Bob Hunter

@ strictly personal ®

1 LOOKED out the
bedroom window to a
bleak sodden landscape.

What the West Coast Indians
used to call a Father Rain was
filling up the space between the
overcast and the puddles with a
solid bulk of maximum precipita-
tion.

The radio warned of gale-force
winds all day.

And so, of course, | slipped
my sunglasses into my jacket
pocket as 1 headed down to Fish-
erman’s Cove to go sailing.

Mine are a lovely pair of
sunglasses that I picked up in
Munich, West Germazy, several
years ago, the kind that fold up
and can be stashed into a little
pouch, the only pair I’ve manag-
ed to hang onto for any length of
time.

They have become a sailing
talisman, if you like. I always br-
_ing them, no matter what the
forecast, no matter what the
conditions in the morning.

Over the last few years, they
have only failed to work once
that I can remember.

The other day was classic. As I
zigzagged down from the Upper
Levels to Marine Drive, the rain
was still pelting the windshield so
heavily the wipers had to be on
full.

Howe Sound was a grey blur
broken only by ragged stretch-
marks of foam where waves were
sizzling. The Strait had swallow-
ed up Vancouver Island along

with any trace of a horizon. Sky
and sea were fused in a soggy
cotton-batten embrace.

But by the time | climbed out
of the car in the parking lot at
Fisherman’s Cove to meet my
sailing partners, the Father Rain
hac abated to the point where
you could get away with calling it
a Mother Rain.

As we readied the boat, the
tain in fact stopped.

And precisely 23 minutes after
we got away from the dock, the
first beam of sunlight shafted
down from the sky, where a gap
of Clear Light had been opened,
as if by an invisible blade.

Sipping the sunglasses out of
my pocket and unfolding them
with elaborate care, I .made a
triumphant entry in the log.

My way of measuring the mi-
saculous is to count the number
of overlapping coincidences oc-
curring simultaneously in any
given event. .

If there is one coincidence, no
points. It’s just a coincidence. If
two coincidences happen at once,
well, we've got the start of some-
thing magical.

It is when the coincidences
come in a flurry of three at a
time or more that I allow a
knowing smile. By then, you are.

‘getting into the realm of true

signs and portents.

This particular day probably
didn’t qualify as a full-blown
miracle. After all there was mere-
ly the one coincidence of the
weather doing a complete flip-
flop in defiance of all the predic-

sometimes eight

tions of all the weathermen and
their machines.

And | suppose the fact that the
sun was 23 minutes late in break-
ing out of its clamshell mitigates
the total auspiciousness of the
coincidence itself.

But when you are out there,
leaving the mouth of Howe
Sound, and there is not a single
other sailing boat anywhere in
sight, and it is the middle of
winter, and the light strengthens
into a bath of radiance that br-
ings a blinding gleam to the decks
and sails, causing you to squint |
even through your sunglasses,
and, ah, the warm palm of the
sun on your shoulders...try to tell
a man then that he isn’t ex-
periencing something wafted
downward from heaven.

As an extra touch, the wind,
while failing to come anywhere
near gale force, nevertheless
gusted strongly enough that we
were able to get up to seven,
knots, and
cream nicely along at about that
pace, both coming and going.

The real thrill came as we were
heading back home in late after-
noon and a rainbow fell directly
on downtown Vancouver.

One end of its arc was planted
firmly in the middle of Howe
Sound. With the mountains of
the Coast Range still fingered by-
mist and a dark bruise of
retreating squall blanking out the
end of the inlet, leaving Toni
Onley-like silhouettes of islands,
that limb of blazing rainbow
spouting from the sea, properly
photographed, would have won
awards in itself.

But the spectacle at the other
end, where the rainbow came
dreaming down on the pastel and
ivory towers of the city, caught,
crenelated and cauterized in the
glow of midwinter light beneath a
scallop of cloud, was beyond
mere awards, unless they give
them out to gods for special ef-
fects.

Awe, men! Awe.

NY DISTRICT COUNCIL SETS PUBLIC HEARING
Lynn Valley Community Hall
one step closer to sure thing

THE NEW Lynn Valley
Community Hall is a step
closer to opening its doors.

North Vancouver District Coun-
cil instructed staff Monday to

Prepare the necessary siting area.

bylaw for the hall and set a public
hearing date for March 16.

“I’m very pleased to see this fi-
nally going ahead,’ said Michael
Edwards, president of the Lynn

on

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Valley Community Association.
The new hail will replace the ex-
isting community hail at Mountain
Highway and will include a
preschool, multi-purpose hall,
meeting room, offices, kitchen.
Planning staff. voiced concern
over the exterior style of the
building. “It is a harsh building
without residential qualities. It
represents. in ur opinion, a lost
opportunity to upgrade the area,’’

said municipal planner Kai
Kreuchen. .

Ald. Mary Segal, a member of
the district's Advisory Design
Panel, said the advisory body
agreed that the building ‘‘was
overbuilt and lacked detail.’’ But
said Segal, ‘Given a _ limited
budget, the function of the
building is just as important as the
appearance.’’

Council has budgeted $600,000.

COCKING
A SNOOK

“Alex Tilley

Porter's Lake, N.S.

..The Hat, to my surprise but probably not yours, drew
friendly waves and comment in France and Spain (where
1 was Sailing)...”

“if the photo pose seems a bit bizare an explanation
may heip--having climbed to the top of the Rock of
Gibralter, | cocked a snook at a prominent terrorist in

Libya...”

BIN Farrell, LCdr, R.C.N, (ret'd)

A great part of the joy of working at Tilley Endurables is encountering, on a daily basis,

some marvellous characters. Staff included.

Alex Tilley

Drop in, Phone or Write Mon.-Sat. 10-5
Barbara Tilley

980-2631

1559 Pemberton Ave., N.V.

‘Booze who’ on the N. Shore

RECENT CONVICTIONS in
North Shore courts have resulted
in the following fines and penalties
for drinking and driving related
offences. Mandatory licence
suspension is in addition to
published penalties.

WEST VANCOUVER COURTS:
Kenneth Wade Birch, 23-1760
Rufus Drive, North Vancouver,
(impaired, 90 days); Ramond Ravi
Chandran Mani, 4270 Prince Ed-

|

ward Street, Vancouver (impaired,
$450); Randall Gerald Primeau,
2114 Austin Avenue, Coquitlam,
(impaired, $375); George William
Minchin Goold, 2160-1959 Marine
Drive, North Vancouver, (im-
paired, $500).

NORTH VANCOUVER
COURTS: Wain Hong Pang, 2280
McGill Street, Vancouver, (im-
paired, $400).

DD

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