Monday August 4th:
Plans have been changed.
One of the main reasons we wanted to stop in Nanaimo was to go scuba diving on a sunken (on purpose) battleship. The name of the ship is The HMCS SASKATCHEWAN. It was sunk on purpose in 1997 as an artificial reef just outside of the city of Nanaimo. This would have been a very cool Awesome dive, but the wind was blowing 25-30 knots today, and even the dive charters were not going out to the dive site. The waves were just too big. So we decided that if the dive charters were not going, it would probably be a smart thing, not to go ourselves.
We found this out at about 11am. So we wandered around town, trying to figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. I just happened to check the tide/current tables at the marina information booth and saw that slack tide was in a little over an hour from now. In order to head south we had to go through one last narrows, Dodd Narrows. And it just so happens that the narrows were just under an hour away from where we were. Soooooo, We hauled ass down to the docks, jumped in the dinghy and made a mad dash to the boat. Hauled up the anchor and headed south. We decided that we’d rather be anchored out in some small out of the way anchorage than hang out in town for another day.
Luckily for us, the wind that kept us from scuba diving was blowing out of the north and we were headed south. So we had a fast down wind run to Dodd Narrows………
As we were sailing along, Tawn pulled up a floor board to check things out. And noticed that there was a huge amount of water pouring in from around the prop shaft.
SHIT! Is putting it mildly.
We had to make a decision, and make it fast. Tawn took the helm and I grabbed my toolbag and flashlight and went headfirst into the bilge to see what was going on. The plan was for Tawn to sail the boat towards Dodd’s Narrows so we could make the tide if I could fix the problem before we got there. If not, we would turn around and get out butts back to Nanaimo and get the problem checked out.
Luckily as soon as I turned on the flashlight I knew what the issue was. It’s hard to describe, but basically, there is a metal collar that is fitted around the prop shaft and is pushed up against rubber boot. Much like a shock absorber boot. The prop shaft goes out from the engine through the bilge to the outside water to spin the propeller. Since it has to spin, you cannot make this a water tight seal. So water flows in from the outside into this rubber boot. The metal collar pushes up against the boot and is held there by two set screws. Those screws had worked their way loose and the boot pushed the collar back just enough to allow it to leak like crazy.
So as Tawn was steering us towards the Narrows, I pushed it back into it’s proper place and tightened the screws…problem solved. Vacation still on.
We actually ended up getting to the Narrows a little bit early. So we hung out for a bit and waited for the tide to turn in our favor and cruised through.
Since we had left in such a rush we really did’nt have any particular destination in mind, so we pulled out the charts and decided to go to Montegue Harbor which is located at the south end of the Gulf Islands. Dodd Narrows in at the north end.
However, our alternator had other plans.
As soon as we exited the narrows, the wind completely died, since it was out of the north and now completly blocked by the islands we had just squeezed between. So we fired up the motor. Since we had already had a few issue with the alternator, we were more than a little bit paranoid about it. So after starting the engine, Tawn checked the regulator to make sure the alternator was working correct.
It was not.
Hooray!!!
I spent the next 4 hours tracing every frackin wire coming from and going to that alternator. I knew that regulator had to be good. I knew that the alternator had to be good. Both were brand frackin new. So it was down to wiring. When I tell you it was the last, LAST absolute wire I had to check, I am not lieing or embellishing. I ran, tested or replaced every wire that went between the alternator and regulator. They all checked out just fine. I had one more to go.
I had actually tested this one earlier and it passed. I tested it agian and it failed!? I then replaced it and WAh-fucken-hooo! it worked. One stupid ass $1.39 inline fuse holder was the reason I was upside down in the engine compartment/bilge for the last 4 hours.
Give me those damn killer hornets anyday.
Since the wind was none exsistant, Tawn had spent the whole time keeping Palarran off the rocks and tweaking the sails doing some awesome light wind sailing, and dealing with currents. We did’nt make it very far in those four hours, less than 2 or 3 miles. So we decided to pull into the nearest bay, Clam Bay, for the rest of the day and spend the night.
Clam Bay was big and open, but fairly well protected. We picked a spot on the north end of it and dropped the hook.
The bay is on the east side of two islands (Thetis Is. & Kuper Is.) These two islands are divided by a very narrow, very shallow water way called “The Cut”. On the other side of The Cut is Telegraph Harbor. The Cut is actually pretty wide, but there is a very narrow section through the middle of it that you could get a dinghy through or very small motor boat. The picture below was taken as we were just getting to the Telegraph Harbor end of the cut in the Dinghy, looking west.
Once on the other side, we stopped and got some ice cream and beer. We did’nt do much else in Clam Bay. In fact we just lounged around the boat once we got back.
