RIP Summer and Cell Phone

Well that was it. There goes summer...there goes my cell phone. Two seperate incidents perhaps, but it was all conected by this Labour Day weekend.

My Family, Ross and I sailed over to a tiny rock called Alexandra Island. Owned by the yacht club, the island is located in Centre Bay, on Gambier Island (in Howe Sound)and takes 10 minutes to walk around it. Yup, it's tiny. And there is nothing to do there. But I guess that's the point of it.

As weekends usually fly by in a hurry, this one went deliciously slow. When you don't have a choice but to do nothing, not only does the guilty feeling associated with doing nothing subside, but time itself seems to crawl by.

So what did we do? Went swimming, since the water is wonderful...clean, clear...and as freezing as the Baltic, but when you're numb, you don't notice it anyway. Ross and I went snorkeling too, which was a novel thing to do (especially in Canada...I still had sand in my mask from the last trip to Hawaii), harassed the local burping and farting seals, attempted to BBQ stuff, drank a lot of beer, read, played trivia games, took some sun. And of course, took the zodiac out for a spin.

Which led to the unfortunate death of my beloved phone. On Sunday we had run out of beer, wine and vodka, so my parents sent me and Ross out on a voyage via zodiac to Gibsons. For those who watch the CBC (I dont know who you are), Gibsons was the home of The Beachcombers, and the famous bar Molly's Reach, is still there. That wasn't reason enough to visit, but the promise of more booze spurred us on.

Gibsons, according to my dad, was ten minutes away. He said the seas were calm, we would be there in no time and to take my cell phone. I remember thinking, hmmm cell phone + ocean = not good. But I didn't say anything. Therein lies the rub.

We got out there. My dad lied. Gibsons is atleast 30 minutes away. Across open water, strewn with ferry traffic to Langdale and rolling swells from the Georgia Straight. The seas were wavy and rough. As soon as I got about 15 minutes into the journey, I stopped the boat among the crashing swells. I didn't know where Gibsons was, so I called my dad. Big Mistake. A wave came over the front of the boat, soaking Ross to the core. My phone was in his pocket. He handed it to me, dripping wet. A dripping wet cell phone is not a good thing.

So, my cell is dead and until I miraculously get money to get a new one, I'm going to be harder than usual to get a hold of. So, send me an email or leave me a voice mail (that still works) instead. After all, I'm still unemployed (job searching might be hard without a phone) and have nothing to do. Except look back at this last weekend of summer and wish I had a few more of them. Because nothing feels better than hot sun, cool water and knowing you couldn't do anything even if you tried.




Oh, and for those who were asking about it, it looks for sure that my dad will be heading off to Mexico this weekend. Well, Victoria, and then down to LA...then San Diego...and then Mexico (the Mex part should happen in November and I'm contemplating joining the crew for that journey). But alas, my dear daddy will be gone for quite awhile and so will my boat.

Adios Norfinn!