When I was on the North Brooks cleanup, Reale talked about the plans for the Gar-Barge. As soon as I heard of the plan to use a helicopter to pick up marine debris from the entire West Coast of Vancouver Island, I was determined to be on the job. As soon as I got home, I contacted Karen Wriston, the Executive Director of Living Oceans, the nonprofit responsible for organizing the whole operation. She gave me contact info for Rob O’Dea, the private contractor hired by Living Oceans to run it. I phoned and emailed, sent resumes of my vast helicopter experience at KMC Hiking Camps and hard work ethic and made it clear I was very interested. We remained in contact over the summer as plans for the barge and tug changed. Rob was initially slated to start on September 1 using a 200-foot barge donated by C-span and a Navy tug. When that fell through (the barge was too big anyway), the search for a tug and barge was difficult. This was aggregate season and most companies were completely booked. And few worked on the open West Coast anyway. Eventually, West Coast Barge and Tug agreed to be at Guise Bay near Cape Scott on Friday, September 16. Their barge was 44 X 150 feet with the back 30 feet reserved for the helicopter. He showed us a painting on the wall “just like the one we were using”. It had a large ramp standing vertically on the front that would become useful. But there were no sides!
Then, on September 7th, the other volunteer in the helicopter crew cancelled because of the date change and I was in!
Karen and Rob picked me up on Wednesday, Sept 14 with a videographer to take publicity video and photos. We met with the barge company and the helicopter company doing the south part of the job – 49 North of Campbell River. The date of the barge leaving Campbell River changed to Friday the 16th and then Sunday the 18th as a weather front was approaching. We were also informed that although promised a barge with sides, this one didn’t. That was going to add another whole element of difficulty to the operation. We had to contain up to 80 tons of marine debris on the open ocean with swell and the possibility of storms and high winds!
We drove to Port McNeil, stayed in a motel and were up early to fly with West Coast Helicopters to Cape Scott to consolidate loads and take pictures. It was foggy and takeoff was delayed till almost 10. We went overland with a fog layer at 700 feet and a cloud layer at 1700 feet. The landscape below is one of the more heavily logged areas anywhere. Old-growth only exists on the steep slopes of mountains and along with water courses. Everything else is in some degree of regeneration with a patchwork of varying shades of green. The entire coast was enveloped in fog and Mike searched for a way through. After many high-G turns, we turned down a valley and ended up in the north arm of Quatsino Sound.
Mike was the pilot for the Alone TV show and we saw the beach where Jose made the canoe, where the 2015 winners and the father/daughter couple who won in 2016 were. This also allowed an aerial survey of all the pocket beaches from the entrance of Quatsino Sound to Cape Scott with a couple of passes of Grant’s Bay for more video. These tiny beaches are only accessible by helicopter and are choked with highly visible marine debris.
We arrived at Guise Bay and consolidated 7 loads from Experiment Bight to Guise Bay, then cruised south and consolidated 11 sites from Sea Otter Cove, Helen Islands and San Josef Bay to one site inside Hannah Point. This was 100m from the campsite where I spent 5 days on our Cape Scott trip waiting out the summer high and 20 knot north westerlies in 2014. It felt like home.
It was a good chance to get our long-line technique down. Besides not venturing towards the back of the helicopter, the most important thing is to WATCH THE HOOK. Weighing about 15 pounds, it is a dangerous projectile. Once controlled, get the end of the sling rope, pass it through the load loops, hook it and get out of the way. It is often hard to know if everything is attached. We lost one string of buoys over the ocean. We learned it is necessary to check every connection point.
Cox island, 10 miles NW of Cape Scott had 3 sites, but it remained invisible in fog all day. As a result, we had to land at the lighthouse at Cape Scott for an hour hoping for the fog to lift. The lighthouse couple is always interesting and I have met them before. They’ve been at this incredibly remote place for 17 years. I saw their train set in the basement full of collector ceramic houses. They are very chatty and helpful – they have to be to deal with the 5000 visitors they get each year mostly in the summer. A crew was there rebuilding the generator building. In the process, they uncovered 25 years of garbage pushed over a cliff when the lighthouse was administered by the Ministry of Defence. Apparently, the methane pockets from all the decomposed diapers was something else. the entire mess was gathered to be trucked out (yes there is a road). The fog didn’t lift so we flew direct back to Port McNeil. Total helicopter hours 3.9. We all got in the car and drove back to Courtenay.
As the date of the barge was delayed, Rob stayed at my place and dealt with all his headaches and missed important family commitments. The barge was delayed again for no apparent reason. I don’t think they knew we were tracking the tug – in Bella Bella on the 16 and 17th, then steaming south of Powell River on the 18th on its way to Vancouver. It was very frustrating to deal with a company that was being deceptive and dishonest and then said “We can work together on this.” They finally agreed to leave Campbell River on Sunday night (the tug was in Vancouver) and actually left on Monday am with a promise to be in Guise Bay on Tuesday morning.
Over the three days in Courtenay, Rob and I had a lot of time to think about the project ahead of us. I drew a scale model of the barge. The super sacs are about a cubic metre and the 310 of them fit as one layer allowing for two feet clearance from the edge. The plan was to use super sacs to form two rows of 2 sacs laid on top of 3 to form the sides of the barge deck. As long lining on shore required two crew, we knew someone had to work on the barge to organize the dropped loads and make walls. I called a friend from Nanaimo, Ted Oldham, who dropped all his other plans and was happy to join us.
We bought rope, collected food and gear to camp and discussed long lining technique and behaviour around a helicopter. A Bell Long Ranger costs $1,000 per hour when running, and idling on the ground is running. With literally hundreds of long line loads, entrances and exits and connections of the long line to the underside of the helicopter, shaving seconds off any action would produce marked savings.
Another frustrating hard and fast rule of helicopter use is that when passengers are on board, nothing can be hanging from the bottom. As a result any load picked requires the ground person to be dropped off, the long line connected, the load lifted, the helicopter returns, the line is removed and stowed and we fly off. That is, the flying time is double what you think it might be. It is not a problem if everything is in one place but when loads are strung over 2 kilometres of beach, it can be slow, and expensive.
Mike from West Coast was able to go out to Cox Island on the 19th to collect those loads over to Guise Bay. One of the sites could not be found and was assumed to have returned to the ocean.
Ted slept over on Monday night and we were off at 5:30 to drive to Campbell River Airport and 49 North Helicopters. The helicopter company changed as West Coast, the company used at Cape Scott, was unwilling to stay on the coast overnight, resulting in 2 hours of commuting time each day. The pilot for 49 North, Paul Greenwood, needed to sleep in a real bed, so we always had the option of staying in towns. Options at lighthouses were investigated. If we camped, it would have to be between where the helicopter slept and the barge.
We had huge plans for the day. As there was a 70-mile gap in the debris to be collected after North Brooks, we delusionally thought it was possible that with an early start, a third person to work the barge, all the debris congregated at our first two sites and great luck, that we could do that far. But the barge distances were large and we were only able to pick up Guise Bay, San Josef,
We flew with Campbell River and picked up Guise, San Josef, Lowrie, Cape Palmerston, Raft Cove, Hecht and Grant Bay on the 20th. Raft Cove had a massive black plastic culvert that was too heavy for the helicopter to lift. A full load of sacs dropped in the ocean – Paul used the rotor wash to drive it to shore. Another load accidentally was also dropped, this time below high tide on a beach. We pulled it up some and it was there the next morning. After a night in Winter Harbour, we had an easy time with our loads from Lawn, Heater and Crabapple (9 lifts). Then we waited for the barge to go 70 miles south. On the 22rd, it was Nootka and Hesquiat. I was dropped off on Third Beach at the beginning of the Nootka Trail. The load was difficult to make ready and thanks to a young fellow, we just made it in time. A large blue barrel full of debris required two holes to be chiselled in it with a knife and then I used the flimsiest 1/3 of a rope to lift it. Ted and I camped on Nootka near the main aggregation point. After dinner, we made the load on the next beach load ready and rebagged two sacs that had been slashed. On Hesquiat, they had picked in 2015 and those bags were deep in the woods and generally a mess often requiring 30-40 minutes to make load ready. It became political when one of the native fellows wanted to load the helicopter. We were told it was going to happen despite our objections. All went well but it was the most expensive household garbage removal in the world. 150 kids had also cleaned on Hesquiat and these were well-prepared. With more weather problems and barge delays, all we did on the 23rd was Radar Beach south of Tofino. To this point, we only had about a third of all the stuff. The barge had no sides so we constructed them with super sacks. On Saturday, we had 120 sacks and more strings from Keith Island in the Broken Group, Diana, Bamfield and Keeha. Sunday was our last with 60 sacks and lots of strings from Pachena, Tsusiaht, Tsuqada and 33kms down at Walbran on the West Coast Trail.
We flew home via the Alberni Valley and Comox Lake.
It was a great time – Rob was very good to work with, the pilot was a great guy and you all know Ted. I can only hope to be half as strong and fit at 76.
Unloading the barge (should be there now) will be a spectacle with all the rope tying everything together. And then the sort as so much is not recyclable.