Archive for May, 2008

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Ever Have “One of Those Days” ?

May 28th, 2008, posted in That's Life

So I’m heading to Vancouver Island for a work trip. I get out of the apartment on time, arrive as the ferry is starting to load (perfect!). The ferry is quite empty (also perfect!). I go up, grab a bite for breakfast and get some work done on the laptop.So far so good.

The ferry arrives on time and I’m on schedule to meet my appointment at the fish hatchery at about 10:00 am.

Excellent!

A quick stop to refuel in Nanaimo and I’m off! An uneventful trip to Port Alberni, wishing I had time to stop in Cathedral Grove for some photographs….but I am working so no, can’t do that.

I plug my iPod in only to discover that I have somehow screwed it up in the last synch. Oh well, CBC it is then.

I arrive in Port Alberni on time and make a quick stop at the Fairway Market to fill my lunch bag. It seems strange to not be heading to Bamfield. Those days are over though.

Darn, forgot my water bottle…now I have to buy a bottle of water and contribute to the plastic waste problem.

Got lunch, ready to go. Pull out of my parking spot and pull up to the stop sign. And the brake pedal goes pretty much straight to the floor! A quick haul on the emergency brake stops the truck. Hmm, I think…perhaps just a blip in the line. I go forward when the traffic allows and head into the turning lane…..press the brake pedal…not a whole lot there! E-brake again. I slowly work my way down the hill and take the corner pulling into the first available parking lot. And in the process have also accidentally found the hotel I booked a room at for tonight. (How fortuitous!)

Well…now what. I’m thinking brake fluid may be low…..so with failing faith in my chariot I call Kirk. “Hon, when you were working on my truck last night…did you happen to go near the brakes at all?”

“Nope”

I relay my plight. “Open it up” I am instructed. “How does the brake fluid look?”…..hmmm would that be the little container that has a fluid line below MIN?

“Look under the truck” he says.

I note quite the puddle. This would be a bad thing I am thinking. Puddles where puddles should not be can never spell good things.

Find a gas station and buy some brake fluid. Fill it up. Pump the brakes….puddle grows quickly. Also not good. Big leak somewhere. Sigh……going to be late. Don’t have the phone number. Kirk….could you look on the internet and get me the number since I can’t find it in the phone book at Husky? Thank the stars for cell phones!

No problem they say…can we help? Here’s a good mechanic and only three blocks from where you are right now.

Slowly I make my way there and abandon my truck. Luckily a few blocks away is a rental company. Really? All you have is a minivan? Oh that’s so unfair. OK, I shall suffer the Dodge Caravan. No, I don’t need a GPS..do people actually get lost in Port Alberni?

Back in action, only lost about an hour, not too late. Oh crap, left my lunch in the truck. Oh well, there’s a Subway. Buy a second lunch. I’ll eat the first for dinner I suppose.

A good solid day of working at the hatchery. Back to the mechanic….truck is up on the hoist. Will still be about an hour. I can hear the cash register singing. Wander around a bit, not really anywhere to wander tho’. Check into my hotel and discover that I brought three white t-shirts but left my white bra at home. Brilliant!

Finally, truck is ready….and only $150! That’s amazing I think…normally said vehicle hiccups and costs a minimum of $500.

Driving back to my hotel I realize something. The Fairway Market, the stop signs, there was a niggling feeling of deja vu. Then it hits me. About 10 years ago I was driving Mom to Bamfield and we stopped at the Fairway Market. When we left I stopped at the very same spot and my engine died. For the rest of the trip, any time I stopped the truck I had to keep my foot on the gas because the engine idle would drop too low and stall the engine (fuel pump was toast). It was an interesting trip back to Vancouver that time. And that was an expensive trip.

I don’t think that I will stop at the Fairway Market tomorrow………

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Addenda: You know how I said my truck usually hiccups and costs $500? Well, when I picked it up, the mechanic warned me that my tie-rod end was on its way out…so off to a mechanic when I get home…tie rod ends, brake calipers etc…another $800…I spoke way too soon. Karma, it’ll get you every time I suppose!

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A Woman Has the Right…..

May 26th, 2008, posted in Travel

….to change her mind that is. I know I said the Corinth Sea was out…but I may have changed my mind. I have always really wanted to go see this shipwreck….I mean, look at that place! How cool is that!?!? –>

It’s a beach called shipwreck beach (how original) and it’s on the island of Zakynthos! (or Zakinthos, or Zante…remember last time how I said everything has two names?). But see, here’s the problem, I didn’t know where it was until now…and it turns out that it’s up at the top of the Peloponese. So what’s the problem? Well, for starters it’s about 300 nautical miles to navigate around the bottom and get there. Secondly, I’m reading that the bottom of the Peloponese has a bit of a “Cape of Good Hope” area that I’m not 100% sure I want to tackle.

Going around the other way, up through the Corinth canal, means it is only about 160 nautical miles to get there, easily done in a week with some layovers. While the canal will be interesting, they charge you a fortune to transit it and we will have to go through twice. But it would mean we would have three weeks to noodle around in a leisurely manner and really coast back on the prevailing winds which tend to be southerly at that time of year (yes, I’m aware that there also wasn’t supposed to be a Force 8 storm in May last time!). So…it is starting to look like we may be traversing the Corinth canal twice, once in and once out. I suppose we will just have to build it into our budget.

If we do go this direction, we will head up from Pireaus, through the Corinth canal and out along the Patras coastline into the Southern Ionian . I am thinking that we will head straight for Zakynthos first, check out the shipwreck and then hightail it off the west coast since there seems to be few anchorages on that side.

I also want to check out the Blue Grotto on the top side of the island. Again…how can we miss this scene?!?!

So I figure we will then head up to Cephalonia. How can we miss a place that translates (OK in Latin) to brain?

Then, as time and weather permits, up to Ithaki and maybe up to Levkas or some of the small islands nearby.

Then back down into the Gulf of Patras and the Gulf of Corinth and try to take a day trip ashore to visit Delphi and perhaps Corinth.

So there’s the current plan….I’ll let you know if it changes.

P.S. That invitation is still open for anyone who’d like to charter a boat and flotilla alongside of us….

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Salmon Farming in the Broughton Archipelago – A Look at the Emotional Battle Zone

May 22nd, 2008, posted in The Environment

Salmon Farm in the Broughton Archipelago

I had the opportunity to visit several research sites in the Broughton Archipelago yesterday. We flew in and around the area in a small Beaver airplane for most of the day and set down first at a farm site that is currently fallow, but where University researchers are looking at the physiology of juvenile pinks salmon infected with sea lice. These researchers are finding very little impact on swimming ability and overall fitness of fish infected by levels of lice previously reported to be lethal.

Next we stopped in at Echo Bay and took a boat up to a site where another research group, concerned that farms will result in the extinction of pinks salmon, were sampling wild fish and doing lice counts. Interestingly, these researchers are finding few juvenile pink and chum salmon, as well as very few lice on the wild fish.

Lastly, we flew down to Well’s Passage and boarded a DFO contracted vessel and went for a seine to see what was happening with the juvenile pink and chum salmon and see what lice levels were showing up on the fish. They have been having difficulty capturing fish this year compared to other years, and what they do catch is virtually lice free.

It was a fascinating trip that left me without any particularly different feelings towards the industry than I have ever had. Systems are far more complex than the black and white picture the media and some groups would like to have us believe. Are the farms causing the lice problems int he Broughton. I would argue no, they are certainly not , and several separate, independant groups, including some of the researchers that have been the bell ringers, are not finding the link they thought they would.

I was glad to finally get a chance to visit the region and take a look for myself. There are those who would have us all believe that there are wall to wall farms that plug the waterways. The reality is quite different from what is painted for us. The farms are few and far between in the region and the footprint is surprisingly small, particularly when you compare them to the coverage and fallout from the log booms that litter our coastline.

However, the salmon are losing ground in the wild, and the reasons extend far beyond the easy target of an industry that some have had a vendetta against since its inception. Perhaps we need to examine our own personal habits and misuse of the environment before we look for easy scapegoats. Our daily dependence on harsh cleaning chemicals, detergents, antibiotics and garbage that end up in our water systems via toilet, landfill, or sheer negligence is inexcusable and we all need to think a little more consciously about what goes into the environment…both for its health and our own.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

May 22nd, 2008, posted in The Environment

Adding to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

OK, so this is about the most frightening thing I have ever heard of! I was out for dinner with a colleague and he mentioned this huge swath of plastic garbage in the Pacific somewhere between the North American Mainland and Hawaii.

A sailor chose to head into an area that most captains don’t traverse since it is known for doldrums (no winds) when he came across a sea of plastic garbage floating on the ocean.

OK, so that’s bad, right?

Well, it has been estimated to be twice the size of Texas!

There is a full story here: Our oceans are turning into plastic, are we?

When we sailed in Greece a few years back, we joked that the greatest hazard we found was the plastic garbage in the sea near Athens. I had no idea that things were so bad, but this only serves to highlight what we have done to the environment.

Plastics revolutionized the world…will they ultimately also destroy it? It is an impossible product to get away from. Yes, shunning plastic bags is a start, but just look around our homes and its overwhelming. Everything from your groceries to your computer are packed in plastic.

Can we ever clean up our mess?

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Boating Season Officially Begins

May 20th, 2008, posted in Random Musings

Ekin's Point

It finally arrived! The beginning of boating season. The official shakedown cruise. Summer! OK, I know it’s still May, but as far as boaters go, this is the start of summer. We were (understandably) concerned that our boating season would have a bumpy start. After all, last summer consisted of three weekends that did NOT involve rain, and our engines repeatedly died on us whenever we encountered so much as a ripple in the ocean.We emptied our wallets over the winter and had the fuel tanks polished. We’ve tried everything else, it had to be the solution. The early evidence suggests that perhaps we have isolated and remedied the problem (oh please, oh please).

While we didn’t exactly get underway when we planned, we did still get out. Friday night just did not happen, and then we needed to stop by the Yacht Club outstation to get our safety inspection since we haven’t managed to attend either of the other inspection weekends due to inclement weather. But we made it, the trip was great, the weather was wonderful, and we are now compliant. Well, almost, I still need to send in our proof of insurance. Minor detail.

We planned on heading back out to Plumper Cove to raft with friends as soon as we got the inspection, but the offer of a free steak BBQ couldn’t be refused, neither could a pancake breakfast the next morning. So we stayed, and met new people, and left early Sunday morning after pancakes.

Sunday wasn’t supposed to be nice, really, the May long weekend rarely provides nice weather. But what a surprise, sun, heat…it was glorious. The evening was long and warm and filled with friends. So we stayed out an extra night after calling to make sure the critter sitter could feed the monsters.

Monday dawned rainy and grey, but it really didn’t dampen our spirits since we had managed the rest of the weekend in sunny weather. We broke the raft up around 11:30 am and all headed back home.

It’s official…let’s go!

Safe boating everyone!


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