Going out on leave - October 1968

Here is another installment from Carl. When I read this I was reminded of my mid term leave. Looking back on it now, I think I would have preferred to stay in for the entire year. Yes it was great to see family and friends. However the three weeks I was out flew by, I spent a lot of money then I had a feeling of dread as the days ticked by closer to my return to the Rock! I am wondering if others have anything to say about this.

Rob

'As October rolled along I was looking forward to going out on leave at the end of the month. Helicopter CGF was scheduled to fly in on the 28th but true to form, old reliable CGF became "unserviceable" so the tender Skidegate would have to make the trip bringing Al back from his leave and taking me out.

Of course the weather deteriorated as the Skidegate got closer to the Cape. There was a different captain than when I had sailed on it in May. The new Captain had a strong Scottish accent and had a rather distressed tone of voice when he came on the radio to describe the increasing winds and heavier seas. The weather didn't seem particularly bad at the Cape -- too much wind for the helicopter to land, perhaps, but certainly not rough enough to prevent the tender from coming. The captain seemed overly cautious to me.

I think the Skidegate waited for 3 days in Heater Harbour -- I thought they could have snuck in the first day to avoid the approaching storm but I was anxious to get off the Rock! The weather did close in with its strong winds and heavy seas and I felt really stranded for the first time since arriving at the Cape. October was now over and it was November 1st and I was stormbound at the Cape 4 or 5 days after I was originally scheduled to leave. The front finally went by the evening of Friday Nov. 1st -- the wind shifted from Southeast to Southwest and it stopped raining.

I went down to the dock just after daybreak on the morning of the 2nd and saw that the seas still looked pretty wild. I rang up Brian in the ops building and told him how the seas looked at dock level and to advise the Skidegate.

When I returned to the duplex I turned my radios on and tuned into lighthouse frequency. I probably had my Hallicrafters tuned to 2200 and my portable shortwave tuned to 2274 in order to listen to both sides of the conversation. I remember Brian relaying my report from the wharf and adding the words "...and improving". "Thank you Brian!" I thought to myself. I think the captain replied that he would call back later in the morning to see if there was any improvement.

Later that morning I listened in and heard the Captain say that they were just leaving Heater Harbour to try coming to the Cape. It would be another hour and a half before the Skidegate would arrive. I didn't really have all that much packing to do -- I had done most of my packing several days earlier. I just had to take my luggage to the tramway and load the cart to be lowered down to the wharf.

I was down on the dock watching the Skidegate approach long before it arrived. I was too excited about returning to "civilization" to do much else.

The workboat brought Al to shore and we barely had time to say "hello" and I was performing the tricky task of boarding the workboat as it rose and fell with the waves. I couldn't believe the size of the waves as I rode the workboat -- they looked like mountains of water and we were going over every peak. The Skidegate was out of sight when we were in the troughs of the waves. I realized that the waves looked a lot smaller from shore and we had probably been underestimating them in our Marine locals. It was another tricky job to grab onto the Jacob's ladder during a crest of the waves so I could get off the workboat and climb aboard the Skidegate without getting soaked.

The Scottish captain was an older man. He didn't seem too happy about having to bring the Skidegate to the Cape at the last minute to do a trip that was supposed to have been done by helicopter. He thought that the Met service would be better off if a helicopter was chartered from a private firm to do supply trips to the Cape rather than rely on Coast Guard. His thoughts were quite prophetic because that is exactly what the department did in later years although I didn't realize it at the time.

The Skidegate wasted no time getting underway after the workboat returned from its last delivery to shore. We sailed north and followed Juan Perez Sound into protected waters behind Lyall Island. I hadn't seen waters that calm and flat for many months. It was getting dark and the Skidegate anchored overnight in one of the bays.

Some of the same crew were on board who remembered me from my trip in May. The same mate and bosun were on board. The Chinese cook was the same -- it was great to enjoy eating something different from what we had cooked at the Cape. I especially appreciated not having to cook or do the dishes.

The Skidegate had to make a stop at Sandspit the next day and the captain suggested that I could probably get back to Vancouver sooner if I got off there. I was taken to shore on the workboat by the bosun.

It was a Sunday and I don't think there were any flights to Vancouver that day so I'd have to stay there overnight. I went straight to the Sandspit Islander Hotel. I didn't have very much cash in my wallet but I did have my seawater cheques with me. The manager said that he had no problem cashing a government cheque to pay for my room.

There were no phones in the hotel rooms so I went to a payphone to phone home collect. My mother answered the phone and she got quite excited when the operator said that I was calling -- she gladly accepted the charges.

After phoning home, I took a walk to the Airport which was maybe a ten minute walk from the hotel. There was an agent on duty at the PWA counter to book my flight. There was no problem getting a seat on the following day's flight. I had been issued a travel authority code from Regional Office before I left the Cape so I didn't have to worry about paying for my ticket.

After booking my flight, I walked down the hall to the Marine/Aeradio station and introduced myself. I found out that I could have stayed in the DOT singlemens quarters overnight for free but I felt I was entitled to stay in a nice hotel room with a private bath. I did take them up on their offer for a free meal in the DOT living quarters.

I remember the cook was a drunk. I saw a half-full 26er of rye whiskey sitting on the kitchen counter. I also could smell his breath when he served my dinner at the table.

I don't remember too much about the flight to Vancouver except that it was a noisy DC6 like the one that took me to Prince Rupert in May. The new terminal building was now open at Vancouver Airport when I arrived. I took the Airporter bus downtown and left my luggage in a locker at the bus station. I then headed straight to Regional Office to report to Jack Hamilton and Bill Mackie.

I was wearing dress pants that I hadn't worn since May and I put on some weight during my months at the Cape. Anyhow, I had the embarrassment of my pants ripping open while I was downtown Vancouver!!

I found a men's wear store on Granville Street a couple of blocks from Regional Office. The clerk fitted a new pair of dress pants but some alterations had to be done. The clerk summoned someone to take the trousers to a nearby tailor and miraculously, they were back within an hour! Having survived this ordeal, I headed straight back to the bus depot so I could catch the next bus home.

I did get a shock when I saw my mother. She had always looked young for her age but during my months at the Cape she suffered from Bell's Palsey and it disfigured her face. Nobody mentioned this to me in their letters so I was unprepared for the shock of seeing my mother looking like she had aged 20 years.

During my leave I bought myself a Pentax Spotmatic camera which was considered "state of the art" in the late 60's. I also took a trip to San Francisco.

One change that happened while I was at the Cape was the introduction of dimes and quarters that were made of nickel instead of silver. I was having a heck of a time trying to tell the difference between nickels and quarters because they were now the same colour.

The family was together at home in Courtenay for the November 11th long weekend and Mom decided to cook a turkey dinner in my honour since I would not be home for Christmas this year.

The month or so on leave went by much too quickly for my liking. Soon it was time for me to return to Prince Rupert for my trip back to the Cape scheduled for December 9th. The long trip to Rupert seemed more routine to me now so I was better able to endure that long trip from the Airport. There was a fair amount of snow on the ground in Prince Rupert when I arrived.

Surprisingly the helicopter flight was postponed for only one day. There was inclement weather at the Cape on Monday the 9th but it cleared up the next day and I was on my way. It was the first time I had ever been on a helicopter so it was exciting for me. I took plenty of photos with my new camera from onboard the helicopter.

It almost seemed that we got to the Cape too soon! After my trips by tender, it was a novelty to be able to fly to the Cape in only an hour and a half. The chopper touched down, I got off as Grant got on board -- it was too noisy to do more than exchange nods. The mail and groceries were quickly unloaded and the chopper was on its way back to Prince Rupert.

I was standing on the ground at the Cape. I felt dumbfounded. I was back!

Brian had another one of his "surprises" waiting for me. While I was out on leave Al shot a hawk. They later told me that the hawk had become a menace swooping down on them every time one of them went outside to do an ob. Brian had taken a taxidermy course and decided to stuff the bird. He waited for the right time to hang the hawk from the ceiling just inside the entrance to the ops building just before I went up the hill to start my night shift. I was startled to see this large bird in front of me when I came in the door.'