Second annual Tindi Girls fishing trip

Last year Sonya organised for all the girls that work at or are somehow associated with Air Tindi, to go on a fishing trip overnight, turns out that wasn't really long enough. This year certain planets aligned and we were all able to get the whole weekend off, as well as being kindly offered the use of a cabin at Awry Lake. We were booked to go in our shiny new turbine Otter, but it wasn't on floats yet, so we went in a Twin Otter instead, which was great as there wasn't any limit to what we could take. We are, after all, eight girls going on a trip! One of the dockhands commented that did we know it wasn't a Hercules taking us out because they dont come on floats. The weather wasn't as hot as we were expecting, with some showers over the weekend, but not too bad. There is a couple who lives out there for the summer in a "cabin" (more like a small house!) owned by Great Slave Helicopters, who were extremely hospitable. They have a nice big boat out there (carried by a helicopter intact with it's trailer!) and took us fishing, had us over for cocktails and generally made sure we weren't eaten by bears! What a great way to relax and chat about nothing and everything, and sorry to disappoint the fellas, but no man bashing at all! Seven out of the eight ladies are pilots, but the non-flying one may as well be because she lives with one and her parents started a company that eventually became Air Tindi. We also figured out that all eight of us met our men at work! There were the requisite flybys, some Twin Otters, a Dash 7, and a DC 3. When we went for cocktails one of the other cabin owners said that he'd never seen so much air traffic on wheels over his place.

As usual we had to pack up and be ready for the plane waaaay sooner than we wanted to, and were already talking about our next outing, we just have to wait for some snow and ice for the snowmobiles. It seems the general concensus for next year is that fishing is optional and if we have to go while there is still some ice on the water to escape the bugs, then that's what we'll do. I've never seen bugs like that in my life, I had so many blackfly bites on my neck that it hurt like it was bruised. It will be interesting to see what things have changed by next year, who got checked out, married, pregnant, moved on/up etc. There will be at least one new baby anyway!

I had a wonderful weekend, and feel privileged to be able to draw inspiration from the different characters of all these ladies, and do it in such a beautiful setting too! Plus, it's quite amusing to see how awkward the guys all feel standing on the dock and watching as we taxi out. Afterwards Jack said he felt quite foolish, quite a role reversal. But I think they are all proud of us too!