For about a month now, we have been missing connections with Avatar – FPB 64 hull 1 – with Mike and Carol Parker aboard. We finally caught them on the AIS as we were heading back down to Campbell River to pick up our daughter Kim, her friend Daria and Deb who flew home to see her Mom about a week ago (97 and not doing well).
Avatar was also headed to Campbell River and we were both on the same schedule to make Seymour Narrows at slack water. Currents in Seymour in the vicinity of Ripple Rock can reach 16 knots on big spring tides and that is no place to be.
We were running early as we were getting a big push down Johnstone Strait and Discovery Passage from an incoming tide so both of us pulled off into to Kanish Bay to wait. Carol took some pictures of Iron lady and I took some pictures of Avatar.
Seems Mike and Carol had have been hitting many of the same spots that we have which has created good bit of confusion with the locals. Added to that, Sarah Sarah (FPB64-2) also lives up this way and we have frequently been confused with them.
Three boats which look alike and are as distinctive as the FPB64 creates a lot of dock side conversation. Of all the places Iron Lady has traveled, the level of dockside interest in the boat is orders of magnitude higher here.
A sample of the comments:
- What was she before – a military patrol boat?
- If she was built in New Zealand – how did you get it here?
- Followed by blank stares when we tell them on her own bottom.
- Didn’t some guy named Dashew have a boat like that?
- You really need a 50 caliber machine gun on the front deck.
- What are those big booms for – fishing?
- Where is the sail?
- Why don’t you polish or paint the hull?
Anyway, out to dinner tonight with Mike and Carol and our gang and then off to the Broughtons again tomorrow.
Cheers