Away up the coast in the summer of '67, a typical lazy summer afternoon at Irvines Landing

On the left, with their beautiful ketch "Native Girl", are Allen and Sharie Farrell, well-known boatbuilders and sailors, and famous gurus of the laid-back-to-the-land-and-sea lifestyle.

On the right, two of our family are leaning against the port side of our much less glamorous Davy Jones.


Mount Seymour, overlooking our house in Lynn Valley was, and still is, a popular and easy place to reach. Too easy for the unprepared who lose their way - and sometimes their lives - on its confusing terrain.

Once away from the parking lot, you often find yourself alone - like in this winter wonderland of 1971.

In 1974, leaving big city life and steady paychecks, I moved upcoast to the tiny, isolated "company town" of Ocean Falls, joining some of the family who had already found jobs there.

We lived initially in one of these houses on a wooden road overlooking the mill and townsite.

When the weather was sunny, it was beautiful, but when the weather turned bad it could be bloody awful - Ocean Falls has an average annual rainfall over 200" and sometimes hurricane force winds.

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