Fans of water-based fun won’t want to miss the excitement going on in Nanaimo this weekend.
That’s because the Nanaimo Marine Festival’s World Championship Bathtub Race is slated to take to the waves from July 26-28.
The fun leaves the dock at 10:59 a.m. on Sunday with the official countdown for the race, but there’s much more in store, including the firing of a Howitzer to start the race, musical entertainment, military displays, a food fair and more.
• If boaters find themselves being hailed by a U.S. Coast Guard vessel while in B.C. waters, they still have to heave to and follow instructions, despite the fact that the ship hails from a foreign country.
That’s because the federal government recently signed what they are calling the Shiprider program, which sees RCMP officers stationed aboard American ships as they patrol Canadian waters.
Officially known as the Cross-border Maritime Law Enforcement Operations, the program is designed to remove the international maritime boundary for law enforcement.
Specific enforcement activities consist of detecting, monitoring and potentially boarding vessels in either Canadian or American waters.
• The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cape Caution raced to the rescue when two women fell off their balcony on Nelson Island.
The women tumbled into an area with limited road access and difficult terrain Saturday, forcing a call to 19 Wing Comox, which dispatched a Cormorant helicopter to the scene.
The Cormorant crew took off from their base at 19 Wing Comox and was on scene at about 12:45 a.m.
The SAR Techs were lowered 80 feet where they met up with the paramedics from Powell River who had arrived on scene on board the Cape Caution. The paramedics and SAR Techs worked together to secure both casualties on spine boards before putting them in rescue litters for the hoist into the helicopter and taking them to hospital.
• Ferry riders in B.C. will soon be getting aboard a trio of brand new ships. That’s because the BC Ferries Commissioner recently approved an application by the BC Ferry Corporation to build three new intermediate class ships to replace the Queen of Burnaby and the Queen of Nanaimo.
The plan is to build two ships capable of carrying 145 vehicles and up to 600 passengers and crew to replace the Queen of Burnaby, which sails between Comox and Powell River and to replace the Queen of Nanaimo, which plies the Tsawwassen – Southern Gulf Islands route. In addition, a vessel for up to 125 vehicles and 600 passengers and crew will be constructed to assist with peak season service.
• Launched in June of 1951, the luxury cruise liner Andrea Doria resembled a floating museum more than anything else and was an icon of Italian pride. That national pride took a severe blow on this day in 1956, when the New York-bound liner was hit amidships by a Swedish ship, MS Stockholm.
The ship was top-heavy and immediately began to list, a situation that quickly made half of her lifeboats unusable. However, the ship was able to remain afloat for 11 hours and rescue ships were able to rescue 1,660 passengers and crew. Forty-six people perished.
