March 4, 2017, was great day for the Candian West Coast members of the Captain Cook Society, who met again at the Tigh Na Mara Resort in Parksville, British Columbia.  We had first met there in March 2014.¹  For this year’s annual meeting, we decided on a casual lunch, which started with introductions of some of the new attendees.  In all we had ten people for the day coming from Victoria, Nanaimo and Comox.  

Discussions centered around different topics, including Captain Cook on the West Coast, the repair of Cook’s statue in Victoria to replace the dividers that had been stolen,² and what we might expect in the future regarding activities or excursions.  There was discussion about another Nootka Sound excursion in 2018 celebrating the 240th anniversary of Cook’s arrival on the west coast of Canada, as well as suggestions on visiting the celebrations in New Zealand in 2019 (for the 250th anniversary of Cook arriving there), and visiting Australia in 2020 (for their celebrations of Cook’s arrival).  We concluded that a delegation from our side of North America might be able to get there.  We also talked about this year’s society meeting in Whitby, which a few members felt they might attend.

We talked about a study group and how best we could include members, perhaps using Zoom Chat³ as a way to connect online with members who are interested.  Given the issues with travel, a program like this one might be the answer.

Suggested future topics for which we could seek speakers included botany and cartography.  We also considered a visit to Canada’s West Coast Naval Shipyard.  Many ideas were discussed in the course of much lively conversation.  

Randy Komar

References

1. Cook’s Log, page 15, vol. 37, no. 2 (2014). 
2. See page 14 in this issue. 
3. https://zoom.us/

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 36, volume 40, number 2 (2017).