FANE OR THE BANE?

She doesn't look like much from afar, but the closer you get to her, the more you are intruiged. The "Fane" was a family boat. One that my father picked up for just $1600 from a pair of sisters, who had grown up playing on the waters of Howe Sound in the Fane, with their father.  Our family were only the second owners of this special vessel.

I inherited the Fane after losing my father very suddenly to liver cancer. I wasn't sure, driving home with her that day, if it was a pleasure to be her new owner, or a punishment! There was much to do on her, and more importantly, much to learn. She was old, dried out and needed some major attention before she could greet the seas proudly once more. I also knew, that I had a ton to learn about how to get here there, and us back home safely again.

I grew up with the water always in my life. My father was a young man, with a grade 8 education, who joined Seaspan Tugs in his teens as a "deck rat". By the end of his marine career, he ended up captaining the largest ships in the marine industry, as a Pacific Coast Pilot in Vancouver, and also Victoria, BC. I will always remain, endlessly proud of him.

He brought the water into our lives in so many ways. Coming home from the tugs with black garbage bags of freshly caught salmon. Teaching me how to tie knots, how to fish, how to gut and prep my catch. Honestly, pretty yucky stuff for most little girls, but I loved anything to do with the sea, and anything to do with my Dad. 

PHOTO CREDIT: ALIA YOUSEFF, SOULOGRAPHY.CA