Pacific Wild Dispatch 5-Andrew Findlay
05 September 2010
It’s possible that a mariner could travel weeks in the Great Bear Rainforest exploring inlets, windswept beaches on the outer coast and secluded anchorages without crossing wakes with another boat. It nourishes the soul to know that there are coastlines left in the world where the influence of humankind is restricted to a few isolated outposts and nature with all its exquisite complexity is left to unfold as it should.
Seattle’s Pat Freeny has sailed the B.C. coast for more than a decade aboard his boat The Nirvana, and he’s one of the mariners on hand to give the RAVE photographers logistical support, without which this ambitious project would likely be financially difficult, if not prohibitive.
“To me this coast is just this magnificent ecosystem where the terrestrial and marine interact,” Freeny says, “and when I think of tankers navigating these waters it sends shivers down my spine.”
Freeny has been exploring with Paul Nicklen, tracking whales and Spirit Bears. Over the years he has become good friends with this National Geographic photographer and last year introduced him to Ian McAllister, which planted the seeds of this RAVE.
Freeny’s connection in the Seattle yachting community led to the involvement of Jim Erickson. South African shooter Tom Peschak couldn’t be happier; when he was packing several hundred pounds of gear for the long journey to Canada he expected to be spending a lot of time getting lashed by wind and horizontal rain in open hulled skiffs or tenders. Instead, after a day of underwater work, he’s getting spoiled in Jim’s luxury cabin cruiser, the Tammy J, and he has a willing captain who’s enthusiastic and eager to help. The point is, these mariners are here because they’re compelled to do what they can to save a rare coast from the very real threats of the oil industry.
A trip to the Great Bear Rainforest – or even a photograph of it - can change a person forever. Just ask Lex Hanson, a hands-on guy who has logged, planted trees, guide outfitted in northern B.C. and now runs a beautifully restored tug, the Pioneer. How he came to tie up his tug in Hartley Bay and welcome aboard two photographers, German-born Florian Schulz and American Joe Riis, before heading out to search for iconic images and wildlife, is a story of simply following an impulse. Several years ago a friend had given him a copy of the Great Bear Rainforest, Ian and Karen McAllister’s book. Immediately he was stirred by images and descriptions of places that seemed of another world, or perhaps, even a lost world.
“When I first saw that book I was just amazed. I knew that I had to get up there,” he says.
So earlier in the summer when Hanson and his wife were towing a load into Rivers Inlet they continued north and stopped in to see the McAllisters in Shearwater. Their timing was perfect – boats were needed to pull this event off – and now the Pioneer has been transformed into a photography support vessel.