Category Archives: Beachcombing

Glass Balls – The Dream of Every Beachcomber

Adult Memories, Beachcombing, Equipment, Fishing, Foreign, Glass Balls, Lighthouses, Old Website, , , , , , , , ,
Various sizes - photo BeachComberBum

In my years on the lights there was always talk of finding a glass ball. The inside lights such as my first one at Pulteney Point did not have too much chance of stopping a floating glass ball because of the strong tides.

My first outside light [not sheltered by land] was Quatsino but with only one beach at the back of the island and all the rest rocky it was nigh on impossible. Pachena  wasn’t much better and we weren’t there long enough to hit the beaches around the area. Green Island was like Pulteney but we did find one or two there sitting in the pools. 

So a real outside light was needed, and one was waiting! 

Our 14 ft. Zodiac with stowable sail - photo John Coldwell

We moved to McInnes Island  in 1977 and in the next couple of years we outfitted a fourteen (14) foot (4.27 m) Zodiac with a 25 HP Evinrude outboard with which we could go beachcombing. The children were still young then (see photo left) so a lot of the beachcombing was done alone with not much luck. Oh, I found a couple but nothing big. Then a friend came up and he found a larger one – about 12 inches (30.5 cms) in diameter along with a couple of small ones.  Continue reading Glass Balls – The Dream of Every Beachcomber →

Low Tides On The BC Coast

Beachcombing, Children, Information, Lighthouses, , , , , ,

A low tide on the British Columbia coast in Fall will reveal all sorts of treasures and provide many easy, close-to-home escapes. Even on a lighthouse, low tide was a time to explore.

Check your Tide Tables closely for tides near zero or even lower, known as minus tides. (Canadian Tide Tables for all coasts).

Wait for the high tide and then the lowering water will start revealing the riches. Here are some ways to make the most of it. Continue reading Low Tides On The BC Coast →

What Do You Do On a Lighthouse?

Adult Memories, Beachcombing, Books, Construction, Equipment, Hobbies, Lighthouses, , , , , , , ,
Exotic woods

Besides the usual question Don’t You Get Bored?, the next question “What do you do on a lighthouse?” also needs to be answered.

What do you do in your house? TV, video games, go to a show, eat out?

We did not have those luxuries, so we worked with our hands as they did in the early days.

Some people liked knitting, crocheting, or sewing; drawing, painting, or designing; writing; photography; and . . . woodwork! Now there was one I liked.  Continue reading What Do You Do On a Lighthouse? →

My Rowboat On Langara Island

Adult Memories, Beachcombing, Boats, Childhood Memories, Equipment, Fishing, Incidents, Keepers, Old Website, Women, , , , , ,

by Jeannie (Hartt) Nielsen (daughter of Ed Hartt, Senior Keeper on Langara 1957 – 1963) 

painting - Phyllis Ray

My dad built me a 8 foot plywood rowboat on Langara. It was my pride and joy. I often rowed it in the “cut”. This was a sheltered cove where the supply workboat brought our groceries and fuel, and hooked slings onto the skyhook to bring the goods onshore. 

Often the cut would become choked with kelp, fouling the workboats prop. I would take a machete, throw my boat in, and spend the warm summer days leaning over the side of the boat and chopping the heads off the kelp. They would then sink to the bottom, leaving the area clean.  Continue reading My Rowboat On Langara Island →

Cape Scott Lighthouse Today

Beachcombing, British Columbia, Canada, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Photos, Wildlife, , , , ,
Cape Scott lighthouse today

Cape Scott lighthouse is located at the north end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC) Canada. It is situated in Cape Scott Provincial Park.

To quote from the Provincial Park Website:

“Cape Scott Provincial Park is a truly magnificent area of rugged coastal wilderness that is located at the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, 563 kilometers from Victoria.

Established in 1973 and named after the site of a lighthouse that has guided mariners since 1960, Cape Scott is characterized by more than 115 kilometers of scenic ocean frontage, including about 30 kilometers of spectacular remote beaches . . . 

. . .  The lighthouse and the Cape are outside the provincial park boundary and are private property belonging to the Department of National Defence. The old trail and foghorn were built during World War 2 by DND staff to give access to the beach, etc. but as the old structures, boardwalk and suspension bridges deteriorated, they became dangerous and were removed by the Federal Government. BC Parks is not responsible for this trail and not allowed to trespass on this private property.”

The photos were taken by the lighthouse keeper Harvey Humchitt, and his assistant Todd Malezewski. More photos are available here.

Beachcombing on Langara Island

Beachcombing, Childhood Memories, Children, Old Website, , ,

– by Jeannie Nielsen (daughter of Ed Hartt, Senior Keeper on Langara 1957 – 1963)

Glass ball on the beach
Glass ball on a beach

I lived on Langara between the ages of about 10 – 16. We had many adventures while we were there. My favorite thing to do was beachcombing. In those days you could find “dollar bottles”. Ocean Station Papa sent out these bottles with a message stating that if the paper inside was returned, you would receive a dollar. (They did it for the purpose of tracking ocean currents.) A dollar was a lot of money to a child in those days (late fifties, early sixties), so finding one was a source of great excitement.

Japanese glass fishing balls were another treasure, although in those days, they were pretty common. They ranged in size from Ping-Pong ball size, to sizes larger than a basketball. Their colours were mostly green, although we did find them in brown. Sometimes they still had remnants of their net on. I have since heard that any that are purple are highly coveted, as they belong to nets belonging to ancient royalty. We never found any.

Dead sea animals were always a source of great interest to our dogs and myself. They expressed their delight by rolling in the remains, no matter how long dead and stinky! One carcass I found was a mystery we never solved. It was a bedraggled bald eagle, missing its talons from the mid point of his legs down, and missing the one portion of it’s beak. We wondered if he had hooked onto a fish far too big for him to drag to shore. Often there were remnants of a boat or wharf, pieces of bamboo, and other mysterious planks. One could only wonder where they originated from, and how long they had drifted. My child’s mind imagined pirates and wild shipwrecks and lost souls . . .

– photo credit – Ray Morgan at BC Marina.com