Ivana (R.C.A.S.C.)

Matt Farac (British Columbia Nautical History Facebook Group 11/05/2020) stated "That picture of the Ivana crossing the bar may have been when my grandfather Joe Car was running her.

He was determined not to become weatherbound in the lake, and took 11 breakers crossing the bar to seaward. Moved the cabin from the force of the breakers hitting it. There was an article in the Readers Digest ,written by a Jesuit priest ,who witnessed that crossing. My grandfather knew Nitinat very well and would enter or exit even at night. My father got him out of retirement to pilot us on the Marine Girl into the lake around 1970 or 1971 I believe. I was on the dodger with them as he piloted us over the bar, up the river and into the lake. We waited outside the bar and timed our entry with the 3rd swell in a series that carried us over the bar and into the river, entering as it was high water , we passed the Misty Moon aground with a line from her mast to a tree on the shore. Following my grandfathers instructions we entered the lake with no problems and as the first boat in we took a position right at the fishing boundary sign. When the fishery opened a day or two later we got our first of three loads into the Marine Girl with one set. Many years later ,remembering my grandfathers directions I was able to make the same trip, passing two large steel seiners stuck on the bar and banging into one another. and then watching as the fish packer Pacific Nomad went up on a rock, passing between her and the ruins of the old plant on the shore, crossing over to the other shore and from there into the lake." On February 28, 1964 this seiner owned by Albert Radil (MO), Vancouver BC foundered off Mcinnis Island at the entrance to Millbank Sound BC Canada. The crew were rescued safely.