Labrador Inuit communities

August 27

We’re heading into another over nighter while decent weather holds (at sea, wind = weather), having spent the afternoon and night on the wharf at Makkovik. We left Ken off at the airport but the clouds were so low that he may still be there. It’s three of us for the rest of the trip.

It was nice to have a chance to see a current Labrador fishing outpost. Historically, Newfoundland fishermen came north to fish the Labrador coast in the summer, formerly for cod but now for other things — scallops, shrimp, and in this case turbot.

I got a great snapshot. Here you go:
– No roads in so everything comes by air or coastal ferry. The  Northern Ranger arrived while we were there. It goes up and down the coast as far as Nain all summer; in winter the coast is iced in. It looked pretty comfy, a good way to see the Labrador coast. They unloaded a brand-new black skidoo as I watched; someone must be pretty excited. After all, in winter you can go everywhere fast.
– While we were there three fishing boats came in. I saw the first one unload 18,000 pounds of turbot, a rather ugly fish about 2 feet long. They’re really ugly piled up in huge plastic bins, which are hustled around by forklift. The driver was a madman. The captain and crew were all Newfies. They’d been up here since July. They were making one more trip and then were heading home, and glad of it. The Newfoundland accent is extraordinary. There are free showers (warmish water) and a washer/dryer for fishermen to use, which we did as well. Rather grungy!
– The fish plant, right at the wharf, springs into action when the boats come in but is dead otherwise — frantic action or lethargy. The workers are mainly Inuit; the owners and managers seem to be White. They unload the turbot, cut off the heads and tails, flash freeze it, and ship it to China for processing! And apparently it then comes back, as fish sticks etc.!!! Don’t ask me, I’m just reporting.
– It’s all rubber boots, gloves, etc. in the fish plant. I went in to use the bathroom and accidentally stepped into the welcome mat: a three-foot-square well of disinfectant. One sneaker is now sterilized. The lunchroom upstairs was barren but had wi-fi.
– Above the town are many large oil tanks. Everything here runs on fuel: the town electric generator, the fishing boats, the ferry, the freezers, the heating, the ATVs and snowmobiles, the airplanes. It’s all about fish and fuel, more of the latter than the former I’d say. I felt surrounded by big noisy machines. Welcome to the modern Arctic. Probably Boston is just the same but with mufflers and other camouflage.
– There’s a post office that shares a building with the infirmary, Inuit administrative offices, a grocery/hardware/everything store, a RCMP office, and otherwise small houses.
– Makkovik won the “Tidy Towns” award in 2010.
– There were dozens and dozens of large (3′ square) heavy plastic sacks filled with something mysterious. Can you guess? Sand and gravel for the new playing field, brought in by ship.
– Makkovik is a dry town, as are many up here. But you can pay to fly in your own supply if you have enough money. We passed some very drunk guys in the evening.

I’m struck by how different the Labrador Inuit communities are from their northern Quebec counterparts (such as Kuujjuaq) — same latitude, just on opposite sides of the same peninsula. On the Quebec side, the traditional Inuit settlements were around Hudson Bay, and what was there to exploit (furs) depended on the natives. Now the Inuit community seems reasonably dominant and vibrant. On the Labrador side, it was all about cod which was a European project, and there weren’t native settlements to start with; so the Inuit role was to be workers in fish plants.  Or something like that. But in both cases, local Inuit control is new.

One last thing: we were joined by one other yacht, an Austrian couple who have been cruising the world for the last 15 years or so, more or less full time, much of it in the South Sea Islands. They were very congenial. Their home port was Slovenia, now Italy. This was their first Arctic experience; next year they hope to go to Greenland. They write books and give lectures about their adventures to finance further adventures. The book title says it all: Frei wie der Wind. It’s pretty strange picturing the same boat in Labrador and Tahiti. I guess that’s what gets ocean travelers excited.