OK, I'm feeling kind of badly about joking about the skull and crossbones flag on the boat that ran ashore yesterday. I feel ok about enjoying the flag, and sharing it, but it was really a bad day for the boat owner.
I got a greater sense of that this morning, when listening to CBC radio and heard the story of the attempts by one of the boat owners (there were four) to get his boat back in the water (I don't know which one of the four it was, afterall, it was radio!).
High tide was due at 3:00am, so they gathered a little crew of helpful strangers to try and get it afloat. Apparently the city was supposted to be there, but didn't show. In the words of one of the guys, interviewed after the failed attempt, if the city had brought their toys they could have dug a trench in the sand and it would have worked: "hey boys, show your toys!". As it was, there they were with their shovels.
"It's going to get gnarly pretty soon here," said one guy, as the hour grew near. There followed drama, complete with the dingy assisting getting too close and being in danger of getting beached too. The drama and interview was recorded on site, in the middle of the night, as the CBC person had been walking on Kits beach in the early evening when they were getting ready, heard what they'd planned for the middle of the night and... she said... "I just had to go back to see what happened". Great for us that this curious lady was a radio lady with, I suppose, her interview kit, always at the ready. At one moment, right when she was asking a question, the guy ran off, "I have to get my dingy out now!!!" He ran, tried, but it was too late. That was the jist of it anyways.
There is something about radio that I love for storytelling, as you aren't given the visual, and you have to imagine it - and somehow it can be much more colourful than tv. I was lying in bed at the time listening to this on the morning show, so no distractions, could just close my eyes and the story lit up my inner movie screen.
Gnarly. Love that word. It's a word my brother uses. Somehow it communicates a message very strongly.
BTW, if you want to listen to the story yourself, it should be in the April 9th Early Edition podcast (not sure how long it will be available, maybe a week or so?)
There are some other stories about the beached boats here:
Wind Storm Destroys and Grounds Sailboats Off Kits Beach (many fab pics)
Vancouver sailor blames city for Kits Beach wreckage
B.C. wind beaches boats
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