Welcome To Campbell River

Hello fellow bloggers.

The past two weeks here in Campbell River BC have been full of hard work, excitement and great memories. As one could assume, getting a commercial diving certification is not a common experience. This being the case it makes it that much more fitting that we are living on a house boat two steps from our classroom and diving boat. There are four students in the course, Rob and myself as well as two Canadians named JP and Julian. For the first week we were in the classroom everyday going over dive theory. This week was a difficult week full of anticipation for our first dive. The week went by slowly and we would often pass the time practicing our knots and exploring the beautiful Campbell River.

I think I should spend a minute to try and describe what a beautiful place this is. Campbell River is located about half way up the eastern coast of Vancouver Island on the Passage of Discovery. As I have read in several travel books, Campbell River is the last sizable town on Vancouver Island when heading north. It has been dubbed the “salmon capital of the world” and is a beautiful natural town on the edge of clean untouched wilderness. Each morning, as I look out our window, there is a thick fog over the water. As the sun rises higher into the sky and the fog begins to clear, the outlines of mountains and islands come into view. On the islands across the passage, where we have many dive sites, there are lush evergreens and beautiful houses along the coast. On our first day across the passage we saw well over 12 bald eagles flying around hunting, playing and giving us sights that many never get to see. This place has a great natural feel which makes each day out on the boat exciting. We are constantly turning around to see blue herons flying across the bow of the boat or kingfishers perched waiting for their catch of the day. Sea lions, seals and porpoises will swim around the boat giving us a look over. This is a truly powerful place and I hope that these pictures we post will do it justice.

We are about to begin our third week of school and the blogs to follow will be recaps of the various projects and activities we have had to perform while on surface supplied air.