Picture: The Japanese fishing boat (Kazu Maru) at the Mariner Memorial Park. The two top characters on the shelter mean "1" and "Maru". Often the Japanese insert "1" (ichi) in a person's name, boat name or any name for that matter). It means something similar to "premier", "first" or "number one" in English. "Maru" is usually the last character in boat names and seems to mean "good luck" or "comes around" or "good fortune" or something like that. So maybe the two characters mean "premier boat".

After we moved "Shuang Yu" from Cow Bay Marina to Prince Rupert Yacht Club, we were free to explore the town, which is my favorite part about cruising. The marina is in Cow Bay, which is a small tourist area. The tourist office, curio shops, restaurants and bars are located there. We had a couple of vegetarian sushi rolls and a pot of green tea at a Japanese restaurant in the marina complex overlooking the boats, superb ambience. There, we met a couple from Ontario and had an interesting conversation over lunch.

After lunch we walked up to the "Mariner Memorial Park" on a knoll by the waterfront. The first thing we saw was a small Japanese fishing boat sitting under a Japanese-style shelter protected by a cyclone wire fence so that people could see, but not touch. The boat, called "Kazu Maru" is a typical older-style Japanese fishing boat, the kind we saw everywhere in Japan. Evidently, retired public servant, Sakamoto san, from Owase, Japan, went fishing one day and never returned. Over the course of a year and a half his fishing boat drifted all the way from Japan to the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada. The Coast Guard rescued it before it could be smashed to pieces on the rocks. They brought it to Prince Rupert to be identified. It was discovered that the boat was from the "sister city" of Prince Rupert in Japan! With the permission of the fisherman's wife, the people of Prince Rupert lovingly restored it and built a memorial shelter to house it in the Park. The coincidence brought the two cities (Prince Rupert and Owase) closer. The widow of the fisherman, Mrs. Sakamoto, family members and friends, came to Prince Rupert for the opening ceremony of the Mariner Memorial Park. Mrs. Sakamoto offered prayers to dedicate the park to those lost at sea. Although he had seen many Japanese fishing boats, Ted was mesmerized with the simple but efficient design of the boat and in awe that it traveled the long distant across the North Pacific Ocean.