Eureka is a
weather station on Ellesmere Island at 80o latitude. It is manned by
around 30 persons in the summer and only up to 10 persons during the long dark
winters. The summers are warm with constant daylight, from 2 to 4 degrees Celsius, occasionally even 8
degrees. However, the winters are cold, from –45 to –55 degrees Celsius and with
total darkness from end of December to early March.
Eureka is
also the main airport in the region and the location of the helicopter serving
various fly camps with scientists and students in a circle of 200 km, mostly on
Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Island. It was a welcome resting point to serve as a
break and a recuperation in the 8 week field work period.
The weather
station is well equipped. It had e.g. showers and washing machines but more importantly,
when hanging around in the dining area we would often be invited by the cook to
join a big dinner as he generally had too much food prepared. This is how I got
to know cooky in the early eighties. He was an outspoken French-Canadian from
Quebec with a load voice but very sympathetic in his conversations.
In the late
eighties, I again met him at the Eureka weather station. Now I had to listen to
his sad story. While drinking whisky heavily, he told us that he could not
understand why his wife of 18 years suddenly divorced him. He worked year round
at the station for the past 10 or 15 years, had a good salary, would spent the
yearly 4 weeks of holidays with his wife the Montreal and would call her once a
week.
Some sort
of boat captain's marriage. Bon,
n'est pas? He was in a
sorry state, missing the exuberance and sharp remarks with his heavy French Canadian
accent as I knew him from previous years. He also put on some weight and now
had an even bigger belly.