Tragedy at sea.

Cape Flattery Wa. and Tatoosh Island, from approx 40km.
Panorama showing the entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait.
Tatoosh Island, white building is the lighthouse.

We returned to our camping spot on the 27th Sept to near perfect conditions, sunny and warm with a light breeze. We got settled into our chairs with the VHF radio on and viewed the marine traffic and listened in to plenty of communications amongst the sport fishermen and the commercial fishing boats. Freighter traffic calling in to Victoria, Port Angeles, Tofino and Seattle traffic control gives us the opportunity to both identify the vessels as they pass in front of us and learn a little about their destinations.

Seems the commercial fishboats were having moderate success with the Hake in the Straits. One brief chat mentioned Orcas (killer whales) separating a Humpback whale calf from 2 adults and creating a bloodbath! Yucch, but that's nature. The Orcas' in question must be a transient pod as the resident Orcas diet is salmon and other fish. We also heard the Viking Storm, one of the fishboats, discuss taking their catch south to Westport Wa., fuel is cheaper and there was mention of maybe getting a round of golf in. By dusk these plans had been tragically altered...

A mayday call was made by the Viking Storm, the location given was 1 mile off Tatoosh Island and it was apparent to us which vessel this was as running lights were displayed. The on board situation was a severe injury to a crew member who'd been struck by a cargo hook and was unconcious and bleeding profusely. The nearby USCG station at Neah Bay handled the call and after some delay (likely due to getting medical people ready) put out of the bay and headed towards the Viking Storm which was making all speed back to Neah Bay. Unfortunately fishing boats aren't built for speed but nevertheless they were approximately halfway back when the the coastguard vessel met them. This must've taken 45mins though and in the meantime radio calls indicated just how quickly the injured crewman was fading. Pretty gut wrenching stuff for us. The victim was rushed back to Neah Bay with the Viking Storm following. An expected helicopter from USCG Port Angeles didn't arrive which indicated to us there was no longer any need to transfer the victim to a hospital.

Incredibly sad, we both felt the grief that was sure to come after the loss of a loved one. We've had personal experience and could easily feel the pain to come for the parents, and possibly family, of this young man. We were unable to positively confirm our fears, radio contact had ceased once the Viking Storm had reached Neah Bay and there was no further mention the following day. Nor could I find any news story about this incident after we'd come home. I've withheld names as I don't feel it's appropiate here.

Jackpot!!

We were camping last weekend at our favorite spot overlooking Juan da Fuca Strait and out to the Pacific ocean. I turned the camera on to see the above picture displayed on the LCD, thought I'd hit the jackpot as I hadn't known that Linda had even painted these images let alone photograph them! In miniature they look for all the world like three bars of cherries on a slot machine.
We were treated to several visits by the above raptor and it's partner, most likely a red-tailed hawk though we couldn't distinguish any red color with eyes. Unfortunately this is the only pic I got of the quick flyers, they flew above us, below us and right about eye level and seemed curious about us. If anyone can positively identify this bird I'd much appreciate knowing.

A couple more logos.

Linda Heslop did this design a few years ago, the grotto entered it into the 2008 NSS convention t-shirt salon and were awarded first place. Here it is modeled by a headless and legless caver!

This motif was also done several years ago (well, 11 years ago) for our friend J.P. Buchanan who built a nice little observatory on his property.

Some Logging Action.

Booming grounds in Holberg Inlet. The funky boom boat makes short work of sorting and shifting the load just dropped off.

The arrival of another load of old growth to the log dump. Not too heavily loaded for an offroad logging truck.

Once under the A-Frame the load is quickly lifted off. A series of whistle blasts lets the driver know when he's correctly positioned.

Holberg, we have lift off!

More whistle blasts to position the truck for loading the trailer back on, the boom boat moves in for the load.

Gone in 60 seconds.... well, maybe 5 minutes would be more like it!

A few years back we took a forest tour with Western Forest Products north island operation based out of Port McNeill. This tour had the appeal of a 'cruise' from Coal Harbour down Holberg Inlet to Holberg. From there we were bussed to various sites where operations were taking place, though with the hot, dry weather, not too much activity was actually taking place. A look at the silviculture side of things..... how the second growth is being managed etc, the falling of a tree by the 'bull bucker' was arranged for demonstration at a convenient location, and on to see a 'hoe chucker' pulling logs out of a recent clearcut. Then it was back on the bus and down to the A-Frame at the log dump and about 15 minutes or so of viewing the action there before heading back to Port Hardy.

I'm not happy about the style of logging taking place in BC but must own up to an interest in seeing the massive equipment at work in the forest. Anyone wishing to see 'how it's done' should contact WFP and see what tours are being offered. No need to be familiar with the logging road network when you're bussed around and no abuse to your vehicle either!

Shells 'n Stones.

Shells and stones, still life watercolors from photographs taken at various beaches are another of Lindas' favorite subjects.

Moss Street Paint In.

Saturday, July 19th, 2008 was the date for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's 21st Annual Moss Street Paint In. This free event attracts more than 30k visitors over the course of the 6 or so hours it lasts, that's a lot of exposure! Linda had not planned to attend and thus her participation was unofficial. Usually, for July weekends we hope to be going camping but circumstances prevented this, so when Val (her agent) suggested setting up on a friends lawn she decided to go for it. (Most residences have unofficial attendees using their yards, driveways etc).

The street is closed to traffic at 9am for artists to be able to get set up, so we got there far too early and put the display up. I left shortly afterwards and returned with our daughter at about 11am just as the first visitors were arriving. Still fairly quiet as the pics show. Sarah and I toured about a half of the event and on returning to Lindas' site we noticed 2 sold stickers already attached to pieces. Hmmm, not a bad start. I took Sarah home and got on with replacing our front porch deck for a few hours awaiting a phone call to help dismantle everything for Linda.

So around 4pm I went back. Still a lot of people on the street, making it awkward to drive to the site. I can't tell you just how surprised I was to find there was practically no product left to take away. They'd run out of everything twice and had to get more product from Vals' gallery along with more credit card slips!! People had queued to purchase, anything from art cards to posters and limited editions to giclees, then queued again to have them signed personally. Not that Linda's unknown around here but the quality of work by other artists is extremely high, so she felt very honoured by the public response to her work.

Some advice for anyone attending in the future..... get there early. The event becomes very busy by midday and so it's more difficult to take everything in with the crowds milling around the displays. You can also park somewhat closer by and you'll be thankful for that when the long slow plod up and down Moss St is finished.

Logomotifs

Here are some views of a few logos' Linda has done over the years. These ones were for the National Speleological Society conventions held every year in a different state, here we have them from Colorado and Washington conventions. The Colorado logos' printed on t-shirts show the regular design for all attendees and a modified version for the security people (the Rat Patrol).

The Washington design is shown through the mock up stages to the finished logo sans lettering which was added later by the organizers. Linda donated the original artwork to the N.S.S. auction held near the end of the event.

Camping Again.

We had a couple of nights camping last weekend. We went out to the Port Renfrew area again and drove up the logging roads to find a place with a good view. Unfortunately the place we chose could've been more level, a bit of work to get the front wheels high enough to make it usable. Super evening, walked up an adjacent logging spur taking in some karst features in the roadcut then settled back to watch the fog ebb and flow in the valley beneath us then enjoyed watching the stars in the clear night sky.

Saturday morning, just finished breakfast when Linda spots a bear coming down the hill through the logging slash. He's headed our way and has clearly seen us so we felt it prudent to break camp and locate another spot to camp. He got to within 40m of us, stopping to munch on huckleberries, before we lost sight of him behind a few small trees. Had so many bear encounters this year you'd think there'd been a population explosion. After packing around an airhorn for the last 25 years and never needing it until this year when we've had to use it twice! (Saturday was not one of those occasions). You just don't know, the only predictable thing about bears is that they're unpredictable! We'd camped close to this area earlier this year when we shooed one away from cooking smells, good possibility that this was the same bruin.

So we found another fine view lower down the valley. The only visitors here were a pair of ravens, a squirrel and a Stellars Jay or two. No fog in the valley, which was good as we'd likely have been covered by it, so another good starry night on display. Great time for us again.

Artist at Work

Two shots of Linda at work and one of a finished piece outdoor. No, she doesn't use a ferret tail brush!! And it's not often she paints out in the backyard either, the sun shine is often too brilliant but in that pic she's using acrylic and oil so the warmth of the sun will aid in the drying time.

We have three pet ferrets that have the run of the house during the day. They've been known to scramble up onto her work desk in her studio and, well, just create havoc. They like to steal brushes, get paint on their paws, upset the water jar and I'm sure you can imagine the mess. There's been lots of ferret proofing done but all it takes is to leave a chair that bit too close to the desk and they're up!

Caving Art

Linda began illustrating cave scenes not long after becoming involved in the sport. Inspired to depict caving through the eyes of a caver, rather than a camera, she used artistic license to black out areas that would be filled by flash in the photographs. This gives a more realistic view of what a caver can actually see using only a headlamp. Very mindful of safety for Single Rope Technique (SRT), she made sure there were no errors when drawing 'On Rope' scenes like the above pictures. Practically everything she drew related to caving was published in caving related newsletters, magazines and books.

She was recognized as one of the premier artists involved with the sport throughout the worldwide caving community and inspired other talented artists to take up the mantle (pun intended). There's now at least two organizations catering to cave art and illustration, many mediums are used as can be seen at I.S.S.A's site and at SpeleoArts pages. Over the years Linda's schedule has allowed little time for indulging in this work though it's not far from her mind.

I intend to return to this subject occasionally unless there's a public outcry for more, or less....

Rock Pics.

Three images of rocks, another subject Linda has great passion for. These are painted from still life (they don't move much on their own!) in her studio.

Long Weekend Camping Trip

We went camping for three nights over the Labour Day long weekend. The weather stayed fine but we'd have liked it to have been hotter. We drove out to Port Renfrew and then into the forest via the logging roads ending up at a place we found earlier this year that catches a reasonable amount of daylight and has a decent view across the valley. A weeks worth of rain had all the normally low flowing creeks (at this time of year) gushing with water. Took the time to walk further along the road to view the flow from a couple of springs that resurge from the limestone/igneous contact about 30m higher up. Impressive! Must try to find a way in when it's drier.

The first time we visited this area, about a month ago, we had three visits from a black bear. We'd set up close to his elderberry patch! The third visit we scared him off with an airhorn and he nonchalantly took a path to his berries before coming through camp. The berries are gone now so no worries of his coming back to dine here this weekend though he's still patrolling the area as evidenced by recent scat along the road. In fact we believe it was him we saw from our vehicle when we decided to move camp to a much higher point above the spur we'd taken. We positioned our chairs to get a good view of the roads in the valley about 450m below us, not much traffic (as per usual). We also stopped for a look at the Grants Grove section of the Gordon River and viewed the gorge from the bridge across it. This is a section of the river that experienced whitewater kayakers sometimes come to paddle. The 3 pics show some of the view.

A great weekend in a remote location. Complete solitude. It feels mighty fine to be away from everything.