Travel logistics

Nigel Foster was teaching at a school in Buckinghamshire prior to leaving for Baffin Island. He sent his kayak and most of his equipment ahead by air-freight before flying himself from London Heathrow airport to New York by Laker Airways. According to his planned schedule he would then transfer to Air Canada to fly to Montreal, then onward to Iqaluit. As neither the date of his return, nor the place of departure for his return was clear at that point, he had made no return reservation. His plan was to finish at or as close to Goose Bay as the season would allow. At any rate,so long as he reached as far as Nain in Labrador, or at one of the Inuit ports between there and Goose Bay, he would be able to catch the coastal supply steamer south to Goose Bay, and fly from there.

Events did not go according to plan. A bomb alert in London airport while he waited to board caused delays, and a last-minute change of aircraft meant that Foster traveled without his checked baggage. Delayed at New York while he filed a claim and forwarding directions for the baggage, he missed his connecting flight and spent the night at the airport. Next morning the US air traffic controllers went on strike. There seemed to be little hope of flying out for some time. President Reagan sacked the strikers, and it was weeks before traffic returned to normal. Foster cashed in his connection ticket and traveled overland to Montreal where he was able to secure a seat on a flight to Iqaluit. Neither his checked baggage nor his kayak arrived for another two weeks, perilously late in the season to start his trip.