Finally, the long belated update to our
blog. I must apologize for the lack of
updates as the days went by fast as we were tied to the docks in Richmond and
Nanaimo from September 26 to February 28.
There was not a lot to report, but then I just got lazy. Various activities took up our time and I’m
sure that while we were away from our boat, we spent half the time in the busy
traffic of the lower mainland. Now, I’m
paying for it as I have lots of pictures and postings to catch people up on
since we’ve arrived in Shelter Bay Marina located in the South Fraser River to
our current location in Campbell River.
Shelter Bay Marina was nice for it’s
friendly staff, very reasonable moorage and electrical rates; however, it was
located under the flight path of the Vancouver Airport. Mae had difficulties breathing. For a while, she thought she had a cold. It
became worrisome when we started not to notice the loud sounds of jets flying
overhead every five minutes from 3:00 a.m. to 11:00 pm. Our first docking space was very close to the
shore. At low tide, we could probably
jump over but in mid November when they had their lowest tides, our boat was
sitting on the bottom. Mae stood in the
boat after a trip out and said, “I don’t feel like we are floating.” We need a bare minimum depth of 1.8
metres. That night, we did not have that
much.
One of the things we enjoyed most in the
lower mainland was the variety and freshness of the local crops in the area.
Rose enjoyed her trip to visit Pets First where
they make organic pet food. Rose has
been on their diet since she was a puppy.
She is doing so well and will be turning 16 years old on December 10th
While hanging out in Richmond, we made many
commutes to visit Edward in Langley. We
enjoyed listening to his band in a pretty nice barn. We made many good meals at his place while
doing laundry and having our showers.
We also made many trips to the barn to build
Jennifer a hammock stand to put on her balcony in Nanaimo. Since we adopted her first “Hang Out” hammock
for our boat, she purchased one herself but did not have any way of hanging it
in her apartment.
While in Shelter Bay Marina, we met the
coolest fisherman/logger named Doug. He
had so many stories about his days as a fisher/logger. He knew every place on the coast and almost
everyone we knew who had been involved in the industries. He had his boat sink under him on his way to
Haida Gwaii in the middle of one of the worst storms in history. He is a proud member of the Communist Party
of Canada and he had spent time with Fidel Castro. A more caring and generous man cannot be
found. We shared many a meal with him
and listened to him explain, without him ever complaining, about his
interesting but very hard life. He is
one of the most fascinating people we met on our amazing adventure. Doug taught us a lot about what it is to be a
good person.
Mae’s brother Jet and his girlfriend,
Miyuki came for dinner and a dinghy ride.
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| The Raging Grannies |
When there’s a protest, we are there, especially
when it’s about protecting our coast and land from pipelines and tankers. We took part in the Burnaby Mountain protest
against Kinder Morgan who has a proposal to drill through the mountain. We went up to Burnaby Mountain to show
support, as well as attending the protest at the Vancouver courthouse where
five people were being sued by Kinder Morgan.
Picnics Not Pipeline protest gathering on
Burnaby Mountain where musicians sang and people spoke against Kinder Morgan.
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| Protest campsite at bore hole #1 |
Protest march towards bore hole #2 where many
prominent people who chose to cross into the restricted area as outlined in
Kinder Morgan’s injunction. Over 100
people were arrested since the beginning of the protest on the mountain but
their arrests were dropped due to Kinder Morgan’s inaccurate GPS coordinates of
their bore sites for the injunction.
 |
| Mae hanging in the tree to get a better view |
Many people were donating food and supplies for
those protecting the mountain. Mae made
special “Burna-Bar” (energy bars) and granola. 
We left Shelter Bay Marina on December 13
and spent the night at Fisherman’s Wharf in Steveston. We arrived when it was foggy and left on a
beautiful sunny day. Did you notice the
black painted boards along the port side of our boat? We painted Jennifer’s hammock stand, took it
apart and strapped it to our boat.
We had a pleasant visit at Steveston where
there is a lot for locals and visitors from around the lower mainland and out
of town to do. During our time in the
lower mainland, we had a chance to visit their cannery museum during their
Sunday Farmers’ Market.
