At sunrise, the Ivakkak 2007 participants were out on the sea ice in front of the community of Kangiqsujuaq, getting their dogs ready for a long awaited for departure. Although it was still quite cold, with a wind chill of minus 45, the wind had diminished quite a bit since yesterday. Blowing harder on the mountain plateaus leading to the Raglan Mine, the dog teams hence decided to take the alternate route and headed towards the frozen shore of the Hudson Strait instead, where the visibility seemed a little better. After almost a week spent in Kangiqsujuaq, the dog teams were finally on the road again. On this flat but rough sea ice, they covered a distance of over 70 kilometres to make it to a place called Niarunguutik, where they settled in land for the night in a couple of cabins. For some, like Juusipi Qisiiq who climbed up two ranks to the ninth position and Zachariasie Elijassiapik who climbed up one rank to the tenth position, it was a good day. But for others, like Willie Cain Jr. and Junior May, who both broke their sled on the rough sea ice, it was a tougher time. Although Willie Cain Jr. didn’t lose too much time repairing his sled on the trail, for Junior May, it was another story. His sled broke in half at about 15 kilometres from the checkpoint, after he hit some rough ice that was hard to see in today’s flat light. He managed to repair it somehow, with the few nails he had on hand, but was lucky to make it to camp at all, losing nearly two hours all together, and falling behind from the third to the fifth position (see results below). Nonetheless, everybody should be heading out again tomorrow morning, weather permits, of course.

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Since there was little chance that Willie Cain Jr. and Junior May would have made it through the rest of the race, or at least to the next community, in Salluit, with their damaged sleds, Peter Kiatainaq and Juusipi Qisiiq, who both had a spare sled back in Kangiqsujuaq agreed to let them use theirs. Mark Tertiluk graciously accepted to bring the two spare sleds from Kangiqsujuaq to Niarunguutik, making it there late in the evening, but still in time for the two racers to get ready to go tomorrow with everybody else.