Aperte.org Jeremy Handcock

Here we are as crew of the Tugboat Naramata on our visit to see the S.S. Sicamous on Lake Okanagan.

We wanted badly to go on a pirate expedition on the lake, but unfortunately there was no pirating to be had because the ships were stuck firmly on shore. The Sicamous is a surprisingly big ship:

I was pretty amazed at how much coal that thing burns. It takes something like 3,800 pounds of coal per hour to keep it running at full steam. That's a freaky amount of coal. You're probably better off with a Toyota Prius.

I have no pictures (out of fear for getting my camera all wet) of our inner-tube float down the river channel in Penticton. It was great! My pasty-white Scandinavian skin got a little burned though and at the end we had to put up with an Elvis impersonator who called himself RElvis. I wish I had my camera to video it because it was so tacky and awful. The only thing I'd change about it next year would be beer. A bunch of people (clearly they were regulars) had coolers floating along with them full of beer. I know now that beer a must-have for floating down a river on an inner tube.