Looking forward to High Season at Gorge Harbour Marina

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Heather Reimer took over as General Manager of Gorge Harbour Marina in February.

Her day usually starts at 6:30 AM with coffee as she looks through the emails that came in throughout the night. Two hours, and several cups of coffee later, Reimer will usually be in the office.

She and her partner Ron Quire are currently overseeing the activities of more than 50 employees:

10 in the Gorge Harbour General Store.
4 in the office
10 in the maintenance department that's taking care of the campground, RV sites and all of the maintenance needs of the property.
10 to 15 working part time and a few full time, in the Floathouse Restaurant.
6 in the marina,
5 housekeepers
3 more employees were hired this week

“Right now we're running at about 50% occupancy. In another week, we will be running closer to 90 -95%,” she said.

They have four rooms in the lodge, 14 RV sites, 90 tent sites and 1,800 linear feet of dock space to oversee.

Reimer works seven days a week, but they aren’t all 10 hour days.

“Some of those days are only four hours. I consider that to be a holiday.”

She likes to take long walks. That gives her a quiet time to think through the day’s challenges.

“I get a lot of problems solved on those walks,” she said. “I am pretty full on all of the time. My priority is the care and feeding of this resort. So it's always on my brain.”

Reimer started working in resorts when she was young and worked her way up the management ladder until 2000, when she was hired by
TYAX Lodge & Heliskiing. They provided heliski holdiays in the winter and mountain biking in summer for up to 100 guests.

She and Quire went sailing from 2010 to 2016.

“We sailed all the way down to the Galapagos and had many, many adventures. The ocean is very much close to our hearts and that was the reason which really drew us to this place,” explained Reimer.

Their 53 foot trawler is currently in Port Townsend, but it will be coming up home to the Gorge. Reimer and Quire intend to explore Desolation Sound and the Disovery Islands.

“I knew some of the principles here at QXMC. They encouraged me to apply for a management position to run Gorge Harbor, and I very happily did so.”.

“Ron is my other half. He's been with me through thick and thin, on the seas and off the seas. We're running this place side by side. We also have another couple here, Lisa Argue and Zoa Scott. They are our assistant managers and we are very much a team in running this place together. I'm more of the spokesperson, but it's very much a team effort not only with them, but certainly with the entire group of employees that we've got here.”