Boat capsizes, youths stranded after storm messes with camping plans
Everyone safe after trip goes awry after leaving Cambridge Bay, government spokesperson says
A group of youths was stuck on an island near Cambridge Bay for a while last week after bad weather interrupted their plans for a camping and exploring trip. (File photo)
Updated on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025 at 12:35 p.m. ET
Several young people and instructors from a Cambridge Bay youth camp were stranded for three days on an uninhabited peninsula last week and four adults accompanying them in a boat had to be rescued from the water after bad weather threw a wrench in their plan for a camping and exploring holiday.
A group of youths and adults was briefly stranded on a peninsula halfway to an uninhabited Hudson’s Bay Co. post last week. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)
Nine youths and 12 instructors were aboard eight boats that headed to Bay Chimo, an abandoned Hudson’s Bay Co. post roughly 200 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, on July 24.
The trip was organized by the Department of Health’s local mental health outreach workers and the Cambridge Bay hunters and trappers organization.
Weather deteriorated as the group was midway into their trip, forcing them to head for shore on Kent Peninsula, about halfway between Cambridge Bay and Bay Chimo, said Charmaine Deogracias, communications manager for the department, in an email Wednesday.
The participants were “well-prepared with food and camping supplies” and stayed on there for three nights until it was safe to travel, she said.
The youths were given the option to return early to Cambridge Bay by helicopter, which four of them did on July 25, accompanied by one of the instructors. Two more flew out on July 27.
The remaining three participants and adult leaders chose to carry on with the trip.
“All participants are safe and continuing to enjoy the camp. In fact, they caught nine trout yesterday,” Deogracias said. She didn’t say when the children and adults who stayed with them were expected to return home.
Seven of the boats on the trip were from the youth camp, plus another vessel that wasn’t hired by the hunters and trappers organization but whose operator chose to tag along with the expedition to transport camping supplies.
That boat capsized in the July 25 storm with four adults aboard. They were able to make it to the shore but the supplies were lost, said David Lavallee, public affairs officer for Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton, Ont., which organized the rescue of the four people.
Deogracias has not responded to a request for further information to say which agency sent the helicopter that brought the six children home early.
The Cambridge Bay hunters and trappers organization and the local organizer of the camp did not respond to several requests for comment.
Correction: This article has been updated from the original version to correctly report the area where the participants were stranded is called Kent Peninsula, and is not an island.
When that news article came out about the Arctic Expedition losing a truck a few years back there was a big hub-bub made about the economic impact that truck would have on the environment if the oil and fuel started leaking into the ecosystem.
I must assume this boat was carrying at a minimum its own fuel for a 400k round trip. But how much more fuel, camp fuel, generators full of fuel and oil this boat was transporting.
Maybe the ITK should put some of their funds into an ecological impact study of “little accidents” like this.
Will then , they should also include the careless behaviour that contribute to these kinds of spills. I bet most times it’s neglect and ignorance that needs addressing as well.
Be thankful that everyone is safe, positive comments! The rest can be dealt with after, happy to hear that everyone made is safely!!
It is not called “bay chimo” anymore that is like calling kugaaruk “pelly bay” or arviat “eskimo point”. When the territory was created in 99 it became Umingmaktok.
Calling whatever your government tells you too. I mean why didnt you call it traditional name in first place? Like i say whatever your government tells you to call it. You at mercy of your government
There should be an investigation as to what went wrong and what safety precautions were put in place, especially when you’re responsible for other people’s children.