We arrived at Codville Lagoon on May 19th, at 3.15 pm, a 6 hour (sail), motoring!!! We did not sail much, would you believe it , only twice the sails went up, on this whole journey!! Either no wind, wind too hard, (45 knots), right on the bow, always, right on the bow. We gave up after a while. On the way we stopped at Namu, Namu is a small fishing port, and used to be a cannery town and a First nations community, it was established in 1893, and was thriving in those days, but now is a ghost town, and apparently a threat for the environment, with old batteries and leaking tanks, plus the buildings have asbestos insulation. People living nearby would like it all to be cleaned up but neither the government, nor the owner are interested. Namu is located 35 kilometers SE of Bella Bella. It is located in the great Bear Rain Forest, later on we heard from two boaters that they has seen two Spirit bears there, roaming around between the buildings. ( Spirit bears are bears that are white, with light colored skin, (polar bears have black skin), they are a genetic strain off the black bears, and are only seen on two islands ,but I will tell more about them later. ) About Namu, Eric Peterson , from the Hakai Institute said that “its like visiting a person whose health is failing . each time you can see how much more the buildings and docks have collapsed. ” BC Packers closed Namu cannery in 1970. Apparently , for the first time in 11.000 years, there is no one living at Namu. Eric Peterson , whose non profit science foundation has been doing archeological work around the site, excavating in the 11.000 year old village site, says it is slowly crumbling and it is escalating. Cannery building at Namu
The docks are collapsing.
SV WATERFORD gliding into Namu harbour .
Vaughan and Rita looking at what is left of Namu.
Wonderful to see all these posts and pictures again. We DID have a good time together when we were together! What an unforgettable trip. So glad we got to share some of it with you. Rita from Baraka Bashad.