A Canadian Coast Guard Reunion in Costa Rica

I joined the Canadian Coast Guard in 1971, in Ottawa, Canada, working for Captain Bill Catinus. He was head of the Marine Casualty Investigations branch - which investigated, reported on and made recommendations on any marine accidents in Canada. At that time, the CCG was under the umbrella of Transport Canada. I had found my niche. He lobbied to have MCI moved to the Transportation Safety Board, which eventually happened.

In 1978, Lance and I moved from Ottawa to Vancouver, B.C., Canada and I transferred over to the air side of Transport Canada. Too boring, so I applied for a job at the Kitsilano Coast Guard Search and Rescue (SAR) base in Vancouver. And that’s when all the fun and good times started. My coworkers then are still my friends today, although sadly many of them have “crossed the bar” as the saying goes. I eventually went to work at the CCG hovercraft SAR base in Richmond, B.C. Before I retired, I moved to CCG Western Region HQ in downtown Vancouver.

So many stories to be told and they just get more hilarious as time passes. Recently I heard from CCG alumni Gerry Moores and Brian Wong. They were planning a trip to Costa Rica and we got together last week. I hadn’t seen them in years but it was as if time had not passed - we just took up where we left off. 

Here we are having lunch at Casa Nosstra in Grecia - me, Gerry, Brian and Lance:

They stayed at La Terraza Guest House B&B here in Grecia. The owner, Charles, kindly invited us to join Brian and Gerry for breakfast:

Some photos of the La Terraza property:

Gerry and Brian came bearing presents! Twizzlers and a cat teapot, spoon and candle holder came from Shelley (another coworker). That candle holder looks so familiar to us .... where have I seen it before? 

Shelley and Brian:

Brian and Gerry are now somewhere on the pacific coast - I know they’ll have a super time and it was wonderful seeing them again.

I worked for the Canadian Coast Guard from 1971 to 1997. On my retirement, I received this ship’s clock:

And numerous other plaques - this was one of them:

And this, and I have a good story about the “Lady Diana” title:

I acquired the “Lady Diana”, also “Lady Di”, title at the time when the real Princess Diana was front and center in the news, marrying Prince Charles. At that time, there was a fellow named Chuck at Kitsilano CG base (can’t remember his last name) and we had a plan to post ads in newspapers saying that for five bucks, people could receive a signed photo of “Chuck and Di”!! We never did it but it’s funny nevertheless.