From the COLUMBIA III maintenance log:

Sand and Paint: White: the funnels, the aft mast, the entire deck house, the aft deck ceiling, aft deck cabinets, shelves and inside drawers, the inside bulwarks, ladder to roof, new veggie shelf, the hull and draft marks.

S&P Green: the outside bulwarks and the funnel

S&P Grey: The roof trim, deck boxes and all the roof area (just for the sticklers we didn’t sand the roof deck, just scrub and paint).

S & P Light yellow: Forecastle head, aft head, midship shower, forward collision bulkhead door, new galley cupboard shelf, inside 12VDC fridge and new companionway bookshelf.

S & Varnish: All exterior doors, frames and window trims, salon table, transom, chairs, engine rooms storm boards, coffee maker bracket, aft deck drawer fronts and cabinet door trim.

S & Oil: Hand rails, running light boxes, cap rails, guard rails, waterline gum wood , all decks (with new non-skid added on first of two coats) and anchor guard gumwood.

S & P Red: fire buckets, lazarette hatch, funnel stripe and funnel insides.

S & P Black: Anchor winch, hawse hole irons, deck vents and bow iron.

Remove and Repair or Replace and or Inspect: main engine fuel filters, compressor oil, autopilot oil, all seals on autopilot hydraulic ram, diesel fired water heater including bearings, all chain steering shives, ignitor on galley range, wheelhouse trackbar for handheld radios, grease gun mounted to lubricate stuffing box, new start battery for gensets, fix fuel drip on transfer pump system, replace rusting section of emergency fire hydrant system, galley range worklight replaced and inspect exhaust stack cabinet . . . . .

Our spring work season really starts in earnest when deckhand Steve Schellenberg arrives on his sailboat. Steve likes to work long days and keeping him supplied in projects and materials keeps me pretty darn busy!

So I am going to be lazy here. I am working flat out at this time of the year in the boat shed and office work at night. Here is a smattering of photos that are self-explanatory.

We sand everything all at once to get the dusty, messy business out of the way, (I LOVE OUR BOAT SHED!!!!)

Then we wash EVERYTHING  . . . .

Then we start to paint and varnish and oil everything . . .

and work continues on the inside of the vessel and in the shop on smaller components . .

And we take things apart to inspect and repair and replace . . .

More photos to come as work progresses . . .

This year I decided to refinish the 5 salon chairs. What a simple statement!!! Five chairs dissembled into 20 legs, 20 braces, 5 seats, and five tired backs. I drove the 4 hours to Victoria and bought a 4″x6″x12′ timber of mahogony and designed and then paid to have 5 new chair backs machined on a computer controlled router. I constructed five new seat bottoms and ordered a custom green cowhide and had the new seats cushioned. I sanded all the pieces with 80 grit, 120 grit, 240 grit with power sanders and again by hand. I stained all the pieces twice and hand rubbed them to set the stain. I varnished all the pieces  and sanded them again, and then Luke took a day to reassemble the 5 chairs . . .  now they await 2 more coats of varnish, ( hand sanded between coats don’t forget!) and then the leather will get installed . . . . Remeber the question? “What do you do in the winter?” !!

There will be more pictures of these chairs as the work progresses.

Here, Tavish and I remove the main anchor winch drum to repair a broken safety “dog” on the drum. Only one day to dissemble the winch, extract the broken bolt, manufacture the replacement and reassemble the drum and recoil the cable and chain rode.

Another little project. The wheel house driver seat was showing signs of wear and was just not up to Columbia III standards. We had to custom order an entire hide to match the existing  leather upholstery. The craftsman who did the replacement work did an excellent job of matching the old seat back with the new seat bottom.

Oh, oh!  . . . and  I had to find time to make our grandson a present for his first birthday. Wow! It took alot of time to make that little toy . . . two coats of grey and red and black and white and green and brown and varnish and brass tie-up posts . . . . like I don’t spend enough time in the shop working on boats as it is!

Ok this is crazy, but it took 2 1/2 months for a replacement coffee maker that fits the galley to arrive in Campbell River . . . I don’t know how many phone calls I made just arranging a COFFEE MAKER . . . shheesh.

Here I had 3 “trays” custom made to catch dust under the wheel house floor grates. There is a lot of storage here but dust and dirt rained down through the grates and I was tired of the mess

Little idea #44385: We never have enough reference book shelf space and I saw a potential spot. Here is the stairway down to the forward accomdations. I removed the fish, repositioned the light and installed a new shelf.

As I had the brass plaque off, I revarnished its mount and polished the heck out of the brass.

Here is the finished shelf. I had to have a machinist replicate the brass rod holders for each end of the brass retaining bar. At only $75.oo each I am glad I didn’t make the shelf more complex!! When I went to move the light down 8″ its copper clad wire wasn’t long enough. So I spent a whole day pulling a similar wire out of a different hidden part of the boat (which I could replace with more modern plastic coated wire) so I could match the copper sheilded wire used in the rest of the salon . . .

Here is a small safety related project: I installed 3 new check-valves to prevent accidental flooding. Because of the complexity of the emergency pumping system, it was previously possible to allow sea water to enter the ship if the wrong combination of valves was opened. The new check values remedy this issue. Nothing several days of plumbing couldn’t fix. First the “old”  . . .

and a few fittings . . .

and then the “new” check valves installed.

A good friend of mine retired to Mexico and lives in shorts all winter. Our boat shed is unheated and temperatures often hover about freezing. I dress accordingly.  When it is really cold I count all the pockets I have on . . .  4 on my jeans, 2 on my shirt, 3 on my down vest,  6 on my coveralls and 2 on my fleece coat. Pocket index: 17. My friend wrote me an email, “Ross, take a break. Come visit me in Mexico. Pocket index: 1.” I sent him this photo . . .

To meet modern environmental standards I took much of the winter to figure out how to retro fit blackwater holding tanks into the Columbia III. This was quite a project to find room, plumb in and integrate the new system into the existing high quality woodworking on the boat. Here is a sequence of shots as I installed a holding tank in the very bow of the ship for one cabin’s toilet. The custom made tank is on the floor . . .

and then secured in place . . .

and plumped and covered . . .

and sanded . . .

and the whole area repainted and trimmed with varnished mahogony and a new toilet installled . . .

and new mirrors cut and fitted.

And then I started on a second holding tank for the aft head, shoe-horned into the engine room.

Here with a new extension to the workbench to integrate the new tank into the ship’s engine room.

And the aft head now needed to be pumped through the water tight bulkhead into the engine room. Here is the new fitting in place, viewed from the toilet on oneside and the engine room on the other.

And then, of course, as I had the toilet out and drilling holes in the bulhead, I may as well sand the whole room and repaint it . . . and then install a new toilet . . . more pictures yet to come.

Project #5355.4  We found a small patch of “soft” wood on the bulwarks last summer when a chair bumped the area and it was on the list of winter repairs. Here my mentor/skipper Dennis inspects the small patch showing just beside the hawse hole.

. . . and a whole new “project” begins . . .

Daylight is short here in the wet Pacific Northwest and Luke often worked late getting the bulwarks repaired. Here are two night shots of the boat shed viewed from the walkway in front of our house.

After routing out any unsound wood, Luke laminated new clear fir into the slot.

A large part of this job was the removal of the metal hawse hole ring. It was riveted on with 4, 8″ long x 5/8″ bronze rods. Now bronze rod is not easy to locate anymore, but a marine foundry in the States was able to mail me the required material. Here are some shots of the riveting process.

And while Luke as in the “mood”, he repaired two short deck planks that had a small patch of rot around one butt joint.

Mentor Dennis leads the deck caulking class . . .

Here is some nice clear, edge-grained fir I flew down the hill with the helicopter over 15 years ago!!

Here’s another little project. I felt frustrated that my navigation computer didn’t have easy access to a keyboard. The wireless one I had been using was big, clunky and often buried in a chart drawer when I wanted to make a simple entry such as a chart notation . . . so I had an idea . . .    Here, the first shot is of me gluing up a new ‘housing’ to store the new keyboard in . Unfortunately, I am not the greatest woodworker and I made three, yes three! of these mahogony stands before I felt comfortable that the quality would match the existing wood work in the Columbia III’s wheel house. My work shop is pretty cold in the winter and I carry the projects up to the house for the glue to set up over night.

Keyboard on brass tray pulled out on stainless steel ball-bearing slides.

And keyboard pushed in when not in use. . . . A mere 200hours of fiddling and ordering in special slides by mail and locating brass sheet and having a metal shop fold its edges and staining and varnishing 4 coats , and remounting the monitor. . . . I think you get the idea.

And we had the boat out for the annual below-water maintenance. This year, for the first time in 56 years, the COLUMBIA III was airborne.

I ended up with dozens and dozens of calls waiting on my voice mail, all requesting reservations for 2-10 guests . . .  I finally just couldn’t keep up with the flood of interest. Oops! Next year I will change my voice mail message when the boat is full and it will take some of the confusion out of the process. I am always taken aback by how many people want to join these humble cruises. We  took about 88 passengers over two days but I think I turned many more than that away!  . . . . .

It was a nice winter day when we pulled the Columbia III  out of the shed in preparation for this year’s Christmas cruises.

But it was snowing by the time we made it to Campbell River and overnighted. It certainly looked like a “Christmas Cruise” when the guests arrived in falling snow.

The docks were slippery but I kept a salt water pump running to keep the decks ice-free and safe.

Fern and Tavish spent several days baking literally buckets of cookies for the cruises.

The weather was snowy but calm enough to venture down to the Cape Mudge lighthouse. 

Pastor Tom has joined us several times. We seem to get a lot of repeat “Christmas Cruisers”

A nice Christmasy scene! Lots of snow for one of the two days.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today I received an email from a “four-timer”, Scott, from the eastern USA.

“I have been to some amazing places the past few years but my love of paddling the Great Bear Rainforest with you guys overshadows them all…so lets go ahead and get me signed up…my credit card number has changed so give me a call at some point and I’ll give you the new one…ten months away and I’m already excited!!”

I called Scott and chatted, news of his work, Hurricane Sandy and our new grandson.

” I have travelled a lot over the last two years. I went to South America twice last year alone and I LOVE it there, but there is no place in the world like the Great Bear Rainforest.  Sign me up,” Scott said.

Now that’s a pretty nice way for me to start my weekend.

Thus, shortly after we finally got home from our summer season we were back  out with 44 guests for two days running seeing the sights, including the hopefully soon to be protected Octopus Islands/Waiatt Bay corridor to Small Inlet Marine Park. There was even a short TV news piece on the tours

The indefatigable Jeanette Talyor helped to organize the 44 donors for the park purchase and all we had to do was show up at the right time at the right place and start serving tea and coffee. Now that is something I know how to do!

I labeled this as “skipper  in training” but a good skipper has to learn how to be at home working in the galley sink. Here, grandson Theo, is already learning the fine art of galley duty whilst catering to the local philanthropist group

The 10 day kayaking tour moved from one day to the next. We saw whales, black bears, grizzly bears and even a spirit bear, but no wolves. The weather was awesome, the paddling perfect, the company excellent . . .  but no wolves. No wolves howling unseen or seen. On the last full day we had our final dinner together toasting our good fortune. Accolades all round. But no wolves. We had to pull anchor the next morning by 9am to reach the out bound plane from Bella Bella.

So our intrepid guides had one last idea. We ran to a “bay” we “knew about” and dropped the anchor for the night. All the guests were given the plan and went to bed. At 0600 everyone was up and getting dressed in shore gear. Coffee and tea were ready early and everyone headed out in the dusk in the skiff, bundled up with toques and binoculars. . . .

And they quietly slipped into a grassy estuary, the smell of decaying salmon in the air and Luke pointed to everyone very quietly.  . . .  3 wolves in the grass!!!! and everyone readied their cameras and binoculars and then one wolf calmly tilted his head back . . .  and began to HOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, as I was pulling the anchor, the engine on the mothership ready to depart for the plane in 11/2 hours, the guests returned to the Columbia III with eyes the size of saucers and totally excited . . . .

Now that was a treat!

This fall we had the most spectacular weather! The waterfalls weren’t as vigorous but we weren’t going to complain. Day after day was gorgeous and the crew spent most of our time exclaiming over and over , “This is really, unusually good weather for this rainforest.”

It is easy to tell when there is wildlife around, check out the waiting arsenal on the chart table.

One of the narrower passages the COLUMBIA III transits is called, Rait Narrows. It is always fun to sneak through the narrow, cedar overhanging pass just up ahead in this photo.

Skipper, guide, oceanic sailor, son: Tavish

Robin slacking off, again. . .  “Floggings will continue until moral improves . . .”

And the BEAR in Great Bear rainforest . . .

I know they are just white, black bears but really, there is something so cool about these rare, rare animals.

Here is a fun story: One of our guides, Steve, has a great deal of bear guiding experience on the BC coast and in Hudson’s Bay with polar bears.  This summer he told a funny story. He had a group of mothership guests in a esturary watching two grizzlies foraging for salmon. “I told the guests that the two bears looked like semi-mature siblings, probably both males,” . . . and we watched them feeding for quite awhile. Then abruptly, one sat down and began to nurse the other . . . .  .” Sooooo, I guess they aren’t both males . . . !” A guide can’t always be right!

Being a top-notch kayak guide has its downsides. The stress: the great vistas, ridiculously good food in fabulous settings, pleasant company with worldly guests, and of course, excessive wildlife view can cause even a young, resilient woman to go, well . . . just a little off. Here our guide, Robin, is working through a few issues on her portable trainer. It fits nicely on the back of her kayak for ease of access.

Here is a group that chartered the mothership for a kayaking tour in the Broughton in 2010 and they joined us in the Great Bear this summer. Here is a quote from the guest-log from this group . . . “Wow, what a super adventure, AGAIN! Thank you to this very special crew that has yet again made such a great impact on my travels and as always have/give such TLC always!! Tav, Farlyn, Steve, Robin what a wonderful time! I certainly hope to be back and experience yet another trip. Take care and all the very best for health and happiness. Big hugs, Stella”

Three friends whom have taken many trips together joined us this summer and now they are inquiring about chartering the whole boat for a week in 2013. Many of  our tours fill as charters with returning guests and a boat load of friends.

The humpback population is steadily increasing and on several occaisions we found groups of more than 50 humpbacks in the same area.

A classic coastal scene . . .

A little blurry, but I have a secret air raid siren mounted on the roof of the COLUMBIA III, and if a guest is being a bit cheeky, I just give the siren a toggle! Disipline is re-established!!

Cameras and binocluars. Two very common accessories on the mothership. We keep at least 6 spare pair of binos in the wheel house for quick access and we keep spare DVDs so guests can off-load their full camera memory cards. It just might have something to do with how much guests get to see from the mothership.

The rainforest grows trees. Big trees.  Here a western red cedar captures a group’s amazement.

A wonderful First Nation petroglyph near Bella Bella.

Although we had a wonderful run of good weather this fall, a couple of days of hard rain on the steep granite fjords of the Great Bear Rainforest still makes for intimidating waterfalls, especially if you approach them by kayak.

Here skipper, guide, naturalist, son-in-law, Luke pauses near the end of our Great Bear season, near the end of our 2012 mothership season. Again, the British Columbia coast has been ridiculously good to us. Just check out the 2012 photo gallery if you have any doubts about the richness of this coast. No single guest or crew gets to see everything. One group might have a stupendous encounter with white-sided dolphins and awesome bear viewing and another group might stumble onto a bunch of humpback whales lunge feeding. But everyone sees more than enough and  the crew is always tantalized along, peering around the next point just ahead, “Now what does this splendid coast have in store for us today. This week, This season.”

Another wonderful, safe and viable season.

Thanks to all our guests, hard working crew, the COLUMBIA III and of course, the BC Coast.

Our kids, Tavish, Farlyn and Miray, have grown up on this coast and their connection to it keeps evolving and expanding. Collectively they have worked as crew for Raincoast Conservation, Pacific Wild, and Alexandra Morton and at any one time someone is doing something to assist in a conservation effort on the coast. This summer, Miray and our new grandson, Theo, flew up to spend time in the Great Bear. Simulataneously, Tavish had a week off from Mothership Adventures and spent the time helping Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild set up some remote hydrophones for listening to whales in the Great Bear area around Bella Bella. And, just for good measure, Farlyn and her partner, Jody, where staying with Ian and Karen, as they were in the area doing research for Alexandra Morton . It became a sibling reunion, ( as if a family this close really needs a reunion!) in the Great Bear.

Ian, Miray and Theo

Farlyn and Jody doing ground truthing with wild salmon

Farlyn takes careful notes.

Last spring, Tavish, Farlyn and Jody sailed Ian’s new 47′ sailboat (“Habitat”) from Costa Rica to Hawaii to British Columbia as a ‘delivery” for Ian. Here, skipper Tavish plays with nephew, Theo on the Habitat in the Great Bear.

Jody and wild Pacific Salmon are never far apart!!

Ian was installing a network of remote hydrophones in the Great Bear and these are powered by solar panels. The project provided lots of opportunity for travel and exploration.

Tavish has a commercial dive ticket and  is always really willing to have an excuse to dive. Working for Pacific Wild is Tavish time off from the Columbia III.

Family friend, Max, helps with the solar panel installation.

Its a long ways for the sailboat, Habitat, to sail from Costa Rica to Ian’s back yard!!

Tavish climbed a tree to get this great shot of some spawning wild Pacific Salmon. These are THE KEYSTONE species for this coast. And the cause of great concern and effort to protect.

We often run artist’s painting workshops and we were scheduled to run a tour with Mark Hobson in the Great Bear Rainforest in late June. But when Mark was visiting us for a musical event in the Fall, he proposed the idea of trying to launch a book of local artists who felt strong opposition to the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. Mark had, in the past, been a major participant in creating the very successful book “Carmanah: Artistic Visions of an Ancient Rainforest” which greatly raised the profile and eventual protection of these giant spruce trees.

So the idea was born, Art for an Oil Free Coast, but Mark needed a platform for the artists. . . .

“Well, Mark, if you forfeit your six day tour, we will donate the Columbia III for the project during that time period, as all our other dates are already booked with guests.”

We called a few participants whom had already signed on for Mark’s workshop and explained the situation and they gracefully withdrew. Thus the project evolved around the dates of Mark’s original tour with us. Soon, with huge effort and commitment from Mark, the project grew.  Rain Coast Conservation Foundation joined the team to assist in fundraising and organization and soon other Great Bear operators were offering space for artisans at their lodges, institutes and vessels.

On the first day of the actual expedition, over 30 artists met in Bella Bella and had sandwiches aboard the Columbia III and Raincoast Conservation’s research vessel, Achiever. (shown alongside below). Brian Falconer was skippering the Achiever.

Here’s Mark Hobson co-ordinating, visiting, thanking and organizing the first day.

And as we left harbour the artists set right to work, capturing their unique impressions of the vast wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest.

David McEown painting from the aft deck of the COLUMBIA III

David McEown blog

We travelled together for  5 nights: fjords, granite cliffs, lower wind-swept outer islands. Bears and lupins. Here, David McEown works.

As a small family business, we often don’t have the cash to “donate” to worthy causes, but we can offer the COLUMBIA III, our time, a great boat, a dash of wine, and unparalleled access to wonderful places.The finished book will be touring Canada this fall. Check the website for book orders and a schedule of book launches

A mid summer wheel house crew shot. “What is going on!? Why are my crew sitting still? They should be polishig brass, or cleaning windows, or waiting on our guests, hand and foot. Get to work!!”

Here are a few “shiny boat bits” photos. Even half way through the summer the boat looks pretty good, even to my discerning (picky) eye.

We do see quite a bit of marine life during the course of the summer and the dolphins and porpoises often play in the bow wave. Everyone gets so excited and I seem to end up with quite a lot of bum shots taken from my wheel house window.

Here are a few ‘behind the scenes”of the galley. We prepare 3 meals a day for 14 guests for 5 months of the year. Beautiful, healthy, delicious food . . .  and just the occaisional dish and pot needs scrubbing.

Our summers are full to brimming of little stories and some big. This guest, Jeff, joined us with his buddy from Australia. Due to serious medical issues Jeff had to wait a year to finally join us, but he was SO! appreciative when he did. Every moment, every sun rise, every wonderful meal and orca siting were cause for deep appreciation. Everyone on the tour, crew and fellow guests alike, were touched by the enthusiasm. There is nothing like a brush with death to remind us all to appreciate our blessings.

“Trim! Where are we?”

“Canada, mate!”

“Trim, What are we doing?”

“Kayaking with orcas, mate!”

“ISN’T THIS GREAT!!!!”

There’s our son-in-law, Luke. I must admint I was hoping he’d lose his balance!

Now it’s not very often that I put in an advertizing pitch for another ecotourism company, but how can I resist!! There is our son, Tavish, now skippering a beautiful 90′ schooner that also runs eco tours (non-kayaking) on the this coast. They run a great program and hire only the highest quality staff! The BC coast is a very small place when it comes down to the boating community. We all try to take good care of each other. As the saying has it,”What goes around, comes around.”

I love this shot. This is the chart table in the wheel house. The big telephoto lenses are out, the transient and resident orca identification books are out. Obviously, there are orca about and the guides are trying to figure out who is who in the KW world ( killer whales for us cool folk). The ship’s log book is still there. The ship’s business still proceeds.

Here’s a fun story. This guest, Ellen joined one of our tours. Fern and Ellen had been mountaineering companions back in their varsity days . . . a long time ago. As often happens over the course of week, the conversation roams about, and Ellen asked me how I met Fern.

“That was a long time ago. I was on a ski mountaineering trip with a buddy”

“Oh, what was your friend’s name?”

“Gosh, it hardly matters, I haven’t heard from him in 35+ years . . .”

“No, really. I know a lot of people in the mountaineerring world . . . tell me his name.”

” Grant M—-.”

“What!!, Grant is my best friend and I will be staying with him when I pass through Vancouver when I get off the Mothership!!!”

So Grant and I reestablished contact. It was like the years hadn’t even gone by. It was fun to see him again.

And that is what the mothership is like. Many lives coming together and weaving new, and reweaving old connections with friends.

Gosh, going back to school to learn is an arduous task!

Bird life . . .

water falls  . . .

and waterfalls . . .

and wildlife . . .

and great locations . . .

and  great instruction, on the spot! . . .

Thanks Boomer for another great workshop!