Another chapter from Carl - My crew complete

Pete left on the Alex Mac and was replaced by Brian Harvey. Al Friesen was now OIC of the Cape for the coming year. The two people who I'd be spending most of the year on the Cape with were now all here. Brian was good company with his sense of humour. However we were to learn that he was also a practical joker.

The first impression I had of Brian that he must be German. His use of German expressions like "Auch du lieber" was part of his act. He had a German girl friend and he must have studied the language and culture. He brought some of his records to the Cape and his favourite was "Elisabeth Serenade" by the Gunter Kallman choir. It was all sung in German with ringing glockenspiels. I didn't care for that record at first but it grew on me and to this day I associate the music on that album with those early days at the Cape with Brian Harvey.

We got along well with the new work crew headed by Brownsea. Al and I were glad that miserable mechanic was gone.

On Thursday July 11th I went up to start my night shift. It must have been after my first observation that I heard the sound of the chopper outside. Helicopter CGF called me on the radio to request that the planks on the pad be cleared so they could land. I rushed to the phone and rang up the duplex and then there was a flurry of activity with Al, Brian, and the carpenters clearing the pad.

The chopper made a surprize visit without any advance warning to deliver materials for the work crew. They also dropped off our mailbag but the chopper took off before I could fetch our mailbag with outgoing mail. Were we ever annoyed! Outgoing mail was almost as important to us as the incoming mail. Al sent a message of complaint to Regional Office.

The materials delivered enabled the carpenters to complete the task of expanding the pad within a few days. Then Brownsea's crew was stranded at the Cape because nobody seemed to be in any hurry to provide transportation to take them out. It appeared that they would have to wait until the tender came at the end of the month. Brownsea and Al Friesen sent messages out almost every other day pleading for transportation. We kept getting messages back from J.A.G. Lewis the District Marine Agent in Prince Rupert telling us that the helicopter was "unserviceable". Meanwhile a crew of three carpenters were sitting idle at the Cape on full pay.

It must have taken a week for alternate transportation to be arranged. One problem was that there was no sheltered water for a float plane to land anywheres near the Cape. We had no serviceable "station boat" to take them up to Heater Harbour or Jedway at the north end of Kunghit Island where a seaplane could land.

Finally a ride was arranged for the carpenters to board a fishboat or tugboat that was in the vicinity. I can't remember whether this boat took them to an anchorage to meet a seaplane or whether it took them all the way to Sandspit.

One day while Brownsea's crew was still at the Cape I was asleep in my bedroom because I was on night shift. I awoke in the middle of the day and I heard voices from the living room downstairs. I thought Brownsea and his crew came in for tea so I went back to sleep. Later I learned that we had more visitors -- Neil Carey and his wife from Sandspit. I let Al and Brian know that I was disappointed that I had missed out on the company.

Not long after Brownsea's crew left we had more visitors. I saw this very small boat coming in so I went down to the wharf with either Al or Brian. It was a small tugboat called the Vulture and it came in closer than I had ever seen any boat come to the Cape. Two people came ashore on a rowboat. It was Sam and Anne Lamont from Garden Bay on the Sunshine Coast. I think they only spent a day visiting us but they did become good friends. We exchanged letters with them after that and I saw them on two or three occasions after leaving the Cape.

Once the carpenters had left, our "crew" was alone on the Cape for the first time. I felt that it was getting too crowded at the Cape whenever we had additional people staying there. With our 3 man crew left alone, I felt that we finally had our "space".

After the tender came at the end of July we were left alone for a full month. That was the first complete month without any extra helicopter trips or any visitors.

A couple of riggers came in at the end of August to add sections to the antenna tower in order to raise the height of the antennas used for lighthouse frequency. The young EL tech who had come in with George Doe also came to make the necessary tuning adjustments to the radios to match the antennas. They were half wave dipoles raised at the centre often called "inverted vees" by ham radio operators. I think the job was completed in a single day and the helicopter came after only one day of being "unserviceable".