April – Griffin Bay, Friday’s at Five, and Pirate Lessons
© Copyright by John B. Gargett 2008/2009 All Rights Reserved
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Erick and Kathleen Canard are Canadians with business interests in both the United States and Canada. Erick had figured out how to run a company from Canada, yet take advantage of the US tax system and not have to pay what he considers high taxes in Canada. A lot of Canadian firms on the border did that. The Canards had the best of both worlds – nice offices in Victoria, Canadian health care, but all business done in the free trade zones the Port of Bellingham had set up in Bellingham.
Erick and Kathleen had homes in both Victoria and Bellingham and were members of both the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and the Bellingham Yacht Club. They learned about the Pender Pirates during an opening day at the BYC several years ago and had them maintaining their boats (they had two, one sail and one power). They kept both their powerboat at the Westbay Marine Village on the west side of Victoria Harbor and their sailboat over at the Royal Vic. Because of their extensive travel back and forth between Bellingham and Victoria, the Canard’s had Nexus Cards and had obtained their Boater Registration Numbers in person at Bellingham International Airport using their Nexus Cards and Washington Drivers License. With a Nexus card and their BR numbers they could commute by boat between Victoria and Bellingham.
They had bought their 2006 Wellcraft 290 new and they loved to use it to commute and to go fishing out in the Straits. With twin Yamaha 250’s, they cruised in the mid 20’s and could push it to 35 knots. The Pender Pirates loved taking care of this boat because Erick paid them extra to keep it “in 100% new condition” and he wanted it run 8-10 hours a month when they were out of the country on one of his regular extended business trips. Not only was the boat fast, but also it had great electronics. The boat was equipped with a complete Raymarine ony Navionics Package, including 2 Raymarine E80 Chartplotters, 2 Raymarine 4KW Radars, 2 GPS’s and Autopilot and the Raymarine 54 Radio.
When Bahdoon told them he needed to make a drop of a few million dollars of Ecstasy, the guys immediately knew what boat they were going to take since Erick and Kathleen were in Poland working on setting up some manufacturing. The Wellcraft 29 was an easy boat to toss the RFID sealed containers over. The aft deck had plenty of space, and the transom door opened wide enough for them to easily get the containers into the water without even slowing down if they wanted, or needed to. They were instructed to tie up to a mooring buoy at 48o28.046’ N, 122o58.703’ W, located at the south end of Griffin Bay on the east side of San Juan Island and drop the shipment overboard.
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During the 58-minute trip over, Ryan told Jason about the Pig War that nearly brought the United States and Britain to war over this spot and now they were smuggling drugs to the same spot. It seems that the Hudson’s Bay Company claimed the island for England, but the Territorial Legislature of Oregon (which then included the present State of Washington) declared San Juan Island to be within its territory. It was more of a gentleman’s barroom dispute until June 15, 1859, when an American settler named Lyman Cutlar shot and killed a pig belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company because it was rooting in his garden. The next thing that happened was the British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar, so the 18 Americans living on the island asked for U.S. military protection and the next thing you knew a company of the 9th U.S. Infantry under Captain George E. Pickett (The Civil War – Picketts Charge) showed up. Not to be out done, the Crown Colony of British Columbia had three British warships under Captain Geoffrey Hornby sent to dislodge Pickett.
Both the British and Americans continued to reinforce their army and naval units. Finally, a British Admiral Baynes decided he would not “involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig.” But that was not the end of it. Both sides kept arming until under the orders of President James Buchanan, General Winfield Scott (in charge of the US Army), talked Governor Douglas of the Crown Colony of British Columbia into agreeing that until things were decided on who owned the island, maybe the British could set up a camp on one end of the island, and the US would set up a camp on the other end.
Well, the British were no dummies, they said they would move their camp up to Garrison Bay, and the US could keep their camp on Cattle Point. See Cattle Point is exposed to the weather, cold and in the winters miserable. Garrison Bay is peaceful, serene and protected from the weather. So for the next twelve years the two camps existed apart (but everyone did socialize regularly) until 1872 when Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany decided the island belonged to the United States. That was the end of the Pig War. Ryan wondered why no one ever seemed to ask if the land actually belonged to the First Nations (known as Native Americans in the US.)
As always happened, there was never a call to abort. Derek still wondered why that was, but the fact was when they left the docks to start their run from Westbay Marine Village, Suegali had his watcher network in place. He knew the Terrapin and Sea Lion were tied up in Fairhaven, and that USCG Station Bellingham had everyone heading in. He also knew the Blackhawk was in the hanger at Bellingham International Airport and the choppers were on the ground in Port Angeles. And just in case, he had watchers on the shore off of Peninsula Road on Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island, a second in a fishing boat between the Davidson Rock Light and Colville Island on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and a third at the Corner of Pickett’s Lane and Cattle Point Road. Suegali had never forgotten the lessons of Mogadishu. The Watchers placed operations in checkmate when combined with the technology.
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Once the drop off was done, Derek asked if the guys would drop him at Poets Cove. He told them that Marie was having him over to her cabin in the woods. They agreed, after kidding Derek about getting weighed down with a boat anchor. He took it in good stride since he was really looking forward to dinner. Marie lived off of Craddock Drive just below Tilly Point Road. Marie liked Derek and said if he could make it to the Marina by six, they could walk to her cabin together. Derek also liked Marie, although he was not sure where it would all head, but in the last six months he had added nearly $200,000 to his bank accounts, but he had a nagging feeling that life, as a Pirate, was a life lived on borrowed time. Derek never said anything to Ryan or Jason, but he was thinking it was time to get out. He did not trust Bahdoon, and he was not sure that the other two would ever do anything other than be smugglers and drug dealers.
Jason was piloting the boat for the run up to Poets Cove. It was only about a 60 minute run at their average speed of 22 ½ knots and the weather was clear, the water calm, the tides slack and so they had Derek up the San Juan Channel, across Boundary Pass and into the dock at Poets Cove by 1745 – fifteen minutes early. On the way back to Victoria they stayed a mile or on the Canadian side of the border until they reached Hughes Passage, around D’Arcy Shoals, past Zero Rock Light, into Baynes Channel, out Plumper Passage, back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into Westbay Marine Village – 3 hours and 37 minutes after leaving.
As the Pender Pirates were making their run, the first Fridays at Five for April was being held at the Bellingham Yacht Club. David Henry was meeting his old friend Hugh Johns for a couple beers. Adam and Ruth were stopping by the club to meet Jill and Dave. The four of them had become quite good friends over the last four months, and Adam was starting to crew on David’s boat for the Wednesday night racing.
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David had not seen Hugh is several years and he wanted to hook up so he and Bunny, David’s girlfriend of some 20 years, could meet Hugh’s new wife Louise. Hugh and Louise had gotten together when some friends introduced them a few years ago. As soon as David and Bunny walked up, they were welcomed as old friends. Louise and Bunny instantly hit it off and David and Hugh were immediately engaged in telling lies, or half-truths at best, about what they had been doing. Jill and Dave joined the four of them and then in walked Adam and Ruth.
Even though Louise had rented the Mallard Cabin to Adam, Hugh had not yet met him. When they shook hands Hugh and Adam both had a look in their eyes that made Louise ask if they had met before. Both said no, but Hugh met Adam at the old looted US embassy compound in Mogadishu the night the UN troops moved out for the first time against General Aideed. Adam remembered Hugh that night, as well as the night a few weeks earlier when he saw him in the Bakaaraha Arms Market at 0230. Hugh was with one of the leaders from the UN, Adam was in the back of a stall arranging a weapons sale to General Aideed’s Somali National Alliance. David saw the look between the two of them and he knew they knew. David also knew Adam, although they never met face to face. Suegali told David that if he ever needed anything arranged without any fingerprints or records he would have Adam from Albania get in touch with him. And through Suegali he had Adam build the history of the Henry Family and Henry Island. Awkward, but unnoticed, introductions aside, everyone ended up having a great time and the eight of them ended up going over to the Hearthfire for dinner.
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Marie and Derek had a great walk back to her cabin. They had been seeing each other for about a month now, and she really felt something. They had kissed goodnight a couple times, but nothing more. Derek treated her with respect, Marie respected that, and they talked. They talked, and talked and talked. They talked about boats, they talked about the island, they talked about traveling, and they talked about life. They had been out to dinner at some great places including one night when Derek took her by boat over to the Genoa Bay Café where they dined on a combination of fresh seafood and organic poultry from the Cowichan Valley. Marie was a vegetarian by nature, but fresh seafood and organic poultry humanely raised was an occasional treat she permitted herself.
It was about a thirty-minute walk back to her cabin, and right after they got past the South Pender Fire Station, Derek reached over and took her hand for the first time, and their fingers entwined. Marie rented from the Poets Cove Marina Manager and her husband who lived in the big house on the water he inherited from his parents. The cabin was an old one, built as a log cabin homestead in the late 1800’s. The cabin was not large, but in the 50’s a bathroom had been added and in the 90’s a bathtub was build that actually had a view of Boundary Pass through the grove of mature Western Red Cedar carpeted with an understory of ferns. It was about 1900 when they got to the cabin, with just enough light left for Derek to start a fire in the old stone fireplace while Marie made her locally famous smoked cheddar and vegetable quiche. She opened a bottle of Cabernet from Morning Bay Vineyards, a local vineyard that just won an award for the vintage.
Derek thought the dinner was one of the best he ever had. His mother was a vegetarian but her food never tasted like Caroline’s. They were on their third bottle of wine when they realized it was after eleven. Four hours of laughing, joking, reminiscing, and massaging each others hands while sitting in front of the fire listening to Yaz-Kaz and Deep Forest flew by. Both Marie and Derek were having the same feelings, deep emotional feelings. Marie was starting to think this could really work. Derek wanted it to work, but he had not told Marie what he did. He did tell her about maintaining boats, but he could not tell her that he had accumulated nearly a million dollars smuggling dope. He could not tell her that the guy they worked for scared him. He did not say that he doubted he could quit. He just told Marie that he had to catch the early ferry in the morning. As he stood to leave they kissed a long and meaningful kiss with Darkness in Dreams playing.
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The gang that had gone over to the Hearthfire had since moved aboard the Emily Slocum, Hugh’s 70’ Trawler. Hugh and Adam were reliving stories from abroad. Not to be outdone, David and Dave tossed in stories as well. Bunny, Jill, Louise and Ruth quit paying attention about an hour ago. Hugh was saying how he named his boat after his Grandmother who was a direct descendent of Joshua Slocum, making Hugh his Great, Great, Great Nephew. He really only had bragging’ rights about the relationship, but at least it was real and Hugh loved to sail. When Hugh told the guys that story it started Adam off on telling about his Whitbread Round the World Race in ’97 and ’98 where he worked the foredeck on the winning boat. He told them about the leg from Brazil to Boston (somewhere in there Joshua Slocum disappeared on his last voyage in December of 1906) when they lost the boom and somehow made it into Port-a-Prince for a replacement that was flown in. They fixed the boat, but Adam got “lost” on the Quay following the temptations of one of the many Trinidadian princesses. Paul Cayard was not about to wait for him, so the boat left. When Adam awoke he found out the princess was the daughter of a general with the Trinidad Defense Force. Somehow he convinced her that her father should arrange for a helicopter flight out to the EF Language. Amazingly, the General agreed and Cayard reluctantly took him back aboard.
The girls were also telling stories. Jill, Louise and Ruth had gotten to know a little about each other over the last couple months, but Bunny was the new girl. They knew the guys were telling stories and hatching something about a trip on the Emily Slocum somewhere, so Bunny threw out the idea of the girls going to Santa Barbara for a week. Bunny was originally from Santa Barbara and said her family still had a house on the beach on Shoreline Drive, not far from the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. Bunny said her family had owned the house for years, which was sort of true, David was her family and he had bought it eight years ago. Bunny never asked any questions where David got his money, but she did know he made some money smuggling pot from Mexico in the 80’s. David was good to her and they really loved each other, he treated her like royalty, but Bunny was as down to earth as they come. Bunny was very much like Louise, Ruth and Jill and the four of them agreed they would go to Santa Barbara in early May.
That same night, forty miles to the southwest, Suegali was meeting with his soldiers. He was outlining how they would take the target ship. Suegali had never liked how the Canadians had acted during the wars in his homeland from ’92 to ’94. That made him made, but what he really could not forgive them for was their Pirate Patrols off the Coast of Somalia. They had stopped and sunk a couple of his boats in the last couple years, but what really made him mad was the fact that it was a Canadian patrol boat that attacked, killed and sunk one of his boats that had just picked up a multi-million dollars ransom from a Russian freighter they had seized. The news reported the sinking, but the news said the ransom was lost with the boat. It was not, the Canadians had stolen it and as a result, Suegali was going to teach them a lesson about piracy, a lesson they, or the world, would not forget.
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What does Suegali have planned for the Canadians? Will Derek and Marie be able to get together and live together in love and happiness? Why has Adam not said anything about knowing David, and why did Hugh and David not admit knowing each other? Find out more in next months edition of the “Pirates of Poets Cove”
Photography and Image Credits
Image 05-01 Chart from NOAA http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/index.htm, Photos by John Gargett taken off Tilly Point and on Blakely Island.
Image 05-02 Photos from National Park Service Pig War History http://www.nps.gov/sajh/historyculture/the-pig-war.htm
Image 05-03 Photo by John Gargett taken from M/V Ebb Tide in Plumper Sound
Image 05-04 Photos by John Gargett taken on Dock of Poets Cove
Image 05-05 Log Cabin http://www.carrollcountyohio.com/history/Mill/Image6.jpg, Quiche http://www.incredibleeggman.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/quiche.JPG, Bathtub was found on Goggle Images.
Image 05-06 Spray Sailing www.parsec-santa.com/sail/spray.html, Helicopter Photo from Trinidad Defence Force via Goggle Images, Whitbread race http://sportsblog.projo.com/2008/08/read-and-kirby.html
Image 05-07 Canadian Forces Images of Pirate Patrol http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca, Pirates Along Side Freighter http://www.cusnc.navy.mil/photos/hi/080928-N-9999X-002.jpg
