showed up for the memorial. That just shows you how many lives he(Roy) touched and how sadly he will be missed. Faith, Junior and the kids received a great deal of support and love.

This and That

We made a trip up to the Straits last Friday, May 21/10. James had a great time. It was a pretty good trip, really nice scenery. We took the vehicle up to get her serviced, me & Julie, James and mom and dad. Done a bit of shopping while we were up there. Got back late the next night. We stopped at several places on the way back including Point Amour on the right, Capstan Island and Red Bay.

We will be going to Goose Bay soon, around the end of June in anticipation of the birth of our second child.