Mounties are good!!

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

So we left Friday Harbor this morning for Neah Bay. Basically from Cattle Pass to the Victoria Light house, then a course correction and it's a straight shot to Neah Bay. You cut across the Canadian line for about 20 miles.

We were enjoying the morning with some coffee and look behind us and the mounties were off my Port stern. Scared the crap out of us. We told them we were transient thru to Neah Bay. They asked us a few questions. Talked about the awesome summer in Alaska. Told us to have a nice day and off they went.

Nice conversation. We sit in Neah Bay tonight for the 188 mile run to Astoria and the Columbia River Bar tomorrow.

 

[rsn48]

Thought you would enjoy this short video on the marine rcmp along our coast, below is a write up on them, a very small unit of four boats for the entire inside and outside passage, three on the inside and one on the outside. Note: Canadian Coast Guard is not an enforcement agency as it is in the States, the RCMP do it all.

Short write and vid:

This tight-knit group of just 20 law enforcement officers, two engineers and two administrative staff police a 95,000-square-kilometre area, including two international borders, 27,000 kilometres of shoreline and a population of four million people. The West Coast Marine Services’ mandate is broad. The 20 members, as the RCMP calls them, rotate in and out, a week at a time on three crews, enforcing the criminal code, the Canada Shipping Act and border control between Washington State and Alaska. They may also support officers temporarily living in coastal villages such as Klemtu (226 kilometres south of Prince Rupert), provide vessel safety inspections, perform joint operations with Coast Guard search and recovery or do outreach through school visits and community events.

 

[Ken E.]

All of my boat encounters with RCMP, and Canadian Coast Guard, have equally positive. Welcome back!

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

On the outside heading to Astoria today. Steaming at about 13kts. 180 miles.

 

[Alaskaflyer]

Attached is a photo of one of the Canadian Coast Guard cutters in Great Lakes service. Note that the "police" placard is removable, and the two go-fast RIBs are a different color. It's a joint mission between the Coast Guard and RCMP, when RCMP isn't on board they remove the police placard.

The CCG is a subunit of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and has a much more focused mission that the US Coast Guard, as well as being MUCH smaller. They do not really have a law enforcement mission for example, nor does most of the maritime regulation scheme live with them unlike in the US. They are not considered a uniformed service either (a military organization.) Among other things, this often means that the people doing the same line jobs being done by "kids" in the US are being done by long-tenured people in their thirties and forties or even fifties. I'm not sure that the local CCG unit in Thunder Bay on Lake Superior had a single rescue specialist stationed there under the age of 30 at the time, unless they had a trainee assigned.

But more often than the RCMP occasionally cruising through along with the CCG, we dealt with marine enforcement officers from the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police.)

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Great group unless you're First Nations...

 

[GFC]

OK, here's the quiz for today. On the Mounties shoulder patch are the initials "GRC".

Anyone besides me know what that stands for?

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Hint: Bien sur...

 

[rsn48]

En francais s'il vous plait...... GRC!

 

[AlaskaProf]

En francais s'il vous plait...... GRC!

Gendarmerie Royale du Canada.

Bien sur!

 

[tiltrider1]

ASD, left you a PM.

 

[jleonard]

Dudly Do Right always gets his man.

 

[GFC]

Gendarmerie Royale du Canada.

Bien sur!

Well done Prof.

Now, does anyone know the slang term for GRC? (hint, they use it also!)

 

[OldDan1943]

Once we get over the 'scare factory' of them wearing all black and bullet resistant vest and armed to the teeth, both the USCG and RCMP are very professional.

When I was working in northern Alberta, a RCMP officer was shot and killed. As a non-citizen, I felt very bad for the officer and his family. Historically, the RCMP was always well respected.
I had always considered the RCMP the 'gentle law enforcement'.

There is the story, not sure if it is true, the US Calvary were escorting a tribe further north. Well, the US troops were great in number and well armed.... they were met at the Canadian border by one RCMP officer. This one RCMP officer escorted the tribe to the agreed upon area.

Alas, the 'good old days' are long passed.
Now, the RCMP are considered cops and wear a cop's uniform. No longer do they wear the famous red jacket with a .38sp connected to officer with a white cord, except for parades and special occasions.

When I was in High Level. Alberta Canada, after a few weeks, I stopped in to show the RCMP officer my work permit and asked if I needed to carry it with me. His answer was, 'You showed it to me so you dont have to carry it with you.' He was IT, just one officer.
Things sure have changed in High Level. They have brick building now. LOL

 

[Bill V]

Another duty that RCMP does that many may not be aware of is trading places with USCG officers while they patrol the International border between Pt. Roberts and Petos Island. I have been pulled over by an RCMP boat while in US waters and they had both USCG and RCMP officers onboard. Was told that this gives them dual jurisdiction with having both US and Canadian authority aboard. The RCMP boats usually have 4 or more officers as does the USCG boats. They meet and exchange two from both boats for their shift. On another occasion I had an RCMP boat stop by my boat while we were just drifting and enjoying a quiet lunch. They said they had been watching us from afar and wanted to be certain we were OK. Chatted a bit and assured them we were fine and just drifting enjoying the day. They told us to have a good day and departed. Always have had good relationship with the RCMP folks and been treated very cordially.

 

[GFC]

GRC slang? Nobody?
OK, they joke about this but the slang is Gravel Road Cops



My bad. Northern Spy sent me a Thank You and if I'd been on the ball I'd have read a bit further down and seen where he had the correct answer. OK, I'm a dumb sh!t!

 

[soin2la]

...a very small unit of four boats for the entire inside and outside passage

True enough, but before anyone thinks that's it and apprehension is minimal, every RCMP detachment, in every community near a lake, river or the coast, has a "marine unit." They also utilize C-Tow and other local, private operators.

 

[rsn48]

The RCMP boat pictured above is more a supplemental boat to marine patrol. Comox RCMP use that type of boat for example, whereas the larger RCMP boat out for patrols for a week at a time is out of Nanaimo. One of the larger boats does West coast patrol.

 

[soin2la]

Yes and that’s what I said; they have other resources as well.

I was just countering the notion that there are only four RCMP vessels policing “a 95,000-square-kilometre area, including two international borders, 27,000 kilometres of shoreline and a population of four million people.” Social media and all, you know.

The joint Canada US enforcement is called the Shiprider Program and involves enforcement agencies other than the RCMP and USCG.

 

[LakeMJim]

My niece is with the RCMP and my nephew with the Navy so I plan to have a photo of each of them in uniform prominently displayed for that time I do something really dumb

 

[rsn48]

On the American side of the border, you have a very active drone program of policing the border. On both sides, just about everywhere covered with radar, though I'm not to sure on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. And although marine policing coverage doesn't seem that great, really the boating numbers compared to the east coast is peanuts. Of the 4 million (should be 5 million now), how many active boaters are there in coastal waters?

And then we won't even talk about the American nuke subs using the whiskey Golf area. You do realize that the area is used almost exclusively by the American Navy. Canada only has 4 active subs, one in BC so how much of Whiskey Golf active time do you suppose is used by that one sub?

 

[soin2la]

On both sides, just about everywhere covered with radar, though I'm not to sure on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

+/- 65nm between Nootka Sound and Quatsino Sound has no coverage.

And although marine policing coverage doesn't seem that great, really the boating numbers compared to the east coast is peanuts.

On our coast, it’s not so much about numbers, but how those boats are fairing, what they are up to and where.

 

[koliver]

On the American side of the border, you have a very active drone program of policing the border. On both sides, just about everywhere covered with radar, though I'm not to sure on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. And although marine policing coverage doesn't seem that great, really the boating numbers compared to the east coast is peanuts. Of the 4 million (should be 5 million now), how many active boaters are there in coastal waters?

And then we won't even talk about the American nuke subs using the whiskey Golf area. You do realize that the area is used almost exclusively by the American Navy. Canada only has 4 active subs, one in BC so how much of Whiskey Golf active time do you suppose is used by that one sub?

From: https://midislandnews.com/whiskey-golf-military-test-range

"The range tests between 300 to 400 torpedos annually, most of them American. Almost all are launched from surface craft. There have been 31,000 test firings since the range opened. An average of two submarines and six surface ships visit the range each year. Since the range opened, as of 1999 there had been 246 visits by U.S. surface ships, 162 by U.S. submarines, six by Canadian submarines and 254 by Canadian ships. A Chilean submarine visited Nanoose in 1994."

 

[rsn48]

An average of two submarines and six surface ships visit the range each year.

I can't say how I know this but more come than recorded. You can almost reason it out without "inside info." The subs are from Bangor which by the way didn't exist on maps until google earth made its debut. Secondly, there is no whiskey golf equivalent in Washington state. Thirdly as you can see from the write up the facility is shared with the Americans, in actual fact they use it more than Canada thus no incentive to create a second whiskey golf set up else where such as Washington state.

The reason I raised the fact Bangor was placed on maps was logically for security reasons. Nuke subs are touchy about who knows what, when, where and how. With whiskey golf, you won't even know they arrived, exercised, and left except the area is closed with no apparent activity.

 

[Ken E.]

An average of two submarines and six surface ships visit the range each year.

I can't say how I know this but more come than recorded. You can almost reason it out without "inside info." The subs are from Bangor which by the way didn't exist on maps until google earth made its debut. Secondly, there is no whiskey golf equivalent in Washington state. Thirdly as you can see from the write up the facility is shared with the Americans, in actual fact they use it more than Canada thus no incentive to create a second whiskey golf set up else where such as Washington state.

The reason I raised the fact Bangor was placed on maps was logically for security reasons. Nuke subs are touchy about who knows what, when, where and how. With whiskey golf, you won't even know they arrived, exercised, and left except the area is closed with no apparent activity.

This is interesting to me on a couple counts. One is, I run my boat in this area, either going up or down the straits and having to be aware of what's going on in area WG. But two, when I was in the Navy during Vietnam, I was in antisubmarine warfare in P3 aircraft. In the past, we've seen many P3's in various exercises in WG. I always wondered if there might be US nukes from Bangor roaming around under us.

 

[soin2la]

I can't say how I know this but more come than recorded...you won't even know they arrived, exercised, and left except the area is closed with no apparent activity.

I can’t comment on the validity or accuracy of the above, but from a logical standpoint, it makes some sense that the Juan de Fuca Canyon is a nice little trench for the Bangorans to play in.

Never heard of the Juan de Fuca Canyon? Don’t feel bad, not many have.

An inshore extension of the WA coast Juan de Fuca Channel, the Juan de Fuca Canyon is +/-4 miles wide, twice the depth of the surrounding seafloor and runs from Cape Flattery to Quadra Island. Right under WG.

 

[soin2la]

In the past, we've seen many P3's in various exercises in WG.

Not that many years ago, there was no Canadian presence in WG; just US aircraft, in view. I know of more than one Canadian who got into a squirting match because "no fargin Yank is going to tell me where I can't go."

 

[Benthic2]

It's nice there's such cooperation between the authorities from both countries on the west coast. I just watched a Netflix special about how on the east coast the border is disputed and tension is growing among the lobstermen in the area. As the ocean warms and the lobsters move north, what used to be an insignificant discrepancy is now a disputed cash cow worth millions of dollars every year. It's called Lobster Wars if anyone is interested.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Speaking of WG. Want some entertainment lisen and watch WG in action. Does not Canadian sailing vessels have charts? MFD?

Most of the time it's sail boats and their refusal to go around WG. In some cases being escorted out of the area. So what's up with this? It's not like these folks don't know about WG.

It's funny to see a 28ft blow boat challenging the Canadian Navy.

 

[firehoser75]

Yes, Tom, happens almost every operational day. I attended a presentation by the WG folks (Navy) at the Nanaimo Yacht Club one evening. It was very informative. I don't think any boater would really want to be out there when a torpedo is fired. If it hit your boat it would pass right through (no explosives used when testing, so they say) probably disintegrating the boat like it had expoded. Top speeds: "classified" (read "stupid fast"). Potentially very dangerous for a pleasure boat. I find it amazing how many times Winchelsea radios boaters who are not where they are supposed to be, they give out a great description of said boat and their position, and still the boater is oblivious until either the words "torpedo and sinking" are used, or worse until the "chase" boat comes along side!! Darwin at work I guess.

From my home, I look right out at WG and enjoy watching the activities, including some occasional night time ops.
As far as the RCMP, their largest boat used to dock on the same dock (in Nanaimo) I used. Got to see and talk with them often. Good people. Now, I think they dock at the Government docks that have been added at the Fisheries station in Departure Bay.