day 16

Day 16:

Miles today: 15, all motoring.

We stuck to the plan and were off the hook at 06:50 with instant coffee
and peanut butter and banana sandwich. This timing would give us 2 hours
of a favourable current (albeit resulting in wind-over current
conditions but they were not too rough)

The wind had been blowing all night and the new forecast had upped the
ante predicting 20+kt winds by noon. We didn’t take any chances and
motored the whole way to Bull Harbour to ensure we were there in time.
Again, the wind was on our nose the whole way. About 1 hour out of Bull
Harbour we encountered a bit of ocean swell, so we are close to the
Pacific!

There were 2 boats taking shelter in Bull Harbour when we arrived and
another 2 arrived shortly after us. It is very windy in harbour so we
decided to tie up at the Native’s dock. This cost us 20/night along with
a $5/head fee to go ashore and explore. The woman who came to collect
our money was apologetic but said the Chief says that is the rule…fair
enough, as she said it is private land now.
Stewart and I went for a walkabout to the village and onto the beach on
the east side of this island ( Hope Island). There was a lot of wave
action on the beach and wind of course. We noticed a number of eagles on
the beach and when we got close we could see that they had been eating
on a carcass that had washed ashore. At first we thought it was an elk
or moose ( our Alberta roots showing again) since it had a large rib
cage and hair on it. Closer inspection showed that the fact it had
flippers ruled out an ungulate. Our next best guess is that it is a sea
lion.
There is something wrong with a beach walk that includes wearing toques
and gloves!!

There are no longer any ruins from the old Coast Guard station; some
building have been rehabilitated by the Natives, news ones built and old
sites have been cleared out. Families come here with their children,etc
for the summer; over winter there is a caretaker…. Must be a long winter
for them!

_Weather update: _winds are forecast to be 20-25 tomorrow and possibly
easing the next day. So we will be here for at least another day. The
weather down south in Johnstone Str. has been even worse; gales for the
last 3-4 days and today it is blowing 37 kts at Chatham point. If Ralph
and I had been delayed only one more day in Browns Marina with the
engine repair, we would still be there now waiting for the weather to
clear. We were so fortunate to have folks respond so quickly to our
problem.

_Problem update_:
The salt water footpump in the galley was not working because the
mounting had come loose. In the process of fixing this problem, I had to
take the fresh water hose from the 3-way valve. This valve allows the
foot pump to be connected to salt water (normal operation) or to the
fresh water tank as a backup if the electrical pump fails… a good idea.
What is bad is that the 3 way valve does not have mechanical stops and
it is possible ( I now know!!) to have it set such that the sea water is
partially connected to the foot pump and partially connected to the
fresh water hose. When Stewart and I returned from our walk, Ralph had
discovered water on the floor and looked to see that the freshwater tank
we had been using was now 100% full!! I tasted the water and sure enough
it was salt water. What had happened is that there was enough
hydrostatic pressure that seawater was forced through the partial
connection into the starboard water tank.
This meant having to drain the starboard tank, connect to the port tank,
flush out the salt water. I removed the fresh water connection to the
footpump, and plugged the 3 way valve outlet to ensure that even if it
moved due to boat bouncing around that it would not leak.
One plan was to negotiate with the natives for some fresh water; we used
the sat phone to call Winter Harbour and confirm that we would be able
to fill up with water there.
So we are back together with one full water tank, functioning salt water
pump for non-drinking use and an empty spare water tank.

This arrangement of the piping has to be fixed. I’ll add yet another
TODO item to replace the valving and do it properly. I can’t understand
why anyone would have designed a system that would allow for that
possibility.
The positive spin on all of this, is that since this trip is also
serving as a shakedown before a first offshore trip, it is succesful so
far.

Seems like the SKIPPER has been the biggest problem so far!?!