Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network, since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, and recreational investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay.ca.

Eddie Van Haddock & The Rockfish: In a little town by the sea where the stories never end, lived Captain Dave and his crew, every child's favourite friend. With a smile as wide as the ocean and a heart that's full of dreams, he sails a Mellow Submarine where magic gleams and beams. Every morning at sunrise, when the world awakes anew, Captain Dave and his crew set sail in waters deep and blue. Through the ticking clock of time, where adventures come alive, they laugh and learn and play each day in their underwater dive.

Dave Graham: Captain Dave stood at the wheel of the Mellow Submarine, his captain's hat sitting proudly on his head. Beside him, Larry the Lobster was polishing the submarine's brass bell until it shone like gold.

"What a beautiful morning for exploring," Captain Dave said, looking through the big round window at the sparkling waters of Deep Bay. The sun made the water look like dancing diamonds.

"It sure is, Captain," Larry agreed, clicking his claws together happily. "Where are we heading today?"

Captain Dave checked his nautical chart spread across the navigation table. "I thought we'd explore the shallow waters near Deep Bay. The tide pools there are full of interesting creatures."

"Oh, look!" Larry pointed with his claw. "A moon jellyfish!"

Captain Dave smiled as the translucent jellyfish drifted past their window like a ghostly umbrella. But then he noticed something on his depth gauge. The numbers were changing — and fast.

"That's odd," Captain Dave said, tapping the gauge with his finger. "According to this, we should be in shallow water, but the depth is increasing."

 Larry pressed his face against the window. "Captain Dave — it's getting darker out there."

Captain Dave's eyes widened as he looked through the window. The bright, sunny water was fading to a deep blue-green. He grabbed the wheel and tried to turn, but it was too late.

"Hold on, Larry!" Captain Dave shouted. "We've gone over the Deep Bay drop off!"

The Mellow Submarine tilted forward and suddenly they were sliding down an underwater cliff. It was like going down the biggest, steepest slide at the playground — except they were in a submarine, underwater, and dropping deeper and deeper.

"Whoa!" both Captain Dave and Larry yelled together as they tumbled forward. Books slid off shelves. Larry's collection of smooth pebbles rolled across the floor. The teacups rattled in their cupboard. Captain Dave's favourite coffee mug slid across the table, and Larry caught it just in time.

"Got it!" Larry shouted over the rumbling sound of their descent.

Down, down, down they went into the mysterious deep water. The submarine's lights flickered as they plunged deeper, and Captain Dave held tight to the wheel. Finally, with a gentle bump and a soft whooshing sound, the Mellow Submarine landed on the sandy bottom. Everything inside settled, and the submarine rocked gently before coming to rest.

"Are you okay, Larry?" Captain Dave asked, straightening his captain's hat.

Larry picked himself up from where he had tumbled near the navigation table. "I'm fine, Captain — but where are we?"

They both looked out the window. The water here was a deep, mysterious blue, like the colour of the sky just after sunset. It was darker than any water they had explored before, but the submarine's bright lights cut through the gloom like sunshine.

 "According to the depth gauge," Captain Dave said, checking the instruments, "we are much deeper than we've ever been. We've dropped right to the bottom of Deep Bay."

 "How deep are we exactly?" Larry asked, scuttling over to read the gauge himself.

 "We're at 75 metres," Captain Dave said. "That's about as tall as 25 grown-ups standing on each other's shoulders."

"Look!" Larry pressed his claws against the window. "What is that?"

As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they began to see incredible creatures. A school of small fish swam past, and some of them had tiny lights on their bodies that blinked on and off like little stars.

"Captain Dave — are those fish glowing?" Larry asked in astonishment, pressing both claws against the window to get a better look.

"They are," Captain Dave explained. "It's called bioluminescence. Some deep-water fish make their own light, just like fireflies. It helps them find food and friends in the dark water."

"How do they make light?" Larry wanted to know.

"They have special chemicals in their bodies," Captain Dave said, flipping through his guidebook. "When the chemicals mix together, they create light without any heat. Isn't that amazing?" 

"That's so cool," Larry said. "I wish I could make my own light!"

Just then, a long, thin fish swam slowly past. It had its own light hanging down in front of it like a lamp on a pole.

"Look at that one!" Larry exclaimed. "It has its own fishing rod!" 

Captain Dave laughed. "You're right! The glowing lure attracts smaller fish, and when they come close to investigate — snap — the fish catches its dinner. 

Then along came a bright red shrimp, much bigger than the shrimp they saw in shallow water. It was almost as long as Captain Dave's hand and seemed to glow in the submarine's lights. 

"Why is that shrimp so red?" Larry wondered. "The shrimp we see in tide pools are usually greyish."

Captain Dave flipped through his guidebook. "That's clever. Red light doesn't travel very far in deep water, so red animals look black down here. It's like wearing camouflage."

 Larry was amazed. "So it's invisible to predators? That's so smart!"

 "Exactly," Captain Dave said. "Nature has so many clever tricks down here where there's not much light. Being red is the perfect disguise."

 Suddenly, something very large cast a shadow over the Mellow Submarine. Both Captain Dave and Larry looked up through the top window.

 "Oh my," Captain Dave whispered.

 Gliding above them was an enormous creature with eight very long arms. Each arm was lined with rows and rows of circular suckers, and the whole animal was a beautiful reddish-brown colour. The creature's body was bigger than the Mellow Submarine's door, and its arms stretched out in every direction. 

"Is that a giant octopus?" Larry asked, his voice full of awe. 

"It is," Captain Dave said. "Giant Pacific Octopuses sometimes live in deep water. Look how graceful it is." 

The octopus moved like it was dancing in slow motion, its arms flowing and rippling as it swam. It seemed curious about the Mellow Submarine. One long arm reached down and gently touched the submarine's window, the suckers pressing against the glass like little round kisses.

Larry carefully placed his claw against the glass where the octopus's sucker was pressed. "Hello, friend," Larry said softly. "We didn't mean to drop in on you unannounced."

The octopus's large eye — as big as a dinner plate — looked at them. For a long moment, Captain Dave could see intelligence in that eye, like the octopus was thinking and wondering about these strange visitors in their yellow submarine.

Then, very slowly and gently, the octopus changed colours. It went from reddish-brown to purple to white, with patterns rippling across its skin like waves on water.

"It's changing colours!" Larry gasped. "How does it do that?"

"Octopuses have special cells in their skin," Captain Dave explained. "They can change colours to communicate, to camouflage — or maybe just to say hello."

The octopus gave one more gentle push against the window, then tucked all eight arms close to its body and jetted away backward into the blue depths, leaving a small puff of water behind. 

"That was incredible," Larry said. "But Captain Dave — how are we going to get back up?"

Captain Dave had been wondering the same thing. He looked at the steep underwater cliff. The wall of rock and sand stretched up and up until it disappeared into the lighter water far above.

"Well, let's see what the Mellow Submarine can do," he said, moving to the control panel. He pushed the lever that controlled the submarine's buoyancy tanks. These special tanks could fill with air to make the submarine float up, or fill with water to make it sink down. Captain Dave pulled the lever to fill them with air.

They heard a gurgling, whooshing sound as water drained out of the tanks and air bubbled in. Slowly, gently, the Mellow Submarine began to rise.

 "It's working!" Larry cheered, watching through the window as the sandy bottom grew more distant beneath them.

As they rose slowly through the water, they saw even more amazing creatures. A football-shaped fish with orange spots and a grumpy-looking face watched them pass, its fins moving so fast they looked like little blurs.

"That's a snailfish," Captain Dave said. "They're named that because they move slowly — like snails."

"It doesn't look very slow to me," Larry said, watching the fish dart away. 

A crab with extremely long, spindly legs — like spider legs — walked along the cliff face. Its legs were so long and thin they looked like they might break, but the crab moved confidently across the rocks. 

"And that's a decorator crab," Captain Dave explained. "It puts things on its shell to help it hide — like decorating a Christmas tree."

Strange sea stars with many more arms than the five-armed stars they usually saw clung to rocks. Some had ten arms, some had twelve, and one had so many arms that Larry couldn't count them all.

"There's so much life down here," Larry said, "and we never knew it was right here in Deep Bay. We've swum over this spot dozens of times and never knew what was beneath us." 

"That's what makes the ocean so amazing," Captain Dave said. "There are always new things to discover, even in places we think we know well."

 Higher and higher they climbed. The water gradually got lighter and brighter. The deep blue slowly changed to turquoise, then to the familiar green-blue of the shallower water they knew so well. Soon they could see the kelp forest waving above them, the long brown ribbons swaying in the current like an underwater forest in the wind. 

Finally, with a gentle whoosh and a splash, the Mellow Submarine surfaced in the bright sunshine. 

"We made it," Captain Dave said with relief, taking in the bright light after the darkness below. 

"What an adventure!" Larry said. "We discovered a whole new world — just by accident." 

Captain Dave carefully steered the submarine away from the drop off, making sure to watch his charts more carefully this time. He marked the spot on his map with a special symbol. As they headed back towards shallower water, he thought about everything they'd seen. 

"You know, Larry," he said thoughtfully, "I made a mistake today. I didn't pay close enough attention to where we were going, and we could have been in real danger." 

Larry nodded, his claws folded in front of him. "But we learned something important, didn't we?" 

"We did," Captain Dave agreed. "We learned that even when we make mistakes, we can stay calm and figure out solutions."

"And sometimes mistakes lead us to wonderful discoveries," Larry continued, "like the invisible red shrimp—" 

"And the dancing octopus that changes colours," Captain Dave added. 

As the Mellow Submarine cruised through the shallow, sunny water, Captain Dave pulled out his logbook. "We should write down everything we saw. Other explorers might want to know about the amazing creatures living in the Deep Bay drop off."

Larry found a pencil and helped Captain Dave make a list: ratfish with enormous eyes, bioluminescent fish that made their own light, red shrimp in camouflage, Giant Pacific Octopuses that change colours, snailfish with grumpy faces, decorator crabs with spider legs, many-armed sea stars, and so many others.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Captain Dave said, his eyes twinkling as he finished writing. 

"What?" Larry asked. 

"We'll have to come back and explore more carefully next time — but we'll do it on purpose, and we'll be prepared for the deep water."

Larry bobbed excitedly. "Really? We can go back?"

"Of course," Captain Dave said. "There's so much more to learn. But next time we'll plan our dive carefully, check our equipment twice, bring extra lights, and make sure we're ready for deep-water exploring. We'll be proper deep-sea explorers." 

"Can we bring our cameras?" Larry asked. "I want to take pictures of the colour-changing octopus." 

"Excellent idea," Captain Dave said. "And we'll bring our measuring tape to see just how big that octopus was. I think its arms were longer than our whole submarine." 

As they headed home through the familiar waters near French Creek, both Captain Dave and Larry felt happy and excited. They'd had quite an adventure, learned about amazing creatures, and discovered that their home waters of Deep Bay held secrets they never imagined.

 The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky pink and orange and reflecting on the calm water. Captain Dave steered the Mellow Submarine toward home, already thinking about their next carefully planned expedition to the Deep Bay drop off. 

"I can't wait to tell everyone about the deep-water creatures," Larry said.

"And how important it is to pay attention to your charts," Captain Dave added with a smile. "Even experienced captains can learn new lessons."

As the Mellow Submarine sailed into the harbour, its yellow hull gleaming in the sunset light, both the captain and his first mate knew they'd always remember the day they accidentally discovered the wonders of the Deep Bay drop off.

 Eddie Van Haddock & The Rockfish: When the night falls softly and stars light up the sky, Captain Dave tucks his crew in with a gentle lullaby. Dreams of whales and mermaids, of treasures lush and green, await each little sailor aboard the Mellow Submarine.

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network, since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, and recreational investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at IanLindsay.ca.