July 9- August 15 2006

It was a special honour to have Tony
and Judy bring their family all the way from South Africa to join us.

Travel writers Chris McBeath and Bill Vanderford joined us for a tour. You can check Bill’s testimonial article for his views on his tour.

Skipper Tony on the Tall Ship “Pacific Grace” swings by to catch up on the latest news.

Luke tries out his new submersible camera.

These folks have already booked 5 berths for 2007 in the Great Bear!

Skipper (me) makes sure Luke is doing everything right!

We repositioned the Columbia III up to Port McNeill with Fern driving the van up to meet us. For the first Broughton Tour we were trying something new when we asked Robert to join us and we are glad we did! I think Robert is a wildlife magnet! On our first full day of the tour we saw dozens of Orcas breaching and spy-hopping. Poor Robert’s head nearly swiveled off his neck from trying to respond to all the gasps, exclamations and arm waving. “ Robert over here!” “No! port side, there’s one breaching over and over!!” “ Hey Robert!!! Look to your RIGHT!!!” But in the end everyone got some great shots and Robert’s infectious enthusiasm got us fired up. (I wish I had some extra digital cameras to sell on the spot that trip!) There were a few evening seminars on photography but the tour kept its relaxed pace and the kayaks covered lots of ground. For more photos from Robert’s tour click here, or check out his website for more of his works.

I think the sun was too hot on Luke’s kayak!

Our 2006 kayak season started with the wackiest bunch of guests bent on ensuring they had THE MOST FUN!!!!!!. We celebrated every night, even if we had to manufacture the odd (and I mean odd) ritual! There was an anniversary, a Landed Immigrant entrance exam (or was that an intellectual hazing?) and a birthday party. The kayaking was superb and we had the Sound to ourselves which is why we love the early season tours here.

Toba Inlet

Definitely a candidate for Robert Berdan’s class on advanced photography techniques!