Barges, Boats & Seals Oh My!

The sound of a telephone ringing kicked off my adventure this morning. It was my friend Darren West. He is a 25 year old friend who is a marine mechanic, employed at a local boat repair shop at Reed Point Marina, Port Moody.

In a cheerful tone of voice, he stated that he remembered my unique interest in visiting the old McDonald's Restaurant Barge via boat. My answer was an automatic response as I quickly hung up the phone, dashed to my car while calling friends to cancel anything planned for this morning.

Upon arriving at the marina, Darren greeted me from a slow approaching work boat. The boat we were taking on our little adventure was nothing grand. It was an old fibreglass boat with a simple outboat motor which was less than 3-4 meters long. Darren informed me that the boat was primarily used for shore runs for shallow ports or quick runs to other marinas to pick up customer's boats.




As we embarked on our high seas adventure, I became immediately appreciative of the beautiful shoreline with the magestic backdrop of the North Shore Mountains. We spotted a seal swimming along our boat in the water nearby. For a person who spends little to no time on boats, the time spent on the water was absolutely amazing and extremely relaxing. It was an absolute utopia.



Our trip to the McBarge took us approximately 10 minutes to complete. As we got closer and closer, it became more apparent that the McBarge was not how I remembered it during the Worlds Fair in 1986. The old restaurant appeared like something out of a creepy pirate movie. It sat neglected, abandonned and moored approximately 50 meters off the shoreline. There was no identifying markings that this had been a McDonald's restaurant.



Over the years, the Mcbarge has been visited by countless teenagers via dingy to partake in drug use, partying or with intentions to vandalize the old restaurant. Deep inside me, I felt a sinking sadness to see an old childhood landmark in such an awful state.

Darren informed me that during it's final tug to this storage site, parts of the McBarge had broken away in the open waters and left the restaurant unsafe for any future use. "The McBarge costed McDonald's millions to build. It was never intended to sea worthy and moved from the old Expo site. The structure goes deeper than the water line... there was so much equipment in the old restaurant that there is a second floor under the surface level."




I noticed that many of the windows had been either broken by tossed rocks or graffitied. A chainlinked fence had been placed around the entire McBarge to prevent people from boarding the restaurant. I was able to catch a few glimpses inside through passing windows. To my surprise, the interior appeared in prestine condition, with undamaged light fixtures, seats, and hardwood flooring which were trendy in the mid 1980's. Rumours had once circulated that the old restaurant was sold and to be refitted into a casino/restaurant.




After spending several minutes circling the McBarge, we said our farwells and departed back to the Reed Point Marina.

We closed off the adventure with a tour of Darren's workplace, a customer's 2.2 million dollar yaught and a research project which housed three seals. I was most excited druing the visit with the seals. This was my first time ever to have gotten up close and personal with these animals. I was astonished by their sheer size and friendliness.