WE WERE bearing due south with the cliffs of Galiano on the port, kardly any wind, the engine not working for the moment due to an unsuccessful bilge pump experiment, batteries hopefully recharging while we sailed, making bare- ly two knots, when we glimpsed the ferry ahead. Cap’n Speck: ‘‘That’s funny. They don’t usually come up this channel.”’ I wanted to know if I should change course. ““We've got the right-of-way,”’ he growled. ‘‘We’re under sail.’ But this wasn’t your usual ferry, For one thing, she wasn’t alone. There seerned to be a regatta hap- pening. A lot of power boats bouncing in her wake. Weird. It was Monday, not the very best day for regattas. ce There were two large blue cruis- ers, an enormous Hovercraft and half a dozen Zodiacs al! buzzing around in her wake. The mystery deepened con- siderably when what we took to be a Canadian Navy vessel hoved into view, closing in swiftly on the scene of activity. The skipper iden- tified the new arrival as a fisheries vessel, the Gordon Sinclair. By maintaining our course, as it turned out, we would pass the little flotilla within a third of a mile. 'y now, we were convinced we were watching a SWAT-style team trying to take back a B.C. ferry from a gang of hijackers, with the passengers huddled inside, being held hostage.’’ As the ferry glided toward us, well off te the starboard, we got really puzzled. The image came to mind of a large ungulate being pursued by some sort of pack. Between =s, we brought a fair degree of sea experience to bear. For Cap’n Speck, these were local waters. He knew every rock, as the joke goes. In addition (o the skipper, there wes Bill and Doug and me aboard the Talofa Lee, old salts all, except for Doug, who was a younger salt, although, 1 hasten to add, a stalwart when it came to manly nautical traditions concerning the sun being above the yard-arm. Bill and me, we'd seen a lot of peculiar things in B.C. waters in our time. Yet none of us had seen any- thing quite like this ferry and her entourage before. We trained our binoculars on the spectacle. Bill aimed his Sony Handycam video camera and zoomed in. As the ferry came abeam, us heading south, her heading north, we could make out her name: the Queen of Nanaimo. There ap- peared to be no passengers on board. Abruptly, she slowed. The Hovercraft pressed against her stern, the patrol boats closed in, and several men in fluorescent orange survival suits lept aboard from Zodiacs aboard the car ramp, where they were greeted by uniformed officers. By now, we were convinced we were watching a SWAT-style tearn trying to take back a B.C. ferry from a gang of hijackers, with the passengers huddled inside, being held hostage. I sez to Bill, I sez: ‘‘Keep on Personal Injury Ardagh Hunter Turner Barristers & Solicitors #300-1401 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver 986-4366 Free Initial Consultation | Office Technology Program TRAIN FOR A WELL-PAID OFFICE CAREER * Secretarial - 8 months * Financial - 10 months * Word Processing - 10 months OUR GRADUATES ARE IN DEMAND! The Office Technology Program offers you: - Professional Instructors - Well-equipped Computer Labs - Work Practicum - Certificate - Job Placement Assistance We have a place for you, but hurry! Space is limited. Telephone 984-4959 for information or to arrange a personal interview. @ «x Capilano @ = College 2055 Purcell Way North Vancouver rolling. You could sell this to BCTV.” As the flotilla swept past our stern, we counted 26 officers and seamen in view, between the Zodi- acs, boats and Hovercraft, and this didn’t include the crews of the fisheries vessel or the ferry, whom we couldn’t see. Easily, this could have been a 50-man operation. We maintained our course southward, being mature mariners, not wanting to interfere with any- thing so serious as an anti-terrorist police action. But no sooner had the boats fallen astern than the ferry came about, still hounded by the noisy mechanical pack, and starting _bearing directly down on us. One Zodiac surged ahead, caught up with us, and the driver yelled over the engine’s scream, asking us to pull out of the way — to the port. “We're practising boarding,”’ he said. ‘‘Emergency response team, eh?’’ Then zipped away, flinging back a mighty wake. Cap’n Speck had just started to obey (remember, our engine still wasn’t working and there was vir- tually no wind), when he realized that if he did, indeed, proceed to the port side as instructed, we would quickly find ourselves in the path of the oncoming armada of power craft. So he spun the wheel the op- posite direction, muttering darkly. The fleet thundered by on the port. Good thing, we all thought, that the skipper wasn’t too prone to following orders, Otherwise, all those rescuers would have had somebody to rescue, after all: us. I noticed, in the crunch, the skipper didn’t make a big deal about right-of-way and being under sail and all that. He just got us the heli out of the way. Which was fine by me. Seemed okay with Doug too. And Bill lived to sell his video tape to BCTV @ Hearing Tests Set For Senior Citizens (North Shore)}—Hearing tests will be given at the Beltone Hearing Centres on Tues. to Thurs. from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Anyone who has troubie hear- ing is welcome to have the test. Many people with hearing pro- blems don’t need hearing aids. But only a modern hearing test like the one now being offered by Beltone can really tell for sure. Everyone she uld have a hear- ing test at least once a year — even people now wearing a hear- ing aid or those who have been told nothing could be done for them. 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