August 17, 2005

Care for a spot of tea?

Submitted by Exploration Leader Peter Rumm

There are times as an Exploration Leader you know you have one of the best jobs in the world, and on this day that feeling prevailed. Our itineraries are sometimes left open and up to the Captain and Exploration Leaders to adjust to maximize our guests experience. On occasion other people unexpectedly influence our itineraries much to our delight, this was such a day.

Imagine for years, cruising through some very remote areas of British Columbia and passing tiny little villages that barely have a dock and no sense of tourism or infrastructure for it. Also imagine passing the smallest most remote lighthouses on the Inside Passage and always wondering what it would be like to visit or live there. Then imagine you are on the Spirit of Oceanus passing by one of these lighthouses and a lighthouse keeper calls you on the radio and invites your guests for tea. Sound outrageous?

 

 

Well, Captain Woyke received such a call from Boat Bluff Lighthouse and pulled the Sprit of Oceanus into a small cove minutes later, dropped anchor. We began lowering our inflatable boats soon after. Did they have any idea that they had just invited 90 people for tea? It was an exceptional morning we had a great time and learned much about the Boat Bluff Lighthouse. As a courtesy to our hosts we held off on the tea and the tiny home they lived in.

The day continued in the same spirit, this time a call came into the office some days earlier with an invitation to visit the tiny native village of Klemtu, on Swindle Island. I was floored because I knew they had just built a beautiful new ceremonial big house. And sure enough after departing the lighthouse we made a beeline for Klemtu where our ships powerful thrusters brought us in sideways to the tiny village dock. A few of the village dogs and passers-by helped tie us up. Frances, one of the village elders said he did not know what to make of that. Approaching war canoes come in bow first, friends come in backwards and we came in sideways. Frances, welcome to the world of tourism! Our guide for the day was a young man named Andrew he was 18 years old and guided us around Klemtu as if he was an elder himself with all the charm, wit and humor of someone who has been doing this for years, our guests were taken aback! I wondered if he was the product of living outside of “modern civilization.” I knew that what we were experiencing was so special we could never have scripted this. The highlight of the whole day was the visit to the big house, recently constructed from an ancient design, built with all cedar planks and beams and massive totems. There is only one word to describe our experiences on this day, and upon walking into the big house, “Sacred.”

Posted by Peter on August 17, 2005

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