July 17 – A Day at the Races at Filomi Days

We went back into downtown Port Hardy for the last day of FIlomi Days.

First up were the go cart races. We only watched for a short while.

Everybody wished that the officer had brought his radar gun.

They used this truck to bring the carts back up the hill. The cart on the ground had just made a really fast run but as the truck started up the hill it fell out and they broke the spoiler. I am pretty sure the spoiler didn’t help much though but it did look cool.

The main event of the day was a build it and race it boat race. Teams had 4 hours to build their boat and then they would race out and back to a buoy in the harbour.

I wasn’t sure about the rules. It seemed like you could gather all your materials ahead of time but all the construction had to happen on site in the 4 hours.

This couple went with the classic and simple split barrel with rebar and styrofoam pontoons.

This one was made of large PVC pipes made into a sectioned raft with some boards and styrofoam to stand on. I forgot to get a later picture.

There were some very serious grizzled working man types in this. I was sure this guy didn’t have a chance. He was building a raft of these huge thick PVC pipes, heavy metal brackets to hold it together and Tuck Tape to seal the pipe ends.

He made platforms for them to sit on and oar locks for his oars.

This guys was in a bathtub race mood. First he cut off all the extra stuff. I heard him say that he had goofed on one cut and gone through the tub.

They added some boards and styrofoam.

I thought that the masts with the banners would make him top heavy but it didn’t.

Another one where I said “What are they thinking?”. These kids started with some very flimsy plywood.

But they added enough stiffening boards and garbage bags to waterproof it, that the result seem pretty good.

 

Can you tell that this guys is a plumber.  HIs boat was just a board with some styrofoam but he was making some very elaborate paddle wheels.

Most of us just could not figure out what this guy was doing. He seemed to be hollowing out these strips of very old driftwood.

As he progressed I realized that he had taken a huge, flat driftwood log and cut it into strips. He then used the chain saw to cut out as much wood as he could to save weight and add buoyancy and then he caulked and screwed it back together.

It looked pretty cool.

I was sure this couple had no hope. They didn’t. They were using this very flexible corrugated plastic and Tuck taping it together. They did have a board down the middle of the bottom but they added the styrofoam on the inside where it really doesn’t help the buoyancy at all. The cross pieces, to hold the sides up, were also just tape.

 

These two were in it to win. They made an almost professional looking canoe.

Two layers of glued on plastic made it waterproof.

They even had comfy seats.

Jennie went to a booth that let you create your own unicorn horn.

The girl that ran it wanted Jennie’s picture because, I think, she was the first adult to get one.

We had hoped to have some more of the great BBQed salmon that we had yesterday but sadly they did not return today. I consoled myself with some mini donuts. We did have what they called an Indian Taco. Taco ingredients on fried bread,

Race time. Right around this time the skies got bright and sunny, after being very grey all morning, making for a great afternoon.

Everyone turned to the harbour.

Out go the boats or whatever.

The rescue boat is ready.

On your mark.

They’re off.

The rebar on the pontoon barrel quickly went U shaped.

The plumber’s was just not a good boat.

The guys on the PVC pipe raft did OK at first.

Then one of the pipes cracked and the whole thing filled with water so down they went. Rescue time.

The two canoes took to the lead.

These guys were so far ahead that they took a little break.

The kids were not that far behind. Although they did land on the wrong part of the beach, they came second. One of the kids was using a shovel as a paddle. It was pretty wet in there when they did land.

The guy on the log was slow and steady and made it all the way around the course.

The bathtub sat really low in the water and did fill up.

But they finished.

The pipe raft with the oars also surprised me and finished in a respectable time.

The plastic canoe never even got away from the shore.

Even though it was the worst boat, I think they might have had the most fun.

Lots of laughs all around.

We listened to a band from Campbell River for a while. The singer had a nice voice and they had some different takes on some songs they covered.

They did do what seemed like some inappropriate solo performances. During what I thought was a relatively quiet song the drummer broke into several minute long drum solo.

The skies had cleared up enough that we got our first view in a long time of the mountains on the mainland.

We stayed for most of the set before heading home at around 4. We will be heading back for the fireworks at 10:30. It gets dark really late here.

Just got back from the show. It was really very good. Solid big fireworks for about 25 minutes. You have got to love small towns. We could park 1 minutes away, nobody crowded us and no lineups to get home. It was a great way to end the trip.

Lots of kids running around with LED swords. The guy that was selling the bubble guns had switched to these.

Since I didn’t want to take my eyes off the sky, I just held the camera on my lap and hoped it was aimed correctly. I’ll just include a few to remind me.

And so ends the active exploration part of this summer’s journey. Tomorrow we head down to Nanaimo for a day to get some work done on the RV. I finally found a place (a Ford dealer) that says that they can handle its size. On Wednesday we start our beeline across the continent to our cottage. That should take 7 days.