Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 29, 2008

MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET - Searchers scoured the water around Pond Inlet for a 15-year-old boy who went adrift in a small boat last Thursday morning.

"Everybody is hoping. Everybody is hoping that everything is going to be okay," said

Johnathan Palluq, local resident and search and rescue co-ordinator, on Friday.

The boy was about just outside of town in a 2.5 metre boat, when the wind blew him offshore around 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 25. A friend contacted the local RCMP.

Bad weather slowed the search later that day, with winds reaching up to 70 km/h. A Hercules aircraft from CFB Trenton was sent to aid in the search and arrived in the early afternoon.

Two boats and a Coast Guard ship with a helicopter were searching the area Friday, according to Palluq.