Sonia wrote a blog post 3 weeks ago when I lost my prop and was towed into Port Alberni.  I was so grateful to James and his dad who helped me offload my fish, and trucked the fish to Vancouver for our members.  Because of their help, I got to spend the day fixing the boat. I knew the day would come when I’d get to repay the favour.  And that day came on this past Tuesday evening.

As I was heading out of Port Alberni to make the dark set when I noticed the River Wind, James’ boat, moving too slowly up the inlet.  James waved me over and his dad leaned out the cabin and called to me “we’ve got something in the wheel!  The boat is rattling like crazy and we have no power!”  I offered to tow them in to Port Alberni, but it would have taken so long, we both would’ve missed the dark set.

It looked safe and clear so I tied the Kor Wes (my boat) along side the River Wind (James and his dad’s boat), lowered a rope off the side, put on my dive gear and took a splash into the water in the middle of the Alberni Inlet… It’s not really the safest thing to do, to scuba dive in the middle of Alberni Inlet.

“James, if any tug boats are coming, rev the engine 3 times to call me back,” I said.

I swam under the boat to take a look.  They had a huge thick line wrapped around the shaft of the prop.  Thankfully, it was just 1 big line to cut, not a huge mess of webbing, so I hacked through it with a knife, brought it up, and threw it on deck.  The guys were grateful.  They helped me up, we untied, and off we went to the fishing grounds in time to get our nets in the water for the dark set.

Talking to them later, James’ dad explained that he had been a seine captain for many years, and said that the line was “seine beach line.”  One of the ways seiners fish is that they row ashore in a skiff, tie a 2 inch thick line around a tree and then  fasten it to the boat.  The boat then pulls the seine net around the inlet, scooping up everything in the bay, tugging against the tree.  Sometimes, that tree gives way and the line and the tree go flying off into the ocean as dangerous debris.   “That was a seine knot,” said James’ dad. “I knew exactly what had happened when I saw it.  They lost the beach line and it floated out and got caught in the prop.”

The thing about independent, small-scale fishermen is that we all look out for each other.  We take the time to help each other out because we know others will repay the favour when it’s our turn.