The original Daedelus, or at least a predecessor of the current one, came to Campbell River in the summer as well. I got to know the chef on the boat, who went so far as to rent a house in town so that he could bring his wife and kids up for the summer.
That would have been Chef John. He and the captain were the ones who hired me to write the book about the boat. At that time,
Daedalus was based at April Point for the summer season. Guests were flown up to Campbell River and taken over to the
Daedelus, which would then head out for Vancouver Bay near the Arran Rapids between Stuart Island and the mainland. After three days of fishing and other activities the
Daedalus would return to April Point, the guests would depart and the next group would arrive.
Initially
Daedalus remained at her dock in Vancouver Bay and the guests were flown in by floatplane. But it wasn't good for the boat to just sit all summer, so the captain initiated the idea of basing out of April Point and including the run to and from Vancouver Bay in the guests' itinerary. This proved to be extremely popular.
I don't know if the current
Daedalus follows this same routine. The captain of the original
Daedalus, Hal Burchard, helped select the new
Daedalus for Boeing and served as her captain for awhile. He subsequently left to go over to Hawaii and operate the short-lived and controversial interisland ferry. He has since returned to the Seattle area but I'm not sure what he's doing these days.
Nor do i know if Chef John remained with the new
Daedalus or has moved on to other things. He is an outstanding chef and during the winter months was in demand as a guest chef at some of Seattle's finest restaurants. The menu plans and recipes in the coffee table cookbook we created are fantastic and the book has become a collector's item.