First Tall Ship in 100 years docks in Tahsis

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The Tahsis Art Society put on an "Edge of the West" CoffeeHouse in celebration of the first Tall Ship to visit Tahsis since the turn of the 19th Century. The Tall Ship orginated from the Sea Education Association in Massachusetts. The voyage is part of a training progam for Oceanography students. The Tall Ship SSV Robert C. Seamans docked at Westview Marina on Sunday July 25th in the evening, and students and crew started leave on Monday.

According to Cathy Daynes, the owner of Westview Marina, there was no suitable dock for a Tall Ship in Tahsis when she was first put in touch with Captain Tarrant by e-mail.

"The Government dock was too high, the lower section was too short, the Cruise Ship dock on Doman's property was too high."

Finally, since this was the 2nd inquiry from a Tall Ship recieved this summer, Cathy moved up plans to built additional moorage space, and added additional docks in a section of the Marina which had the proper depth to accommodate a Tall Ship.


Captain Steve Tarrant and students on the deck of the SSV Robert C. Seamans

Tahsis Art Society representative Alice Thompson met Captain Steve Tarrant the day before the CoffeeHouse to interview him for her Tahsis BC Blog. Captain Tarrant commented about their visit to Tahsis:

"A beautiful tour, people (in Tahsis) have been incredibly friendly and hospitable. Sharon (Armella from Village of Tahsis) and Cathy (Cathy Daynes of Westview Marina) helped enormously to find a place where we could tie up. Finally they (Westview Marina) built their new dock ahead of schedule for us."

"It's a great opportunity to have a wilderness experience and relax, meet local folk, walk around the town. The students need some downtime... It's a great program but very intensive, and (they) need a break."

Steve Tarrant went on to say they had also been to Skung Gwaii this trip, and visited a Haida Heritage site. He went on to comment about the Nootka Sound and Tahsis Inlet waters:

"Such a beautiful area, just great for oceanography, geological and geological and geo chemical research. We have done current, density and oxygen measurement, and we have a Chirp to give a profile of the ocean bottom. The rest of the time the students are swabbing the decks and doing all the maintenance that comes with a traditional sailing ship. Over the course of the voyage, the students take over all the ship functions and scientific research."

The Captain Crew and students gave an open house and tour of their ship Tuesday evening to the public from 5 to 7, then came up to the coffeehouse given in honor of their visit. Captain Tarrant entertained the crowd of Tahsis locals, fellow crew and visitors to a collection of traditional Sea Shanties. His crew of students performed the returns to the Shanties, and student member Meagan Kallman of New Hampshire also performed several Sea Shanties.


Captain Steven Tarrant performing Traditional Sea Shanties



Students from the ship, Tahsis locals and visitors listen to the performance

This was the 2nd CoffeeHouse put on by the Tahsis Art Society since the Sacred Ground Coffee House was finished and the Tahsis Art Trail CoffeeHouse on the July long weekend was held.


Student Meagan Kallman of New Hampshire (on the stool beside Captain Tarrant) sings several more Sea Shanties

Local musicians Conibear, Roy and Juanita DuLong and Willdeve finished several original songs in time for the CoffeeHouse, and the audience of 50 people was treated to Willdeve's first public performance of her Tahsis BBQ song and her ballad on the meeting of Captain Cook and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht tribe at Friendly Cove in 1778. Willdeve also performed her song on "The Swans of Tahsis", and several folk favorites.


Willdeve performing the "Tahsis BBQ Song"


Conibear performed the first public showing of her song "Tropical Breeze" and many folk favorites.

Roy and Juanita Dulong performed the first public performance of their song "Come home with me and live by the sea", a song inspired by their personal story of how they came to move to Tahsis, Juanita's childhood home, from Nova Scotia.


Juanita DuLong, Roy Dulong and Debra Conibear

Roy went on to perform several instrumentals and traditional country songs, including "Paper Roses" where the audience joined in for the Chorus.


Ray Richards performs several lively prarie songs, and some Shanties from Nova Scotia

Ray Richards of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is visiting his brother who had moved out to Tahsis. Ray performed a rousing rendition of several songs from the Prairies, the most notable and humorous one about a destitute Saskatchewan Farmer who decides to become a pirate on the rivers of the prairies.

When Ray asked if anyone locally knew the meaning of the name Saskatchewan, local Alex Wright called out: "It is a First Nations name for "Place where no man can jump to his death", which received a roar of laughter from the Crowd.


a student from the ship performs several pieces by Pearl Jam

Other notable performances from visitors to Tahsis were several songs by Pearl Jam performed by another student from the ship, and several Italian songs performed on the mandolin by a boater who has been in Tahsis since mid June as his boat developed problems and his motor is currently being repaired in Campbell River.


A stranded boater performs on the Mandolin

At the end of the evening Captain Tarrant said the ship was leaving for San Francisco at 700 Hours the next morning, and that while this was their first voyage up the coast to Tahsis, when the ship did it's next training voyage up the coast two years from now, he expected to be coming back up to tahsis.

Alice Thompson, who co-hosted the evening with Debra Conibear and Willdeve, said many locals had mentioned to her how nice it was to see the young people from the ship wandering around the town the last few days, and to see the masts of the Tall Ship at the Marina, and the Ship and students would be missed after they left for the next stage of their voyage.

Tall Ship SSV Robert C. Seamans in Tahsis!

Tall Ship SSV Robert C. Seamans is currently docked at Westview Marina!



The ship's mission is to provide students with the opportunity to live, work and study at sea. Half the students and crew have leave to walk around Tahsis, and half will have their land break tomorrow.

The Tahsis Art Society is giving an "Edge of the West" CoffeeHouse for them on Tuesday July 28th at the Sacred Grounds Coffee House from 5 to 9 PM. Read previous posts for more information and background.

More information about the ship and the Sea Education Association can be found on their website at: www.sea.edu .



So far 2 relatives of students on the ship have e-mailed requests to pass on messages. I will print out any e-mails for students or crew on the ship and take to the CoffeeHouse on Tuesday, and either give to them or pass on to the Captain to give to them back at the ship. If anyone else just wants to send them well wishes for their voyage, please feel free to e-mail as well!

Contact e-mail to send those messages is tallship@tahsisbc.com

I have also heard that during their Open House tomorrow (they are open for tours of the ship from 5 to 7 on Tuesday July 28th) that several representatives from the Village Municipal Office will come down to the ship to greet them and give out 'Village of Tahsis' pins to the students and crew.

"Edge of the West" CoffeeHouse Tues July 27th

Tues July 27th 5:00 to 9:00 PM
Live Music at Sacred Grounds Coffee House LOCAL ARTWORK ON DIPLAY

This event is in honor of the Visit of the Tall Ship from the Sea Education Association in Massachusetts. The Tall ship will be docked at Westview Marina and will be holding their TALL SHIP TOUR Tues July 27th 5:00 to 7:00 PM

Visit the ship for a tour then come to the CoffeeHouse for song and celebration!


Tues July 27th 5:00 to 9:00 PM
Local Musicans:
Debra Conibear: Folk singer
Roy DuLong: Instrumental and Country
Willdeve: Prog. Folk Rock Fusion

Visiting Musicians:
Lynne Pedersen - A’Capella Folk Songs
Lynn Radford & friends - Folk Fusion
Captain Steve Tarrant of the Tall Ship: Traditional Sea Shanties

New Coffee House in Tahsis, The Sacred Grounds

Terri Orr and Alex Wright, owner operators of The Savage Biscuit bakery in Tahsis, have opened a new Coffee House in Tahsis.

 
Actually, it's the only Coffee House in Tahsis!

Terri, Alex and staff worked furiously to get the Coffee House ready for the July 2nd and 3rd Tahsis Art Trail, and now Tahsis has a non-smoking Coffee House with local artist's paintings on display. The Coffee House is connected to the Bakery area, so it is easy to pick up a fresh bakery treat to go with your cappuccino or specialty tea.

You can visit the website for the bakery and coffee house at www.savagebiscuit.com

Another Earthquake July 19th, 1:02 AM

Well, another earthquake report! This one woke me up, and I can't compare the intensity to the last one,  but Jim was standing at the time and he said it felt about twice as strong as the last one. This time we had a lamp fall over and break, and the glass cover jumped off a potpourri dish and the dried flours jumped out. Other than a few crooked pictures on the wall, however, that was the extent of the 'damage'.  Jim was guessing it was about 6.5 to 6.8, and a few minutes later he got the offical figures on the internet at a quake of 6.3.
 
Interestingly enough, our cats both were behaving in an unusual manner about 2 hours before the quake. Spike, our big cat acted scared and went bouncing down the stairs, then bounded into the living room. Buzzbomb went rocketing around the living room too. At first i thought they were playing, but somehow it didn't look like their usual racing around or playing. I was puzzled by it at the time and Jim and I discussed that they were behaving a little oddly.
 
Next time they act like that, we will definately take note!

Tall Ship to visit Tahsis in July 2004

A Tall Ship with oceanography students and crew is coming at the end of July. They will be having an Open House between 5 and 7 PM at Westview Marina on Tuesday July 27th, so come on down for a tour of a working ship!

 
Here is a write-up from the Captain, Steve Tarrant, Captain/Nautical Science Faculty:
 
"The Sea Education Association (SEA) is a small, non-profit educational institution located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Our mission is to provide students with the opportunity to live, work and study at sea. SEA hopes to increase students' appreciation and knowledge of the oceans by exposing them to all aspects of the marine environment and teaching them the skills of scientists and mariners.
 
We will be on a 28 day trip starting in Seattle and ending in San Francisco.  We'll be conducting oceanographic research all along the way.  We will make a stop at Ninstints Island in Gwaii Haanas to visit a Haida Heritage Site that the students have been learning about.  Then we will stop at Tahsis for 2 days for a little bit of rest and relaxation.  From there we head offshore again for more research and end in San Francisco"

Earthquake in Tahsis

I was working on putting up this blog, and about 5:30 in the morning the windows started rattling. At first I thought it was a big wind coming up the inlet, but then the whole house started shaking and I realized it was an earthquake. This was the strongest earthquake I have experienced, having been through a few in Vancouver and one in Fernie in the East Kootenays.

It was enough to shake the house and shift the pictures on the wall, but everything else was fine, my computer, the lights and everything else didn't change. JIm and I headed downstairs to go outside, but it was over before we got to the outside door, and it didn't seem very severe. No additional tremors.

Jim looked it up on the internet, and www.pgc.nrcan.gc.ca/seismo/table.htm
has information on this quake.

I just heard on Global that the earthquake originated on Nootka Island, at the end of the inlet here! What a way to make the news.... also, it was classified as a moderate earthquake, 5.7 according to one earthquake site Jim found.

Tahsis Art Society & CoffeeHouse on the July long weekend a success

The Tahsis Art Society held their biggest Art Trail Event ever on Friday and Saturday July 2nd and 3rd in Tahsis, the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Tahsis Art Society Chair Alice Thompson explained: "this year we had several musical artists who wanted to be involved, and their enthusiasm and expertise allowed us to put on a bigger and more varied event with musical performances as well as paintings and carvings and other visual arts. Local musicians who performed at the CoffeeHouse include Willdeve, a local singer and songwriter who moved here from Saltspring Island, Conibear, a local singer with a strong theatre background, and Roy Delong who specializes in old country favorites.


Conibear (left) and Willdeve (far right) accompany Roy Delong (centre) in renditions of old country songs.

Willdeve also put us in touch with Gerry Barnum, a talented Folk & Blues singer, songwriter and musician from Parksville, who put on the concert at Westview Marina on July 3rd. Gerry's performance was very well received, with more than 60 people hanging out at the Marina Dock during the performance.... his concert was definately the hit of the long weekend in Tahsis!


Gerry Barnum performs at Westview Marina on July long weekend

Artists on the Art Trail also noticed a big increase in attendance, especially in out of town visitors.

Alice continued:

"The last few years, a lot more artists and musicians have been visiting and moving to Tahsis, as they are gravitating to our beautiful natural setting and the developing artist community we have here. We have also had new stores open up that are showing local artist work, and we have more home art studios than in the past."

Tahsis merchants here are very encouraging to the Art Society, and have pitched in with advertising money and accommodation specials for the event to make it even more appealing for other residents of Vancouver Island to come to Tahsis for our Art Trail. The whole community is working together to make this event as interesting, fun and informal as possible. Visitors just pick up the Tahsis Art Trail map at Head Bay Station or White Feather Gifts as they enter town, and can go by foot or car throughout Tahsis and visit the Artists in their studios. The local Heritage Museum will be open as well, with displays of First Nations cedar weaving & carvings, and artifacts from Tahsis's Mill Town Heritage.