day 17-18

We are still at bull harbour waiting for a decent weather window. It
appears to be moderating on this side of the island but there are still
gale warnings for the Northern End of the west side. There is an old
fisherman and his one man crew waiting to go up towards QC islands
fishing and they havent left either. He has been up and down these
waters for years so if he aint going neither are we!! His young crew was
tellling us that he was on the fish boat that sank and lost one crew;
captain didn't want to stop because he had a hold full of live fish that
he wanted to get to market.

I'm amazed at how quickly the day goes by without a whole bunch to show
for it. Yesterday we did some boat chores, each went our seperate ways
for walks,etc and were in bed by 10. This morning after coffee and bread
and a bit of a read, we ran the engine for an hour to charge up the
batteries. I was going to be clever and put some hot water into a
thermos to use to rinse the dishes but it was cold despite the engine
being hot.

When I checked, i found that the hoses feeding the hot water tank heater
were cold; immediately I went to worst case scenario: engine coolant
pump not working,etc. But since the engine was not overheating it had to
be something else. I suspected a clogged hose to the heater; I took off
hose after shutting down the engine and allowing it to cool. It had no
coolant in it but I could blow through it indicating no blockage. I put
it all back to gether, loosened the clamp on the hose while the engine
was running to confirm coolant flow; it now seems to be working. It was
likely a air GAP from the previous work on the heat exchanger.

After that I made a sat phone call to our Calgary coordinator to ensure
she was not worried thinking that we had left this a.m. to cross the
"Bar". The only upside to this weather delay is that each day, the time
of slack flow over the bar gets about 1 hour later which means more
sleep before we have to get up and leave.

An older couple came in and left a 16' aluminum boat they had salvaged
out on the channel; it has a large motor and fishing gear. Must have
gotten away from someone's dock.

Two questions that we need answers to that came up during the rambling
coffee discussions today:

1) is plankton a plant or an animal?
2) are fish divided up similar to mammals into fish that eat other
creatures (carnivore) and fish that only eat plants??

Over and out from Bull Harbour