Thursday, August 6, 2009

Skywatch Friday... with splashes.

Victoria BC, being a coastal city, has a harbour. It's a fantastic harbour; very lively. You can just sit on a bench and watch various kinds of pleasure boats, fishing boats, a huge ferry to the US, the 'clipper' to Seattle, kayakers, row boats, dragon boats, cruise ships, little water taxies, the Coast Guard, various boat building companies, whale watching boats and various seals and water fowl all somehow share the space. It's can look quite chaotic at times!

Add to the mix the harbour is also an airport, or more precisely it's an water aerodrome (sounds cool, eh?), with a few seaplane companies offering flights to various other harbours, mostly to Vancouver or to the smaller Gulf Islands, as well as sight-seeing tours. It's a very busy and very loud airport. I can hear the seaplanes from my flat. It's a great sound and I love it.

Here's a clip I found on Youtube (it's not mine) taken from a seaplane about to land in the harbour.




At about the 30 seconds mark the plane flies right over a section of town quite close to the ground and a weird angle. It freaks the crap out of unsuspecting tourists. :-) And here are a couple of photos from that perspective:







And some more photos as I get down right near the harbour:








In all my years living in this city, I've never taken a flight in a seaplane. I will be soon though. Maybe they'll let me fly the sucker... ahhhh, that would be cool... I can see it now....





Thank you for flying with Ms Toast Burner Air... please remain seated until we come to a complete stop...
;-)



For more skies visit Skywatch Friday!

13 comments:

  1. That looks pretty sweet! I want one!

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  2. Yeehaaar! Wooohoooo! And erm...otheer onomatopoeic expressions of massive fun.

    That looks like a shoogely good time. I've prob banged on bout this before but my most exciting flight was a 6 seater where i sat next to the pilot and we landed in a field in Westray, Orkney.

    That shit looks like much much much more fun.

    I'm wi J, i want one, or at least a shot in one.

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  3. hah...wouldn't that be a hoot.
    this reminds me of the show the girls next door (hef's bunnywomen) and when they returned to where holly grew up. it was a hoot watching kendra freak out riding on the seaplane! omg, did i admit to watching that...
    lovely post and commentary.
    have a fab weekend.

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  4. Marnie, your friends are way weird....I love to fly but that last landing would end it with a whole lot of hersey squirts! I do love Victoria Harbour though, you can spend all your visit to Victoria watching what is going on there. Now how can the powers that be want to take the Johnston Street bridge down....it is so photogenic.
    Have a wonderful weekend Wild Woman;)!
    Smiles

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  5. ...... I'm Marnie, fly me........

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  6. What a wonderful place, so much going on. I've been in a few small planes and a glider but never a sea plane, maybe one day, hope to get a better landing than the one in your shot or it might be wet pants all round.

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  7. Hey Naldo, thanks for typing 'shoogely' on my blog, what a great word!

    And likewise Caroline: hershey squirts! lmao! I haven't heard that expression in a while. It's brilliant!

    Nice one Neil... it took me a while though!

    Thanks for your comments people. :-)

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  8. Marnie that was great the way you managed to snap some pics that matched the clip. That was a great shot. Now, until I see your pilot's wings, I think I will stay away from MTB Airlines! For safety reasons....you understand.

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  9. Man what a sky watch post! I'd love to fly!
    Joyce M

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  10. Understood Bogey... ya fraidy cat. ;-)

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  11. HaHa thats good, I think I'll pass on being your passenger if the last video is anything to go by ! Call me a Chicken if you want......

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