Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 13, 2007

POND INLET - A man and his two sons took in some incredible sights last week, while travelling up the east coast of Baffin Island in an open boat.

Joe Enook and sons Jamie Enook and Ricky Kilabuk navigated a six-metre welded aluminum boat from Pangnirtung up to the family's cabin outside Pond Inlet.

A large portion of their trip was spent following a floe edge between Clyde River and Pond Inlet.

"We were so far out that we were in no-man's land," Joe said.

"At some points we were 38 miles off the coast of Baffin, with no sight of land...I don't know about the boys, but I felt pretty small. It sure gives an opportunity to reflect on what you are not, and what you are not is anything big."

The trio left Pang on Aug. 2, stopping briefly in Qikiqtarjuaq for fuel. After a few hours in a hunters and trappers cabin north of there, they were later weathered overnight in Clyde River on Aug. 4.

They arrived safely in Pond Inlet on Aug. 6, where a crowd quickly gathered on shore to greet them.

"I'm extremely proud of (their) trip, done with no help from the outside," said Pond Inlet Mayor David Qamaniq, who went down to meet them and shake their hands.

Later that evening, friends and family gathered for a barbecue and bonfire by the beach "for their safe travel," Qamaniq said.

Although the real reason for the trip was to deliver the boat, "most importantly it was to see a part of the country I've never seen and probably never will again, other than from 15,000 feet up," Joe said.

"It gave me all the more reason to do this adventure with the boys."

Planning for the trip was the most stressful part of the whole thing, he said.

"I was as prepared as I could be prepared. According to when I got here I had brought enough grub for about three weeks," he said, adding they took along a satellite phone and personal locator transmitter as well.

So far out from land, the boys only spotted "the odd polar bear to get you excited every now and then," he said.

"Six polar bears the whole trip, and just one walrus, and I happened to be asleep for this," he added with a laugh.

Joe also stressed his "heart-felt thanks to people of the communities that we stopped in, and quickly had to leave, for the encouragement, the knowledge that they gave us about the area we were in."