This year the Campbell River Museum chose to celebrate their annual staff party on the Columbia III. As we were bringing the boat to town for our Christmas Tea Cruises anyhow, it seemed a perfect fit. Lights, holly, homemade egg nog and “action”!

Fern had to come out of winter retirement and “chef” the galley for the group.

This was our “6th annual Christmas Tea and Cruise”. And as usual, after the “word” got out, we had the 88 spots (4 tours over two days) filled and a huge waiting list. When the announcement hit the local newspaper, our phone literally rang non-stop. As I tried to answer one call, the phone was beeping as other calls came in and and the answering messages were stacking up. I gather the locals like coming on the Columbia III! Luckily we had good weather as you can see.

If you are unfamiliar with our tea cruises, we put lots of Christmas lights on the boat, inside and out. I hung holly sprigs around inside and hung as many candy canes as possible about the ship. Then I baked a zillion Christmas cookies in all kinds of shapes and sizes and filled the salon with tea and coffee and opened the doors for locals to have a two hour harbour cruise in Discovery Passage. Because of our Transport Canada certification we can’t take more than 22 guests at a time so we ask people to book ahead. The tours fill very quickly!

You have to look closely to see the candy cane cookies. This year was a bit different. Fern was away visiting her father and the task of making about 10 million Christmas cookies fell on my broad shoulders. So when I gave the introduction and safety briefing for each tour I mentioned that I would accept no complaints if the cookies were a bit over done on the edges or if my 2-toned hand-shaped candy cane cookies were a little lumpy and funny looking. “Too bad!” I declared . . . It certainly seemed like a great technique for eliciting compliments for my baking!

Now that’s sensible attire for a Christmas Cruise!

This fellow’s father use to own the Columbia III in the ’70s and he had many good memories of being on the ship as a boy. He was thrilled to see the “old girl” being so well taken care of.

It might be only a 2 hour cruise, but Fern still seems to earn hugs at the dockside after we secured the lines back in harbour.

As you all know, we offer the Columbia III for tours for a very nominal fee at Christmas time. We cruise the local BC waters, well lit with Christmas lights, for a few hours and serve tea, coffee and home made cookies. One passenger was Tom Kruesel of the local Lutheran Church. So about a month ago Pastor Tom called and asked if we would take his congregation out for a similar cruise before our summer season commenced. We had to take the mothership to Campbell River for our annual Transport Canada safety inspection so the time was perfect. This time Pastor Tom supplied the cookies and we the boat and the weather was perfect.

Pastor Tom

Even when the mothership has 25 people on board there are still quiet moments to reflect: warm sun, light breeze, salt air, snowy mountains and just a tiny bit of peace.

We seem to have started a new tradition in Campbell River BC, the town nearest our island home. Originally we ran the tours at Christmas to allow the many old timers in the area that know and love the Columbia III but realistically aren’t going to join one of our tours. For some it is admittedly too expensive or outside their mobility. Many are quite elderly. But still they do love the boat and the chance at a ride aboard “the old girl”is not to be missed. We started out running 2 tours on a Saturday 5 years ago, but we had to expand to Saturday and Sunday. And still we turn down the reservations by the dozens! You have to be quick to get a spot on the much coveted cruise. We charge $10 per per person by donation. If you don’t have the money, we don’t ask, and everyone seems to appreciate the Christmas thought. Fern and the kids make a MOUNTAIN of homemade cookies for the weekend. I wanted to make a giant batch of chocolate chip cookies for simplicity, but no, there were some very fancy and time consuming Christmas treats made. The candy canes were two types of dough rolled together. I know this is a classic wooden heritage vessel and she is high maintenance, but even the cookies are a lot of work!

Brian and Ann are coastal mariners but they drove the 3 1/2 hours up island to join the 2 hour cruise.

And here is Rick of Rick and Carolyn. They drove 4 1/2 hours(!) just to travel with us again. They had been with us in September in the BC Great Bear Rainforest but they wanted to be on the Columbia III again. It was great to see them. It was a present for us.

I am going to submit this shot below to Transport Canada. They keep a close eye on our operations to ensure everything and everyone is “up to snuff’. So I thought I would reassure them that I am “Training for the future”. This little guy was glued to the wheel! His eyes were as big a saucers, even if Tavish had to nudge the wheel a little left or right. He wasn’t quite strong enough to steer unassisted but he could sure hang on.