After our youngest daughter worked with Pat on a BBC project in the fall of 07, we were really lucky to have Pat and Baiba Morrow want to join us for a tour aboard the Columbia III.

Pat, always on the lookout for an interesting shot. The nightly clips showed he has a wonderful eye and he and Baiba brought a wealth of expertise to the workshop participants.

Baiba Morrow

Another season in the BC Great Bear Rainforest! This is absolutely our favourite area and there are lots of great photos in the Gallery section of our website. Here is an entirely random sampler from our 2008 season.

Team work to relaunch a kayak . . . what a lunch stop!

Another day in the “office” for the Skipper. . . . “What a great view from here, and always changing!”

Lead Guide/Cook and Cook/Assistant Guide: Daughter and Mother: Miray and Fern.

Three time Mothership offender, Scott, looking pretty darn coastal.

Another “three timer” Dr. Ed kept us all on our toes. Erudition is his bread and butter and we had some seroius edumacating to keep up to the breadth and witt of his intellect!

Luke and Miray finally got themselves a “real” camera and telephoto lens after much cajouling by the professional photographers that join us. They are so often in the “right spot at the right time” that it really did seem a shame that they weren’t equipped properly. So this summer Luke got an amazing number of great wildlife shots which are now sprinkled through out our website.

Sea otters can be frustratingly shy and quick, so Luke was really excited to catch this shot.

A spirit bear teaser!

This is what it looks like if you stare straight into the open mouth of a bubble netting hump back whale. The whales create a circular wall of rising bubbles to corral a school of fish in one place . . . and then look out! The whale then charges straight up from below, mouth open, to scoop up dinner. It is really dramatic!

Now this is a cool shot! Oh, Oh, sorry. I’m not supposed to brag, but look at this shot! Two grizzlies feeding on salmon AND the Columbia III in the same frame. Honest, no PhotoShop manipulation.

And more birthdays. One for our daughter, Miray, and one for a guest from the United States. We always have a secret stash of candles and little “extras” . . . just in case we discover an anniversary or birthday or . . . well, any excuse for a party.

A lass from the “Emerald Isle” joined us for 6 days and liked it enough to book again for 2009 to join our 9 night tour.

Cool your heals on a mid summer snow patch left over from the winter before.

A world renowned naval architect tries to figure the GM for his latest project . . . or perhaps it is the Center of Bouyancy that is missing from this ship.

Photographer Robert Berdan: always in the best mood, always excited, always having fun, and absolutely READY to take pictures, day or night!

A couple from Britain . . . rebooked for our Broughton Archipelago tour in 2009

Doug Neasloss, Kitasoo First Nations guide, brings his quiet integrity aboard.

So everybody else gets to go paddling, and exploring, and photographing, and seeing cool stuff like Spirit Bears and whales and incredible intertidal marine life and share great camaraderie and poor, poor me left behind each day . . . to relax on arguably the nicest boat on the BC coast, catch up on my sleep and simply gaze out the window at this amazing world.

I have the best “job” in the world and I KNOW IT!!!

We traveled from Campbell River to Port McNeill to start our BC Broughton Archipelago season. This year a group of repeat guests chartered the whole boat and the trip was one great, warm, wonderful family reunion, even for us, as the guests seemed to be part of our extended family.

Once again, Lillian joined us for our First Nations Cultural tour and this is always a very popular tour. Lillian’s infectious, warm personality creates a wonderful ambience. . . and the wildlife seems to be attracted to her in all the best ways!

It is always a special honour when guests from especially far away travel to join us. Here an extended family from Hong Kong joined us for a charter and we all laughed so much our sides hurt. AND! we learned some terrific new card games as well!

The Broughton Archipelago is were we go to hopefully see Orcas and this year was wonderful again. We had many wonderful sightings and our regular photo gallery has some great shots. I like this first one as it gives a taste of the thrill of having the Orcas near at hand.

It is impossible not to be inspired by the Orcas of the British Columbia coast, but just as impossible not to be concerned for them as well. The wild salmon stocks were very low this year and the killer whales were visibly agitated in their search for their primary food source. We are all hoping for a substantial improvement of the salmon stocks next year for the sake of every living thing on the BC coast.

Bill and Donna joined us for two tours last year and then returned this year with friends from California. Thankfully we didn’t burn the toast, the sun shone perfectly and the whales were on their best behaviour.

Garth, from the “In Flight Review” magazine joined us for a tour. We received a nice write up in the Helijet Airlines magazine. You can see the article on our “In the Press” page of the main website.

A father and daughter joined us from the eastern states. A great chance to connect and for us to bask in their friendship.

A humming bird? A paddler who is hard on equipment? No, just Bob from Ontario . . . who has chartered the whole boat for a week in 2009 for a group of friends.

One of the coast’s strongest and most diligent advocates for the preservation of the wild salmon stocks is the renowned biologist, Alexandra Morton. Although she is very busy in the summer with her research at the Salmon Coast Research Station, we can occasionally arrange for a meeting with her. One group we had was especially keen to meet Alex and fortunately she was able to fit us into her schedule.

Our family operates the Columbia III for almost 5 months straight each summer. In an effort to give us some flexibility and a little time off, we were very happy to have our family friend, Steve Schellenberg, join us as a guide. We hope we are lucky enough to have him along on some trips in 2009 too!

We are always on the lookout for birthdays and annniversaries . . . Here is one guest with a “wee” celebration aboard the Columbia III.

We ARE a small family operation and sisters, even a Lead Guide and a Skipper don’t always behave!