Good read; lived (with Aunt/Uncle) in Victoria for a few months and fished that river. Large sandwich bag/cold milk in a thermos jug (sp?) and dropped off at 'day break' and picked up late in the day.
The rest that follows is probably TMI.
Uncle was one cool guy; a ship inspector, and if you wanted to enter Canadian Waters ... he was the one who boarded/inspected/and signed off ... or you weren't going anywhere inside the 200 mile limit.
For what ever reason he hated the Russians and their ships got a total toss. Like TOTAL TOSS. Went on a few of those and it was amazing what he could find. End game of all that is when I sat for my US Coast Guard Pilot's license I 'aced' the thing. Chiefs that ran the test kept asking me questions ('You have a fire ...
so where is the fire?') Damned thing took well over four hours.
Took one of my Sea Scouts down for his examination and they looked at me and "Does he know his stuff?" "Yes Sir he does." Couple of general questions and they signed off.
Long expired but my 'ticket' was for ships up to 350 tonnes (about 250 foot long on average) from Seattle to Point Barrow Alaska, which I doubt I'd even gotten within 700 miles. Still have all my navigation gear, including a Sextant. I can still take a 'star/moon shot' but doubt I could go much beyond that at this point in time. Time of the moon/star shot, look it up in the old books and DAMN! my house hasn't moved.**
Then came "LORAN" and the wave markers on the charts. That was one hell of a great bit of equipment. If you remember that you are 'Older than dirt.' Now a GPS unit on the dashboard of the Jeep and always on even if I know where I'm going.
Some things never change, or so it would appear.
fae
** Out doing this a few weeks back and neighborhood kids did a 'What are you doing Mr. Evans?' Heck of a good time pointing out stars, etc., and "This is how it works." Kids calling out 'shots/angles, etc. to another. Kids around the dinning room table scribbling out their calculations. Big error was they put you/them 180 degrees on the other side of the World. I've done that.:ranting3: