The scenario s were staged the evening before the exercise by the two coordinators. Debris, clues and oscars, were placed strategically around Barkley Sound. In the morning the exercise coordinators would leave ahead of the searchers to further stage more search objects including some survivors on shore. April 24th surprised everyone as a day of warm sunshine and little wind with low swell conditions. Two years earlier the same fate fell upon the first Nimbus Exercise, clear skies and no wind after a dreadful week of rain and wind leading up to the date.
Good fiction is hard to create, good weather even harder.
The Unit 38 team staged at the Matterson Tea House in Ucluelet for a pre-exercise breakfast. At 0910 the exercise kicked off with a broadcast by Bamfield Coast Guard Radio of two overdue kayakers outfitted in every searchers favorite colour blue. By the time the descriptions of the two missing kayakers were passed over the air, there were six marine resources actively searching Barkley Sound. As items were located that didn t seem to match the description of our two kayaers it was learned from the onscene commander that in fact, a couple in a canoe were overdue as well. Again - good fiction is hard to create.