We were up at 5:00 am this morning to get an early start, had a light breakfast and flew out at 7:15 for Yellowknife. When we got there, Margaret Bertulli from the Heritage Centre came out to meet us. (Webmaster's note: Margaret participated in the 1993 expedition) She has been a good friend over the years. She had never met John MacDonald, even though she had talked to him dozens of times on the phone and he has arranged our permits through her. We had a nice chat before we moved on to Cambridge Bay. We flew in a slow, cumbersome Hawker Siddeley aircraft, circa 1959.

When we got to Cambridge Bay it was quite cool, around 5 degrees C., and very windy. Doug Stern met us there. We were surprised to see a brand new terminal there, built since we were last there in April. We were also sad to hear that their highschool had burned to the ground. It was a beautiful, brand new school, now gutted and burned to the ground. Very sad.

ABEL AQQAQ

TOMMY TOTALIK

When we reached Gjoa Haven it was very cold, with heavy winds. This is typical for King William Island - very heavy winds, white caps on the water. This made us pessimistic about our chances of getting out today. A short flight took us to Taloyoak, and when we got off the plane it was beautiful; sunny, warmer, maybe 10 degrees C., and no winds. We were met by Pat Lyall, a super gentleman. He introduced us to the two men who are going with us, and Doug knows them both! He says they're "the best", they're just great guys. One is named Abel Aqqaq, and the other is Tommy Totalik. We had some things to buy before we head out tomorrow, including 180 gallons of gas for the boats, which cost $711, oil for $136, and we bought one buggyload of food which was $350. It's expensive up here! We're staying at the Boothia Inn, a nice little inn where we had a lovely roast beef dinner tonight.

HARBOUR AT TALOYOAK

We went over the maps and made plans for tomorrow. We're going to start out early in the morning and head up the coast, probably travelling about 50 miles, which should bring us just about where we want to be. The worst case scenario would be bad weather in the morning, which is also possible, and could mean we'd be stuck here.

Doug introduced us to Alec Buchan, a retired Hudson's Bay store manager, who has been here since 1955. We had a wonderful two hours with him, talking about things and theorizing. He seems to think we might find some interesting things, quite reassuring. He doesn't know of any Franklin investigations that have been done on the Boothia, and says there are lots of theories. The area has been well travelled by hunters of course, but they stay right on the coast. We're going to go to Cape Adelaide Regina, where the magnetic north pole was identified. We might spend two or three days there, and give it a thorough search. Abel and Tommy know of a grave up near there, and they will take us there tomorrow.

It's going to be tough doing what we wanted to do. We had hoped to have the boats move up the shore with us and transport everything from camp to camp, and we would walk up to meet them. But the boats are a good size and can't get too close to shore because of the rocks. There are only one or two inlets that will let them in properly, so we may have to revise our plans somewhat. Toward the end of our stay they are also planning to do some hunting and bring back some caribou, fish and seal.

I'm getting some good video footage to capture the essence of it. That's our report for today. Tomorrow night we expect to call you from Cape Adelaide Regina, up the coast of the Boothia.

(Webmaster's note: If you are interested in attending a video/slide presentation and talk when the team returns home to southern Ontario, please let us know. If there is enough interest I'm sure something can be arranged.)

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