Two dead in boating accident

JOHN THOMPSON

A boating accident claimed the lives of two Chesterfield Inlet residents two weekends ago, leaving their community in mourning.

“It was hard to believe,” said Lillian Simik, the daughter of elder Camille Simik, who was still missing as Nunatsiaq News went to press this week and is presumed drowned. “He was so strong.”

The ill-fated trip began when a crew of four boarded a newly-purchased pleasure boat in Churchill, Manitoba and started for home.

On the afternoon of Sept. 9, they reported by CB radio they were 28 miles south of Whale Cove. Then the wind changed direction, fog rolled in and the waters grew choppy. The radio remained silent.

By Sept. 11, family members knew something had gone wrong. They phoned relatives and RCMP in Whale Cove and the search began.

Later that afternoon two survivors, Luki Simik, 42, and Nipi Alogut, 39, were found cold and shivering on a small island, not far from where they made their last radio call. Their boat had submerged in the storm, and they made the decision to swim to shore. They did not see their two crewmates reach land.

The search continued on Sept. 12, with help from a Hercules aircraft and a search and rescue team with members from 17 Wing Winnipeg.

That day Kevin Naitok, 28, was found. He had made it to shore and built a camp, but was dead by the time the soldiers found him. For several hours, the search team itself became stranded because of bad weather.

“It basically shows how quickly the weather can change in the Hudson Bay,” said Cpl. Dan Dionne.

The search for the remaining crew member, 63-year-old Camille Simik, continued for more than a week. By Friday, Sept. 16, with ground on both islands nearby thoroughly covered, the operation had changed from a rescue operation to a search for a body.

“You’re not going to survive in the Hudson Bay for a week in the water,” said Dionne.

On the afternoon of Sept. 20, the last day of the search, five boats were in the water, but Simik remained missing.

“The searchers have given their all,” said Whale Cove’s mayor, Stanley Adjuk. “We’re sorry for the family that we couldn’t find the body.”

In Whale Cove, several dozen residents helped with search efforts, Adjuk said.

Help also arrived from neighbouring communities: Boats were sent from Rankin Inlet and Chesterfield, and residents from those communities, and people in Repulse Bay and Baker Lake raised money to help cover the costs of food and gas.

From the hamlet office in Chesterfield Inlet, Simik’s daughter, Lillian, recalled the odd things her father said in recent months. He spent the summer telling his family that he loved them. It was, she said, like he was preparing them.

“All through the summer, he’d prepare us: We’re going to carry on, we’re going to need to be strong,” she said. “When he’d start talking like that, we’d wonder why. He was preparing us.”

Simik will be remembered as a full-time hunter who never hesitated to share the muskox, caribou and walrus he loved to catch with his community, she said. The only animal he didn’t like to hunt was seal, because he didn’t like to bother his wife to clean them.
“I’m just so grateful that I knew him all my life. He taught me so much. He thought the world of us. He told me he’s proud of us.”