Vancouver and a chance to explore

Saturday 10^th January

This morning started early on the 4 to 8 watch working 1 hour on, 1 off on the wheel with one of the ABs. As there were no waves or swell to deal with it was a relatively simple matter to hold her on course and obey the pilots orders. I was on the bridge again in the evening as we entered Vancouver (BC Canada). As we passed under the magnificent Lions gate bridge one could smell the pine trees in Stanley Park. We were tied up by 20.00 and told to make the best of a Sunday off in Canada the next day.

Sunday 11^th January

After getting a lift to the “Hotel Vancouver” in the town centre the 2nd Officer plus wife, the two engineers’ wives and I went on a Greglines City tour for the cost of $5.98. This was very good and the driver pointed out all the highlights. Chinatown founded by the Chinese who helped build the railroads, Gastown (see picture below) a renovated area of the town restyled how it was, at the cost of millions.

Cars only allowed in on certain days. The name “Gastown” comes from the reputation of “Gassy Jack Deighton”, a notorious saloon keeper in the area who was never at a loss for words! (His statue shown). We were then driven round the famous Stanley Park. An area of virgin forest leased to the city for a nominal fee of $1 a year for 99 years! A beautiful park with some nice views, especially of the Lion Gate Bridge. Then we drove round the residential areas and up to the Queen Elizabeth Gardens, grown into a disused quarry and very pretty. On top was a heated Botanical Gardens enclosed in a plastic dome! Very “Space Age” and kept at 70 degrees.

A welcome change from the 6 degrees outside. When the tour finished I had dinner in a café and then spent some time walking around the shops. However, not many were open due to the fact it was Sunday.

Monday 12^th January

Today I worked all day on cargo watch, noting the “mark-offs” and keeping the times etc. There had been snow in the night which had started to melt and then frozen. Hence the decks were very slippery and it hurt when you fell over! The longshoreman cleared paths with shovels and put salt down to provide a reasonable working surface, but one had to walk with the utmost care and not hurry.

Tuesday 13^th January

Billy had all day yesterday off and today was my day off. The 2^nd electrician (Steve) and the AEO (Steve) and myself hired a car between us so as we could get out of the city. It took little getting used to driving on the “wrong” side of the road and less getting used to an automatic gearbox.

The two Steves

We drove out over the Lions Gate Bridge and then westwards to Horseshoe Bay along the coast road. The view up Home Sound from the ferry terminal was exceptional. We had a hamburger and coffee here before continuing up along Highway 99 into the hills. As we gained height there was more and more snow around. The roads however were very good.

The mountains on each side of the road were terrific and each time an exceptional view appeared we would screech to a halt and all take photographs. I expended a 36 exposure film during the outing. About 13.30 we decided to turn back as we were due to sail at 17.00. we drove back, this time getting the views the other way round which were even more breathtaking.

We drove back to the ship and found we had an extra hour so we drove around Stanley Park and then took the car back, getting a bus back to the ship. All in all this was one of the best days I have had and seen some of the most fantastic scenery. We sailed for Seattle at 18.00.