A more qualified Tim Timmy Timbo - Jan '08

G’Day everyone,

Well it has been about a month since I’ve posted an update on my activities, and around half of that has been spent becoming ‘more qualified’ to operate the passenger vessels here in Victoria. As I said in my last blog I was due to head across to Vancouver to do a couple of 4 day courses. I headed across from Vic to Van on the 11th Jan and stayed with Dean in this huge house he was house-sitting (doctor friend). This place is so big it has a separate climate controlled wine room. Unbelievable! The course in the first week was a marine radio course, so basically I learnt how to send a distress, urgency and safety signal/call over the radio. Quite basic, and just a money maker really, but it is internationally recognised which is a good thing. The second course was a marine emergencies course which was a lot more interesting. We had a firefighting day at a Fire Training Institute so got all decked out in basic fireman’s gear and put on fires with extinguishers and learnt hose operation techniques. Was great to finally learn about the different extinguishers and actually get hands on. Another day on the course was spent in the pool with clothes and lifejackets on and deploying and operating liferafts- basically learning about survival at sea, with an emphasis on surviving in cold water as it’s pretty damn cold water up here (around 10 degrees Celsius all year round). I’m not really going to be in these kinds of situations as I’m on a small passenger vessel and not going too far offshore, but it is definitely a valuable thing to know should I ever work on large vessels in the future.
The marine emergency course finished on Fri Jan 25th, so I headed up to Whistler that afternoon with Bec (friend from Oz that is working up there). It was a great trip up on the bus just seeing the snow get thicker and thicker on the roadside and surrounding areas. We arrived in Whistler around dinner and just chilled at Bec’s place as we had planned on being up early the next morning to line up at the pub. As it was already Australia Day in Oz on the Fri night I had myself a few Cooper’s Sparkling Ales (yep, I found some in Vancouver!). A 6 pack of Sparkling was actually $3 cheaper than a 6 pack of Pale. Go figure! Bec and I got up early on the 26th and dressed up in our Aussie gear and headed down to the pub. We got there at 8:30am and there was already a line-up! Pub was due to open doors at 9am so we just chatted to all the other Aussies in line that were dressed up to the nine’s. Met a couple from Adelaide that were lining up behind us and ended up hanging with them all day – top people, but being from Adelaide would you expect anything less?! I took a Sparkling in line with me and cracked it open at 9am, so having not eaten anything beforehand, I have now officially had a beer for breakfast! Apparently you haven’t lived until you’ve had a beer for breakfast, so Steve, you told me that back in ’02, and now I’ve lived. You proud of me?! ;-) So the rest of the day was spent in Longhorns Pub singing Aussie songs (several were repeated) and drinking Canadian beer. They did have VB cans available but for $6 each there was no way in my right mind I would pay that much for a VB! Maybe if it was 2 long necks I would! Anyhoo, it was a great day being surrounded by Aussies all dressed up in our home country’s gear, and definitely an Australia Day to remember! I was done and dusted by 9pm!
Left Whistler the next day and as I was walking around Whistler Village before I got on the bus I realised that I want to keep snow as a novelty and not live in it. Fortunately for me my career path will be able to keep things that way, unless of course I work in Alaska or Antarctica! The drive back down the west coast to Vancouver really is beautiful. Snow covered mountains and lakes, it truly is breathtaking.
Got back into Vic later that night and have been back for a week now. Unfortunately didn’t get out on any trips last week as they were cancelled due to bad weather. Had an interview last week with a whale watch company, and have a couple more this week, so hopefully by the end of the week I can at least decided on which company I’d like to work for and sort out a start date. I still have quite a few more hours to get logged and build up my boat skills, but it’s only going to get increasingly busier from now on so it looks like I will start in the office and at least get some money coming in until my hours are done and I can start taking passengers out myself.

Not much else to report here. We hit 5 degrees Celsius the other day so it is in fact getting warmer! Will let you all know when I’ve secured a job. In the meantime I’m prob gonna have to get a bar job or something. Mmm…

Hope all is well with everyone. Take care.

Tim, Timmy, Timbo