Nautical Notes
by Marilyn Guille

A GREAT DAY FOR "GOOEY-DUCKS"

     Ever heard of a gooey-duck? It's really spelled geoduc, but pronounced the way I spell it. The gooey-duck is a huge white-shelled type of clam that grows up to 8" wide, with a very long 'neck' which protrudes out of the shell to perform various important bodily functions, like eating and breathing.
      My husband Michael and our 5-year-old grandson Joshua spend a lot of time on the beach in the summer months looking for gooey-ducks. You never actually see them, because they are buried in the sand, of course, but you can locate them because they expel water by 'spitting' it up into the air, sometimes a couple of feet. So it's fun, with 5-year-olds, to walk along the beach trying to step in the right places to make the gooey-ducks 'spit.'
      Well. The 'fishery' for gooey-ducks (apparently they are hugely popular as an export to Japan) has been open since January 4th here in my little corner of the world. So the harbor has filled up with little skiffs and landing barges and assorted non-local fish boats ... all full of bright orange crates to store the harvested gooey-ducks. And they leave the harbor at daybreak, scoot out around to the back-side of the Spit, and fish for gooey-ducks along the sandbar 'til dark. (I'm trying to sound intelligent here, so don't ask me how they catch them, ok?)
      But these are just little open boats, all of them. So if it's really, really, windy, or if it rains really hard, the gooey-duck boats don't move.
      For your information, the gooey-duck boats have moved out of the harbor approximately 5 times since Jan. 4th. You can probably figure out what that means. Day before yesterday, Michael heard on the radio that this winter has been the wettest winter ever recorded in BC's history. Yesterday, we woke up to it again, and I know you'll find this hard to believe, folks, but I started to whine about it.
      To which the man I married, Mr. Positive, replied, "Look at this way, Marilyn. It's a great day for the gooey-ducks!"
      Hope you're all going to have a great day, wherever you are ... and if it's a DRY one, DON'T EVEN THINK OF TELLING ME ABOUT IT!!