While public attention was on the Saint Roch II and the CCGS Simon Fraser steaming out of Vancouver, BC on 1 July 2000, we loaded our gear, 30,000 pounds of steel to be dropped off at a lighthouse construction site, and waited for fire-safety foam to clear customs and be loaded on our ship, the CCGS Wilfrid Laurier. Above: The CCG hovercraft Siyay delivering the helicopter fire extinguishing foam to the CCG Sir Wilfrid Laurier at the Canadian Coast Guard base in Victoria, BC before the trip begins. (Photo by A. Balsom) 
Left: The first stop on the trek, Boat Bluff lighthouse to offload 30,000 tons of steel by helicopter. The lighthouse is being converted back to a manned station. The story goes (take it for what it's worth) that the strangest item of lighthouse gear offloaded by the ship many years ago was a lighthouse keeper's grand piano. (Photo by A. Balsom) 
Above: Pacific White-Sided Dolphins taking advantage of our wake around Vancouver Island. (Photo by A. Balsom) Above: View of the Inside Passage from the Laurier's helicopter deck. (Photo by A. Balsom) Above: Excelsior Glacier off of Seward Peninsula, Alaska. (Photo by A. Balsom) Above: Alaskan coastline. (Photo by A. Balsom) Above: A breaching juvenile humpback whale (Photo by A. Balsom) A waterfall in the Inside Passage (Photo by A. Balsom) A killer whale in an Alaskan sound. (Photo by A. Balsom) |
