Yellowknife (Feb 09/04) - What do you do when your snowmobile breaks down on the way to a mid-winter fishing trip?

If you are like Adam Smith and his family, you take the pesky ski and bend it back into place. Then you tie it with rope and continue on your way.

It's all in a day's worth of fishing for Smith, his family and neighbours in Cape Dorset. They have decided to beat the winter blahs by going out on the land as often as they can.

Smith is the Baffin Recreation Development Officer and he has lived in Cape Dorset with his wife and daughter for two years now, after spending five years in Qikitarjuaq.

Smith enjoys his job but likes to get away from it all.

The Smith's have found that going out on the land with their neighbors in search of char every second weekend helps them all cope with the long, cold winter.

"It's nice to get a break from town," Smith said last week. "The weather has been up and down. It all depends on the weather if we go out or not but we're trying to make it a regular thing."

One of their snowmachines broke down last Sunday and the group didn't catch one single char, though they were out from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Still, they took plenty of pictures while the sun shimmered on the frozen lake, located about 16 kilometres from town.

And the children had fun.

"The kids brought a T and T racer. They had a blast," said Smith.