A dinghy has been returned to its rightful owner – the local sea cadets – after being found and rescued by a Steveston couple.
In early January, Steveston resident Allisa Ritchie found the six-foot dinghy “tucked into a corner of the harbour” near Britannia Shipyards.
After it had sat there for a few weeks, Ritchie started getting concerned it would break up and pollute the river – the dinghy was made of plastic.
“I didn’t want pieces of it floating into the river and ultimately the ocean. Plastic is very bad for the environment,” she told the Richmond News in an email.
Ritchie’s husband agreed and set about to do some research.
“The rescue would have to be done at a very low tide and the ground underneath the boat would have to be solid,” Ritchie explained.
On Friday (Jan. 24), the tide was very low, and the couple took a gaff – a pole with a hook – and ladder to Britannia Shipyards.
They tested the ground with the gaff and determined it was frozen.
Ritchie’s husband, Brett, jumped down about eight feet to where the dinghy was. It weighed around 70 pounds, so he was able to dump the water out and push the boat up to the flood guard.
At that point, Ritchie helped pull the boat onto the grass, which she described as “relatively simple to do.”
They could see the name of the boat, Sea Dragon, now that it was on land.
The caretaker of Britannia Shipyards had arrived on scene to see what they were doing, and recognized whom the boat belonged to: the local sea cadets have a sailboat by the same name.
“Brett and I were very happy that the owner of the dinghy had been found,” Ritchie explained.
The Sea Dragon dinghy has now been reunited with the cadets, she added.
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