Eckaloo, Tembah, Miskanaw, Nahidik, and Dumit are names of Coast Guard ships that have worked the Mackenzie River. All five names mean 'pathfinder' in different Native dialects.

The names are appropriate; their task is to mark the winding and ever-changing shipping channel along the Mackenzie. The river's annual freeze up and sudden flood of water and ice scours the river bottom, changing the navigation channel from season to season.

River maps or charts are unreliable. Islands and channels may simply disappear with the spring break up. Coast Guard navigators must measure the river's depth every year using electronic depth sounders. They anchor buoys to mark the channel for the trains of barges that carry supplies north to Dene and Inuit communities.

At the end of the season, the buoys are removed from the river and stored high on the river bank, out of reach of winter's ice. The Mackenzie is the only place where the Coast Guard makes its own anchors for its navigation buoys. Crewmen collect boulders from the riverbanks and drill holes through them for the steel cables that connect them to the floating buoys.

From their base at Hay River on Great Slave Lake, the Coast Guard ships operate intensively for six months at a stretch and are removed from the water for other half of the year. During the short shipping season, Coast Guard crews work 12-hour days and seven-day weeks. In exchange, they enjoy a six-month vacation.

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