Friday - Sunday, July 1-3, 2005: Campbell River

Today is Canada Day, much like our July 4th. There are activities planned at the waterfront park with a band and craft booths. We watched fireworks that night from the flying bridge of our boat. We aren’t missing the festivities of July 4th, just enjoying them a little early in another country.

Saturday morning the Honda repairman did show up to repair the engine on the dinghy. Some cables needed to be replaced and it didn’t cost all that much. It is a little late to leave today so we decided to leave early tomorrow. We were both amazed at the huge ships that were passing by every few hours on their way to Alaska. Campbell River is on the inside passage and our marina was in a great viewing area for the beautiful parade of ships.

Sunday we were ready to leave and discovered that our generator wouldn’t start. Bob tried to troubleshoot with our son Chris, on the phone, but to no avail. We realized that in our file of manuals we didn’t have one for the generator. I got on the Internet to try to find information on the generator but instead found an authorized service center in Campbell River. I called and of course an answering service answered since it was Sunday morning. Almost immediately the manager called us back and had a repairman out within the hour. It was a relatively minor problem but one we probably could not have fixed ourselves. What a learning experience, and great customer service in Canada.


We finally left Campbell River after three nights to head to Blind Channel. It was an overcast chilly day and we waited for slack tide in a beautiful bay watching the seals play and the bald eagles fly overhead. We missed three days with the Tildens and Youngbloods and some spectacular anchorages—but enjoyed our experience in Campbell River and the new people we met. Campbell River was a major logging and fishing port and since logging is gone it has emerged as a major tourist area with great fishing. Because of the mild climate both Canadians and Americans are buying property and retiring here.