Oh my gosh!! I don’t think skippers should write blogs . . . I get so far behind and really cool things happen and I forget to grab my camera and capture the blog-moments that I “should”. Here is a random summer sampler. Steve took many of these photos. He gave me his stash of shots after I had already posted many on our site so here are some more!
Luke. Lead guide, lead skipper after me, lead shipwright, awesome photographer dude and pretty darn great as a son-in-law too.
Kayak guide and life time (at least her life time) friend and neighbour, Robin Humphreys.
White-sided dolphins follow the COLUMBIA III
Oh hey! Now this is exciting! A new tender for the Columbia III. Just a little bigger than the old one and kinda shiny on the arrival date. It took almost 6 months to custom make and we pressed it into service on the “fly” in mid June.
Tavish on a photo shoot of the COLUMBIA III with Fern and I yelling, “TAVISH HANG ON YOU FOOL!”
Ah, those perfect, still, foggy Broughton mornings before the sun burns off the mists and the blue sky is revealed.
Ace guide/paramedic, Luke Roman. Always the same great smile . . . he even tolerates me.
Here is a guest, a firefighter from BC with a . . . well . . . a weird hat!
OK, Ok, it can rain SOMETIMES.
The group leaves the mothership for another day at “sea”.
Why does everyone seem so relaxed! The skipper is headed for the rocks!
Do you really need a telephoto lens for a rock that close?
Nice t-shirt.
We so see sunsets in the Great Bear Rainforest.
. . . and waterfalls . . . Here is Phil from Seattle. This summer his private group chartered the COLUMBIA III for the second time. I think we will see them again.
. . . and Phil is an artist. From the guest logbook, this is Fern’s fiddle on the salon sofa.
and more water falls . . .
These are guests returning from bear viewing in the fall Great Bear.
Another crew shot. Christina Purcell filled in so Fern could have some much deserved time off the boat.
The skipper hard at work as usual. It’s a tough job being so busy . . . .
Boomer Jerritt came again this year. Here are a few shots:
Crew shot: Erin Rowsell loves to cook and take pictures, so she asked to be on Boomer’s tour.
Here is our son, Tavish and a group Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild brought together. We try to donate the use of the COLUMBIA III to Ian and Karen each year to help support their great conservation work on the BC coast.
Mark Hobson came with us again this year and the weather certainly cooperated!
The Broughton Archipelago was full of orca this summer. It was marvelous to see them all!
Here is a cool sequence. Steve caught these orcas that decided they wanted to “check us out” Here one is approaching us . . .
and diving under the COLUMBIA III !!!
and you can just see the white eye-patch below the handrail . . .
and out the other side of the boat . . .
and breaking the surface on the other side. With another orca clearly visible under water!
And another sequence of shots: A few humpback whales are working together to get dinner. One whale circles a school of small fish whilst emitting a stream of bubbles . . . This is called “bubble netting”
and then the other whales charge the concentrated fish school with their mouths open.
and load up on dinner. This can happen over and over with lots of great photo opportunities and just plain awesome to watch . . . to heck with the cameras.
and here are 4 humpbacks just off the bow of the COLUMBIA III on a very still day. Their breath seemed to hang in the air permanently.
and if you are REALLY!!!! lucky . . .
And creek side walks looking for returning salmon:
a few more of Steve’s “wildlife “shots
Oops, these guys don’t look too wild. . .
Steve’s crew shots: Luke Roman and Rowan Kehn . . .slaving in the galley
and posing for a crew poster shot. . . the cook has a few minutes off each day . .
Tavish is always looking for an unusual angle on a shot.
Linda Hogarth, a Campbell River museum tour guide that lead a wonderful tour on Coastal History this summer.