Our town day. It’s our first chance to see Pond Inlet in the sunshine. Early morning risers get the chance to photograph fulmars and gulls along the beach, or to watch a team of dogs being fed.

Supplies continue to come off the supply ship, and the town is abuzz with excitement. Outside the Co-Op, a fire brigade line tosses new bags of potato chips from giant red creates to the truck that will take them to the store. All sorts of things come off that ship. We see sofas coming off, and a boat.

Pond Inlet offers a select number of options for tourist activities. Most of us make two or three stops at the Co-Op to buy or mail postcards, browse the art gallery, and exclaim over the price of groceries. The Northern Store sells outdoor and survival gear. The park rangers in the Sirmilik National Park office are friendly and knowledgeable. The library, unfortunately, is closed, and the visitor’s center fails to open in the afternoon as scheduled.

We meet for our final dinner together in the hotel dining room. The menu offers Arctic char, a fitting choice. We take a group picture and admire the various carvings we have bought. Namen drops by with a few additional carvings and crafts for us to look at. The sunset is a beautiful, blazing red.

Day 10: Thursday, September 1

Our flight to Iqaluit doesn’t leave until early evening, so we have the morning to visit the visitor’s center. It opens at 10:00, and we eagerly study what we all want to see: the life-size model of a narwhal suspended from the ceiling. The rest of the center offers fine exhibits that explain about the local wildlife and culture. We make our way through the gift shop, which features the work of local artists. We buy baseball hats as a fundraiser to support the local school.

As we prepare to leave the visitor’s center, we receive certificates that proclaim us "honourable member[s] of the exclusive Polar Bear Chapter, Order of Artic Adventurers," since we displayed the "initiative, integrity and bold adventurous spirit of the true Arctic explorers who have crossed the Arctic Circle." But that morning, with the sun bright in a blue sky and the water calm in Eclipse Sound, it doesn’t feel like we’re so far from home.

At 3:30 we gather for the very short ride to the airport. The plane is delayed by over an hour, but at last it’s time to bid farewell to Dave, Marianne, and Pond Inlet. It’s a three-hour trip to Iqaluit, with a short stop in Clyde River. Along the way a funny thing happens: we cross south of the Artic Circle, and for the first time in over a week the sky turns truly dark. We load our luggage into the bed and breakfast vans under the shimmering green veils of the Northern Lights.