Home!
On 18 March, 59 days after we left, we limped into Halifax Harbour and made our way over to the jetty on the Dartmouth side at BIO. We had lost the bow motors in the last week of the cruise and, in order to avoid any further damage to the ship, the Captain had a tug arranged to help us dock. Words cannot describe the emotion as the ship was tied up and we waited to clear customs. This is normal for any ship that carries bonded stores, or has been to a foreign port. It has to be inspected by a customs officer before anyone is allowed on or off.
And so we stood on the deck, with our families waiting on the jetty for what seemed like several hours. In reality, it probably only took 15-20 minutes but every minute was an eternity. Then came the long awaited pipe over the ship's intercom system "The ship has now cleared customs." The gangplank was lowered. You had to be there to imagine the scramble to get off the ship and on to the jetty! Back home again in Nova Scotia . . . back with our families and our regular jobs on land. We all vowed never to go to sea again. Never!
Did we keep this vow? No! The body has a great capacity to forget pain and by June I was back out to sea . . . this time on board CSS Dawson in the Labrador Sea. And again that fall on CSS Hudson. Scientists, especially oceanographic researchers, never give up. They just keep on sailing. And while this may be true, I am convinced each and every one of us came back from Baffin 88043 a little wiser, maybe a little weaker, and certainly with much more respect for the forces of nature. We also brought back something else . . . memories. Memories of the good times and the bad times. Memories of our shipmates and the camaraderie that developed during that cruise.
Many of those who participated have since retired, or have moved on to other jobs. Some of us still work at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. And some of us see each other almost daily, while others we only run into occasionally. The common thread that ties us all together is that, somewhere in every conversation, there will be a sentence or two starting with: "Do you remember that day on the Baffin when . . . " It always comes up. Always. Maybe it always will. For only one who has been there understands sailing in the North Atlantic in the winter, and only an oceanographer understands why it was necessary . . . and why we will keep doing it.
The broken mast as seen through a porthole awash from a large wave
(Photo courtesy of Dr. Peter Jones)
Last updated on Thursday, 12 April 2007