Sachs Harbour (Aug 07/06) - Last Tuesday was one of the biggest days of the year in Sachs Harbour, one of the barges arrived 9 p.m.

Christina Esau, a summer student with the hamlet, said people formed long queues for their belongings - in some cases, after months of wait.

Del Kirkby, yard foreman for NTCL in Inuvik, watches over barrels of aircraft fuel. Loads like these are essential to Northern communities that rely on barges to deliver goods. - Philippe Morin/NNSL photo

"I think they felt happy. It's something to look forward to," Esau said, adding the barge cargo was a diverse mix of snowmobiles, bicycles, motorcycles, construction materials, supplies for the health centre and more. The vessel's arrival sparked celebration.

Del Kirkby, yard foreman for NTCL's Inuvik yard, said diverse loads are quite common.

"It could be anything," he says, adding that hundreds of tonnes can be loaded onto a single barge.

Sunny Monroe, communications manager for barge operator NTCL, remembers hearing a friend talk of waiting for shipping barges as a child.

"We used to be able to smell the oranges, or at least we thought we could," the friend would tell her.

It's a lovely image, which illustrates the anticipation which greets shipping barges in the North.

Indeed, without those slow-moving, heavy-loaded, completely unglamourous barges, life in communities such as Sachs Harbour and Ulukhaktok - the next destination for the massive cargo hauler - would be much more expensive.

Barges have been travelling the Mackenzie River every summer since 1934.

"Anything you can put on a boat, we'll ship," she said.

Since shipping by water is the cheapest way to send freight over long distances, Monroe explained communities have come to rely on the service.

"It's very important that we get there. The fuel needs to get there especially," she said.

Though air freight is available year-round in most places, Monroe said it would cost an "exorbitant amount" to send something like a pickup truck to a place like Ulukhaktok - if indeed a plane large enough could be found that wasn't busy flying supplies to the diamond mines.

She added the boats are owned by a subsidiary of the Inuvialuit Development Corporation, which means they benefit Inuvialuit people.

While the barges are a very effective mode of transportation, Monroe admits the system isn't perfect.

"Marine transportation is the cheapest kind of transportation, but it still has costs," she said, adding occasionally people have their shipments "bumped" because the boat is already full but it will get to them, eventually.

"Things don't always get there when we want them to," she said.

"But it always gets there ... We've never missed a delivery to a community."

For people waiting in communities, news of the barge will always welcome - they are a rare and anticipated visit rivalled only by the annual visit from Santa's sleigh.