A Brill-iant Move

I was curiously amused earlier this month when, on returning from my Tuesday feast of half price chicken wings, I saw a small group of people gathered in front of my dinghy at Sarnia Bay Marina. (If you’ve been reading my blog, you will know that I use the dinghy to ‘commute’ from my slip in Bridgeview Marina to Stokes By The Bay on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)  I was amused because it is rare to see the ‘general public’ on the docks since there is a ‘controlled access’ door restricting use to registered boat owners and their guests. They always let me tie up for dinner, I suppose because my home marina is affiliated and has the same manager, Dave Brown.

You can see the old Thompson 27 and the back of Captain Brill. I took this picture Aug. 3

On this particular evening I could see that this motley group of tourists, complete with Styrofoam coolers and picnic baskets were waiting to board a scruffy looking old Thompson 27 motorboat which had, I noticed, for the past week or so been moored near the end of ‘A’ dock. This is a spot normally reserved for transient yachts. Any time I happened to see this boat it was being attended to by a black man wearing a crisp white captain’s shirt, complete with gold epaulets. On other visits I‘ve seen this handsome captain and one time he held the door for me as I returned to the marina.  As I left the marina this time noticed that the boat’s registration number was foreign so I snapped a picture. I assume the number C154130N is a Caribbean registry since it is not Canadian or American.

Here's a close-up of the registration number. See the blue ropes tied to the rail?

Obviously this man dressed in a captain’s garb was taking people out for charter on his tired looking old boat. "How does he get away with that at a municipal marina?" I mused. "Probably has no license and no insurance." I speculated.

I never thought too much more about it until last Wednesday August 4th I heard a ‘low emergency’ call come in on the marine radiotelephone. “Pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan. This is Captain Brill. Over.”
“Captain Brill, this is Sarnia Coastguard Radio. What is your location? Over.”
“My location is a finger dock at Sarnia Bay Marina. Over.”
“What is the nature of your distress? Over.”
“The nature of my distress is that the harbour master has asked me to leave the marina. He has called the police. I have no money, no fuel and no place to go. I was hoping that the coastguard could advise me of a place to tie up. Over.”
After some waiting the girl on the radio returned to the air. She said “I have spoken to my superior and must advise you that the Coastguard does not have any docking facilities and this is really not a coastguard matter."

After an hour or so I decided to take the dinghy over to Sarnia Bay Marina and see if Captain Brill was still there. On my way over I saw the OPP patrol boat leaving the government dock area over by the grain elevators and Paddy Flaherty's restaurant. (this is where Captain Brill's boat was found) I continued on to Sarnia Bay and saw that the old 27’ Thompson had left. I looked around the bay but didn’t see anything, so I figured Captain Brill must have moved on. Knowing that he had no fuel I figured he’d just drifted away down the river.

This morning I saw the news article on the internet and my Captain Brill story is nearly complete. I doubt I’ll ever see him again but I’ll watch for more news coverage and post it here. (In the news picture you can still see the blue ropes tied to the rail.)

Bye bye Captain Brill

Sarnia Police don't think there is any criminal element linked to an early morning incident at Sarnia Harbour.  A 27 foot sunken pleasure craft was discovered, with its bow pointed skyward just before 6 am.  The incident and task of raising the power craft to the surface has been left to the Harbourmaster.

 Picture and news article from CHOK News 
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