COZUMEL TRIP
Vancouver, Canada
Trip Report
AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 2nd
This trip to Vancouver was my first trip up to visit Ting and my second trip up to the Pacific Northwest to visit Shell.
Friday night 8/30/2002: My parents drop me off at the airport after work. The amount of people at the John Wayne
airport more closely resembled a "crowd" at a Montreal Expos game than a beach on Labor Day. I walked right up to
the security gate. I was first "in line". I was search because I had a sweatshirt on that said SCUBA. Scuba divers
are on their list of possible bad people, I guess. Well away, the flight to Seattle went well. I managed to get hold of
Shell, when I landed in Seattle and we started our drive to Vancouver. After a drive of 2-3 hours, we pulled up to the
5-Star Hotel (boarding house) that Ting is living at in Vancouver. We knocked on his window and we instantly recognized
his voice. Problem was we did not recognized Ting. He is growing his hair long like a 1970's hippie and he is also try
to put on muscles mass like "Arnold". Next up was trying to decided where each of us would sleep. The options where:
Ting's bed, the floor or a giant air mattress. Ting "decided" he would get the air mattress, Shell would get the bed and
I could sleep on the floor or on the small couch. Shell, had other ideas. She
demanded that she be allowed to sleep on the floor, Ting would hear nothing of it. Soon, they began to wrestle. Ting, was
trying to get Shell into bed and shell fighting him off. After watching this comedy for 10-15 minutes I joined in on Ting
side and put Shell on the bed. So, if you think about it, Shell had a threesome. Ting won the battle but lost the war. As
soon as he left the room, Shell escaped and mummified herself in her sleeping bad. Game, set, and match to Shell. Night, Night!
Saturday 8/31/2002: This morning we got up and packed up our gear in van the owner of Ting's dive shop loaned him. I am got
a chance to try on the rental drysuit on 
that Ting provided.
(My suit is in the shop getting a hole fixed). After a breakfast
of beagles we made 
our way to Porteau Cove
for two dives. The first dive was on a WWII wooden mind sweeper. The buoy marking
the wreck site appeared to be � mile off shore. With NO need for a break after the short swim we dropped down on the wreck.
We saw lots of lingcod, and a wolf eel.
a few crabs and quill back rockfish.
. At the end of the dive, we played around a little in the shallows
looking at the tire reef. After the dive we broke for a lunch of bread, cheese (for Shell), turkey, and peppered ham (Wow
the ham was great). After several hours of surface interval, we kick out to the buoys on the left side of the code and
descended down on the other two wrecks. Shell and I were a little concerned about poor little Ting when he did not surface
right next to use. Ting, was bad and did not do a "safety stop" and he was playing down below.
After returning the some gear back to the dive shop, we gathered up one of the shop's instructors, who was talking the
van home with him. He drove us back to Ting's place. Thanks!
That night for dinner, the landlord had all of the tenants and us over for a turkey dinner. That was so nice of him.
Again, thank you! That night, we all hung out in Ting's room where Shell showed off her new ("used") whitewater kayak.
Beginning "Angel" like we all were, we decided to see
how Shell would do if the kayak flipped over. She did quit well,
but it took her a long time to right the boat. The rest of the night was consumed with good stories and convincing
unsuspecting individuals whom found their way to Ting's room to try out the kayak. Strange how some rouge waves keep
flipping the kayak over. Hum, Interesting�..
Sunday 9/1/2002: On Sunday, after a leisurely wakeup, Shell, Ting and I drove over to the boat marina
near Porteau Cove.
This was the strangest but the most interesting marina I had ever seen. 
The operators stacked the boat up in slots just
like they do with cars in a busy city like New York. They used giant forklifts 
to stake and remove the boats. The boats
eventually are place on a trailer where they are back into the water. As far as the accommodations for the diving for this
day, It seems Ting has made some friends in Vancouver. One of the customers in HIS shop offered to left the 3 of use go on
his boat for a day of diving. This was SO nice of him. We ended up having two boats tie up together in Howe sound at a site
named North Bowyer Island, South Reef. We had 7 divers on the two boats, Alex on his boat the Alex II, ???, Shell, Ting and
I on the one boat. On Glen's boat, we had Glen, Marty and a non-diver. With me flying on Monday morning it was decided that
Ting, Glen and Marty and I would do the 1st dive and the other would gear up when we were finished. We spend our entire dive floating around through the White Plummed
white-plumed anemones, 
a squat lobster 
and taking pictures. Only one dive was planned for the day. After the dive we waiting for the second group and then
back to shore for thank you and gear packing. The rest of the afternoon was consumed with shopping for a cowboy hat
for Shell
and looking in adventure stores. For dinner a lot of Tings friends from the house regroup for a dinner downtown. A good time
was had by all. I even tried veil cutlets. The cutlets even tasted good. Well, the trip was finally over. The plan was for
Shell to drive us to Seattle where we would crash with one of her friends for the night and she would drop me off at the airport
in the am. Well, she claimed to be wide-awake and wanted to know if I wanted to crash at the airport as I had mentioned I
wanted to do. So, she got me to airport at mid-night and I slumbered next to my gear for the night.
Monday 9/2/2002: At 5am or so, I awoke to the rustle and tussle of the airport activity. I managed to catch an early morning
flight back home. Unfortunately, my luggage (90% of my scuba) gear did not. It took an extended vacation. Thankfully, the
airline FINALLY found my gear late on Monday. One more reason to finally purchase some gear insurance. To quote my friend Rich,
"If you didn't go, you missed out."
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HOME
our way to Porteau Cove
for two dives. The first dive was on a WWII wooden mind sweeper. The buoy marking
the wreck site appeared to be � mile off shore. With NO need for a break after the short swim we dropped down on the wreck.
We saw lots of lingcod, and a wolf eel.
a few crabs and quill back rockfish.
Beginning "Angel" like we all were, we decided to see
how Shell would do if the kayak flipped over. She did quit well,
but it took her a long time to right the boat. The rest of the night was consumed with good stories and convincing
unsuspecting individuals whom found their way to Ting's room to try out the kayak. Strange how some rouge waves keep
flipping the kayak over. Hum, Interesting�..
Sunday 9/1/2002: On Sunday, after a leisurely wakeup, Shell, Ting and I drove over to the boat marina
near Porteau Cove.
This was the strangest but the most interesting marina I had ever seen. 
The operators stacked the boat up in slots just
like they do with cars in a busy city like New York. They used giant forklifts 
to stake and remove the boats. The boats
eventually are place on a trailer where they are back into the water. As far as the accommodations for the diving for this
day, It seems Ting has made some friends in Vancouver. One of the customers in HIS shop offered to left the 3 of use go on
his boat for a day of diving. This was SO nice of him. We ended up having two boats tie up together in Howe sound at a site
named North Bowyer Island, South Reef. We had 7 divers on the two boats, Alex on his boat the Alex II, ???, Shell, Ting and
I on the one boat. On Glen's boat, we had Glen, Marty and a non-diver. With me flying on Monday morning it was decided that
Ting, Glen and Marty and I would do the 1st dive and the other would gear up when we were finished. We spend our entire dive floating around through the White Plummed
white-plumed anemones, 
a squat lobster 
and taking pictures. Only one dive was planned for the day. After the dive we waiting for the second group and then
back to shore for thank you and gear packing. The rest of the afternoon was consumed with shopping for a cowboy hat
for Shell
and looking in adventure stores. For dinner a lot of Tings friends from the house regroup for a dinner downtown. A good time
was had by all. I even tried veil cutlets. The cutlets even tasted good. Well, the trip was finally over. The plan was for
Shell to drive us to Seattle where we would crash with one of her friends for the night and she would drop me off at the airport
in the am. Well, she claimed to be wide-awake and wanted to know if I wanted to crash at the airport as I had mentioned I
wanted to do. So, she got me to airport at mid-night and I slumbered next to my gear for the night.
Monday 9/2/2002: At 5am or so, I awoke to the rustle and tussle of the airport activity. I managed to catch an early morning
flight back home. Unfortunately, my luggage (90% of my scuba) gear did not. It took an extended vacation. Thankfully, the
airline FINALLY found my gear late on Monday. One more reason to finally purchase some gear insurance. To quote my friend Rich,
"If you didn't go, you missed out."