Ocean Falls and Namu
24 August 2009 | N 51.51.6'N:127.52.1 W'W, Fitzhugh Sound, Inside Passge, Canada
Anne
Oh man, would Adam be in his element here! And his buddy Mike. We are at Namu, another abandoned cannery city of some two thousand. BC Packers just walked away, left the store here with goods on the shelves, all the buildings, machinery, a huge freighter still floating, and tons of crap. Serious industrial crap. Big crap, little crap, funny crap, every kind of crap you can imagine. And someone with imagination has been putting the crap to good use. We hope to meet the warfinger later this evening in the community float house with the HUGE metal fire pit. Someone obviously has a sense of humor, there are signs on the tables that say "reserved". Backing up a bit, after Klemtu and the Mystical wisdom of Francis the Guide with Raven Erection stories, we went on to a snazzy harbor by the name of Shearwater, complete with bar, garden store and spa.We managed two nights in civilization reconnoitering with new-old friends, including our pals on Contagious, the Sail-yacht out of Whittier and our buddies, Kit and Carl on Teal the 82 year old 78 foot restored wooden vessel they live aboard with Rusty the Golden Pup. We saw them coming in under tow to the harbor and soon they joined us in the bar to drown their sorrow - some big problem developed with their engine and they had to seek a tow. We are hopeful that the problem was simple and easy. Shearwater does have a giant shipyard facility so we are hopeful they will have a good prognosis and be back under way soon. After Shearwater, we wanted to visit Ocean Falls, another ghost town at the head of an inlet about 25 miles long. Crown Zellerbach operated a pulp mill here with 5000 employees until they too, closed their doors and left town about 25 years ago. Still standing in the abandoned town are the Martin Inn Hotel, a dormitory, fire station, and several substantial office buildings. There is a mighty big dam behind the town which supplies power to the entire region and still obviously functional. As I write this a pod of humpbacks is cavorting right outside so close I can smell the rank mist of their spout. Whale smell is not always sweet. We are going to try to pull off the Queen Charlotte crossing tomorrow as weather is predicted to get seriously shi++ty in a day or so. We are set to get up at 4 and hit it for a 12 hour day. After that Port Hardy and I promise to post pictures.
Post Script: We enjoyed the most amazing whale show this evening from the Namu community float house. Maybe ten to fifteen whales, each dancing and prancing on the water right in front of us - we cuold hear them making thei whale songs! It went on for hours while we cooked and ate bright silvers Rachel and Alex caught for us from the lagoon and enjoyed a fresh salad complete with roasted beets and blue cheese! Tomorrow we leave in the dark for the Charlotte crossing. Ugh.