It is unusual for us to tie up to a dock for four nights but here we are on the customs dock in Ucluelet waiting for our windlass bearings. We just found out they have not even been shipped yet. Pam calls the company and they assure us that the package will go out today, Thursday, thus the four days on the dock. We see the invoice says air freight two day delivery so we settle in and will look for them Monday allowing an extra day or so.
We are on the "52 Step" dock so called due to the 52 steps you climb each time you venture off the dock. As we climbed the 52 steps this evening we had an educational chat with Karla Robison and her energetic crew. Karla is the manager of the Environmental and Emergency Services, Ucluelet district. As such she is in charge of the nearly one million dollar grant from Japan. The U.S. received 5 million.
Her crew and many like them along the coast of Alaska have been stock piling tsunami debris. This coming Tuesday a barge the size of a football field will be outside the Ucluelet Inlet. A helicopter will airlift all the debris Karla's crew has gathered up and load it on the barge. Then the barge heads to Seattle where the sorting and recycling begins.
Rightfully so Karla is obviously proud that her crew is involved in this effort, the only participant in British Columbia. She goes on to explain that Japanese scientists have met with her to help confirm that most of the debris is Japanese. This includes large chunks of mortise and tenon house construction pieces. She said to Google tsunami debris Ucluelet. I did that and borrowed a great photo. That is Karla helping one of the Japanese delegates off of the raft. The photos of the barge are mine. We passed the barge as it floated in Newcombe channel awaiting it's debris.
Otherwise our urban weekend consisted of small boat projects, walking around town, ice cream at Ukee Scoops and visiting with the neighbors.
We share the dock with large ocean going fishing vessels who fish a mile plus below the waves for Black cod and Idiot fish. They are all exhausted and ready for a break.
We meet Gerry who has been refurbishing his old cement sailboat. He has many stories to tell including being rescued at sea one Christmas eve by the Tofino coast guard.
Then there is Jerry whom we help tie up. He has single handed his beautiful ketch from Hawaii. He has been gone for two years down to Mexico and back. He phones his wife and the customs people, in that order. He is a day or two behind schedule because his auto pilot died and he had to rely on the wind vane. We leave a not for him to join us for dinner but he sleeps right through. They next morning he cheerily waves and thanks us as he takes off, heading home to Washington.
We give some crab to a chatty guy who pulled up in his small sailboat with a catamaran tied on the side, two kayaks atop the cat. His boat is called the Fiord Explorer and he has been up every Inlet on the British Columbia coastline and is now working more of them on this side of the island. He says he will be getting a small trimaran as his current rig is getting to hard to handle.
Then a short visit with a man who has done a low tide haul out of his sailboat, tired securely to the dock and standing on it's keel.
We check Monday's email and ask Brandon for a tracking number. What we find is that the order is going UPS ground, NOT air freight and the bearings are not due for another week. We decide to spend one more night on the dock so we can try to find the tsunami barge on Tuesday. We find it right where Karla said it would be. Imagine two of our large Columbia river barges tied together!! This monster is being towed from Alaska to Seattle by the tug "Billy H."
Then we head out five miles to try for halibut. No luck, just two small Sole fish. Now we are anchored in Cataract Cove in Pipestem Inlet. Our intrepid protein seeker Carl has set the shrimp pot out and is doing his post dinner rock fishing.
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