December 4th 2021
I woke up feeling really good. I had gotten a good nights sleep, quite possibly the best I’d had in several weeks and on top of that, the BnB prepared a super delicious breakfast of yogurt with avocado toast. It was truly fantastic. On top of that, it had lightly snowed sometime during the night, which to me; represented a sort of cleansing that I had felt after dinner the previous night. The weather was colder so I packed my gear back with my rain jacket and a down jacket for the boat ride.
The plan was to go grab my gear at Guy’s house and then meet at the Thermocline (which was right below where I was staying). The dive team consisted of some project baseline people (I believe all GUE), other GUE local divers and a local wreck diving/historian/author/legend named Jacques Marc. The diving would be easy but have meaningful purpose and I was pretty darn excited about the day. Often we get caught up in the training and forget the reason. The reason is to have fun and if you can do a little science while having fun, well then that’s a perfect day!
I arrived at the marina and found several others waiting in the parking lot already. After some introductions, we hauled gear over to my old friend The Thermocline and loaded everything onto the top deck or into the salon. I felt a little bit like a local by now. The weather was drastically different compared to the last time I was on this boat but she’s got a super comfortable heated salon incase the weather turned nasty.
Jacques did a short presentation with all of us gathered around in the salon. He went over the dive plan and showed a brief slide show and gave us a general virtual tour with some maps and videos so we knew what to expect. We were to take measurements on the wreck of The Robert Kerr. as well as set up some project baseline stations at the bow and stern. There are several good you tube videos on this wreck to get an idea of what she looks like. At one point the Robert Kerr was a sailing ship hauling coal and other goods before eventually being converted to a barge until her ultimate resting place just off of Vancouver Island. Read all about her here: https://www.nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Robert_Kerr_logs.php
As we motored out to the wreck site, which took at least an hour and a half, the weather went from cold and gray to actually quite nice. The snow melted off once the sun poked through the clouds and the water was calm and peaceful with very little wind. I was really enjoying every moment as I watched the water roll by. This was all familiar to me and I was starting to really love this place.
Once at the site we all geared up and assigned dive teams and duties. My buddy and I were to set a PB station on the stern and then we could go do a little orientation swim around the wreck. for the life of me I can’t remember my dive buddies name but he was a cool dude. Once we did our GUE EDGE we hit the water. As I splashed in and felt the cold water on my face I could think only what a relief it was to do just a basic doubles dive to a max depth of 40 feet with no stages, or other shit. It’s the simple things sometimes.
We did our job pretty quickly and spent the rest of the dive looking around the wreck and helping out where we could if any of the other teams needed something. There was unfortunately quite a lot of trash on the wreck so we cleaned that up as best we could. The wreck was mostly unrecognizable since it was once a wooden hull sailing ship, there were piles of rubble where the holds once were with just a few ribs, sheathing, and other things strewn across the bottom for a hundred yards or so. But I couldn’t have told you what type of ship it was based on what I saw. It was definitely a man made structure but that’s about it. Time had taken it’s toll on this historical site and I felt privileged to dive her. Like most shipwrecks, it won’t be too many more years until there is nothing left so It’s important to dive them with conservation in mind.
We completed our tasks and made our way back to the surface via SMB so Captain Shockey would know where we were. The dive was really fun and just what I needed after so much stress. The team was in high spirits as we motored back to the Marina. But just like that the day was turning into night and the diving in Vancouver was over for now. I had no plans to dive the following day since I needed to start to make my way back to the U.S. which would likely take most of the day tomorrow. We unloaded gear and hauled it back to our vehicles, said our goodbyes and I headed back up the hill to the BnB. I was getting hungry and decided on some takeout Sushi from a place I had seen the night before. So I drove into town and put and picked up an order and grabbed some beer. It was to be my last night in Canada for at least a little while so maybe a little bit of a redo from the night before on the personal celebration side of things.
Once I finally got back to the BnB I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was a Christmas boat parade going on. My first thought was holy crap it WAS almost Christmas! There were dozens of boats all decorated with lights and I think people were dressed as elves and/or santa (hard to tell from the distance I was at). The boats were slowly motoring in single file up and down the channel in front of the BnB. I had front row seats (albeit from a distance) but it was really really nice. It reminded me of the 4th of July boat parades on the outer banks I’d see as a kid. It was great seeing people enjoying life. So I sat on the back porch in the cold, eating my sushi watching the boat parade listening to people yell “Merry Christmas”
I went to sleep feeling much better. I was leaving Canada in the morning but I thought alot about the entire journey. I have a lot of really great memories of the entire trip so far and I still had another day to squeeze some adventures if I could.
I woke up the following morning pretty early. The BnB had packed me a ToGo bag and left it in the kitchen. They asked if I wanted breakfast but I said I was heading out pretty early. Overall I would HIGHLY recommend the Maple Rise Guest House if you are going to do some diving with Guy. Just don’t book it when I’m trying to be there (email me first LOL). Once I was up and moving I finished packing my stuff, hopped into the Jeep and said good by to Maple Bay. I had spoken with Guy about the best way to head back to Seattle and he suggested to use the Blackball ferry, which leaves from Victoria. There was no way to get a ticket online that I could see so My plan was to drive there and wait in line. I was concerned given how the trip had gone on the way in that I may have to wait several ferries until I could find a spot. So I was up before dark and on my way. I stopped in Duncan at a Tim Hortons for coffee and a burrito before jumping onto the highway.
As I drove the sun started coming up. The day was looking beautiful and so I pulled over on one of the overlooks on the way to snap a few photos. The sunrise was absolutely stunning, so I took a moment to watch mother nature do her thing before getting back into the car and head south. The weather was chilly but the sky was clear and the air was crisp and clean. It was definitely a much different mood driving south this time. I was not really in a rush, my flight was in the morning the following day so I really had a day to kill and I was up for whatever adventure came my way. As I drove up and over the mountains there was still snow on the road in spots so I had to be a little carful but other than that the trip was easy and peaceful.
I made quick time to Victoria and found the Blackball ferry terminal easily. As it turns out, this was far less busy than the regular BC ferry. In fact I was the only one in the parking lot when I arrived and the ticked counter wasn’t even open yet. So I waited, walked around, and killed time. The ferry wasn’t scheduled until 10:35 and I was at least 2 hours early. I didn’t want to stray too far from the Jeep since I had issues locking it so I mostly just walked around the parking lot and over near the water.
Other travelers trickled in slowly and eventually the parking lot was buzzing with people and energy. The ticket counter opened up and I went into purchase my ticket for the 10:30. I wasn’t quite sure how the customs thing would work but I soon found that they come around to your car and do the customs form right there in the parking lot. It was pretty slick. I didn’t have to mess with boarder patrol or anything. Shortly after all the customs/immigration work was done they loaded us on the ferry, which was considerably smaller then the BC ferry. It had one main deck and I think only one lower level but it was nice and clean. The cafe was open and I grabbed a coffee and settled into a seat in the salon waiting to go. Once underway I got to see more of the town of Victoria. There were some really really beautiful houses and boats on the way out of the bay. I could see living there if it wasn’t super expensive. Anyway the ferry ride was pretty calm and I spent most of the time walking around the deck sight seeing.
The ferry arrived in a little town called Port Angeles WA and I was back in the USA, and hungry so I found a little place near the ferry terminal called Bar Nine (Bar N9NE) to have some lunch. It was pub fare so I had a burger which was ok. I didn’t spend much time in the town looking around because I wanted to make my way closer to Seattle incase I ran into traffic or whatever, so I hopped back in the jeep and began driving.
The drive took me around the outskirts of Olympic National park and if I had more time, I’m sure I could have spent days exploring that area. It’s a massive area of mostly unpopulated areas. The views were spectacular as I went up and down narrow passes and mountain highways towards Tacoma. I went through a few small towns but mostly it was pretty desolate which I liked. I hadn’t really scoped out the route on GPS before I punched it in. I was just driving to see what I’d find along the way. I came down this fairly large mountain pass and onto a huge bridge where a sign read “Tacoma Narrows Bridge” and I thought that was pretty cool. Every engineering student around the world likely knows about the ill fated Tacoma Narrows Bridge that fell down due to hitting resonance from wind loading back in the 40s. Anyway the new bridge has better engineering and so I made it across without issues. I also started to see the beautiful snow capped Mount Rainier rising up in the distance. Since I was making great time and basically had the rest of the afternoon and evening to kill I decided I’d drive towards it until it got dark. I took pictures from Tacoma thinking I’d probably not get a better picture but I drove on towards this beacon of exploration that has also been on my bucket list for decades. I always wanted to see it with my own eyes. You can see Rainier from so far away (something like 60 miles on a day like I had) that once you start driving towards it, it’s hard to comprehend how big it really is. I continued to get closer occasionally stopping to take a better picture thinking surely this will be the last opportunity I’d have.
One problem as you get closer to a mountain, you actually may have harder time seeing it because of other hills and smaller mountains blocking the way. Eventually after about an hour of driving, it was getting close to sundown, but I found a great spot to pull off and take a photo. This would definitely be my last opportunity and I didn’t want to be any further into the wilderness after dark with no supplies and likely no cell phone service. The pull off was a cute little chapel and park that was clearly privately owned. I was trying to take selfies of me and the mountain when a Harley rider pulled up and asked if I wanted him to take my picture. I was happy to have the help and I returned the favor by taking a few good pics of him and his bike in front of the mountain. We chatted for 10 mins or so and he told me he comes there often to just think. I agreed it was a great spot.
After my detour to Mt. Rainier, I made my way back to the hotel I had booked near the airport and got some dinner at the hotel restaurant. After dinner, I repacked all my bags to get the gear redistributed between the two main checked bags. At this point I was pretty tired so I laid down. I spent a good bit of time thinking about the entire adventure before falling asleep. I knew that when I got home, things would be chaos again and would be for at least the next several months until things in life settled down more but in this very moment, things seemed ok.
