Celtic Shipyards had a storage and repair shop located at the southernmost end of Blenheim Street, overlooking the Fraser River. One of my first jobs was as a helper there, where I learned from Japanese fisher/carpenters how to caulk, sand and paint wooden-hulled gillnet boats. I never thought the land it sat on would be as valuable as it is, that a developer would one day turn it into a mini Marina del Rey, but that's what happened.
After a productive morning, I drove to Southlands Nursery looking for some annuals to patch a couple of holes in my garden. Because I can never remember which road to turn onto (from Marine Drive), I turned onto Blenheim (not Balaclava, where the original Celtc Cannery was located) and for the heck of it drove to the end of it. Sure enough, a string of mansions whose back stairs led not to fishing boats but to pleasure craft. (And who should be standing their waiting as the lettercarrier delivered the mail to the community mail boxes, but one of Deering Island's developers -- Michael Geller!)
On the actual footprint of the shipyard is a municipal park, no doubt part of an amenity deal struck between the City and the developer. I set out on its trail thinking it would take me to at least the eastern edge of the Musqueam reserve, but no, it stops about fifty metres away, at the edge of the Point Grey Golf & Country Club.
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