|
2100, Thursday, July 20, 2023
It is late and I am tired; so, my writing may be short. But I am hoping to include 4 fun photos.
Last night after our dinner aboard in Indian Tickle I heard the rumble of an outboard. Looking out I saw a man about my age and a young boy in an aluminum skiff. They live in the Tickle in summer and wanted to just say hello; they had only seen two other boats this summer. We asked them aboard and spent over an hour chatting in the cockpit. The man, Wade, talked of how in its heyday Indian Tickle would have over 1,500 people between those ashore and those on fishing schooners. Now just 15 or 20 people live here in only the summer months. Little fishing outports seem to only get smaller.
The boy, Reese, was no relation of Wade, just a friend. Reese is of part Inuit descent. As such, he is allowed to catch more fish than other residents of the province, such as Wade. Reese's favorite is wild caught salmon. The youngster is also enterprising at the young age of 13. He picks bakeapple berries in Indian Tickle in August and sells them in Goose Bay in the fall. Last summer he picked and sold 32 gallons of the berries for $100 per gallon. Bakeapple is the local name for what are called cloudberries in other northern areas of the world; they look a bit like an orange raspberry.
Charlie greatly enjoyed our visitors. The real treat was that early this morning I heard the rumble of an outboard again, Reese and Wade tossed us a bag of salmon fillets! We had them for dinner tonight.
The other treat last night was a visit right at sunset. I had gone on deck to do a last check before bedtime. I heard a woosh of air and turned to see a minke whale surface and breathe in the pink-golden glow of sunset. Charlie joined me on deck and for 20 minutes we watched the minke feed on shoals of small sand lance fish. A photo is below.
| 
