Airship | Campbell River to Hammond Bay, and a Cautionary Tale

Sunset in Campbell River (Airship on the linear dock in the distance) © Laura Domela

We had a very nice visit to Campbell River. We even went for dinner out with our friend Scott. (Yay, a night off of cooking, which I still love). We made an early dinner reservation for the patio at the Harbor Grill (just at the top of the ramp from the marina). We've been eating so much seafood, and we love seafood, but tonight we went for turf over surf — filet mignon for Kevin and chicken cordon bleu for me — and a lot of fun catching up with Scott.

We met and chatted with a guy on a 50ft sailboat tied to the dock behind us. He was single-handing his boat, and he said he was planning to leave in the morning at first light (and said he was slightly nervous about being solo and getting off the dock). We opted to leave early as well (instead of noonish as we had originally planned) and offered to help him with lines, for which he enthusiastically thanked us.

Our alarm went off 5:45am. Still mostly dark. We dressed and met our boat neighbor on the dock. We were on a linear dock, stern to stern, and there was about 30 feet between our boats. There was a slight on-dock wind. I asked what his plan was, and to let us know what he wanted us to do. He had a spring line and a stern line tied to the bull rail, and said he was planning to back up as far as he could toward Airship, and if we could help walk him back that would be great.

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