Puzzles

 We were up anchor at 5 am this morning. After a couple of days of constant movement, the anchorage was still. No time for breakfast. It was time to go. 

One of the things we did with our time at this location was to figure out a better way to tie up the anchor. When the waves get big, the bow pitches up and comes crashing down. If the waves are spaced at the right interval, the bow will crash down as the next wave drives up and all the force of the wave will  punch the anchor, shoving it with so much force that periodically the anchor is forced off the bow roller and over the side of the boat. Held by the chain, it swings against the hull and gouges the fiberglass. We figured out how to lift it higher off the deck, so the waves don't reach it as easily. 

We also set our jack lines. With big waves and windy conditions, it's nice to have a way to clip into a line if it's necessary to be out of the cockpit for any reason. Jack lines run the full length of the deck and came in handy when we needed to make adjustments to the anchor tie. 

The avocados we bought in Campbell River are ready to eat, so it's tacos for dinner tonight. It'll be an early dinner at a temporary anchorage and then we'll be up anchor again to transit the Chatham Channel at slack. That'll put us in Duck Cove before dark. Duck Cove is half way between our next two scheduled anchorages.  We're making up for lost time at our last anchorage. We have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep.

The truth is we want to round Cape Caution in the best conditions possible, but the weather forecast is constantly changing. If we line ourselves up for rounding on Tuesday based on today's forecast it probably won't be the best day by the time we get there. It's like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that are changing shape.

False Start

We spent the night pitching and rolling at anchor. The wind generator was howling or humming, depending on the wind speed. The rigging was clanking, rattling and moaning. In all that sensation, we both enjoyed a solid night of sleep. We woke at 5 AM, hoping for a reprieve from wind and waves, but got none. It was back to bed rather than head off into that storm. We'll go tomorrow when it's easier going. That gave us five more hours of sleep. We must've needed it.

French toast for breakfast, blue skies, conditions settling. Waves rolling in from the strait aren't what they were. Tides are with us no matter when we go tomorrow. We'll have a long day so an early start will be good.

High Five!

If the toilet repair made it sound like the resolution was anticlimactic, or that the conclusion was forgone, it was anything but. The pump is attached to the base of the toilet with screws that are designed to cut their own threads in the plastic. If the screws are too tight the threads in the plastic strip; too loose or use screws that are a fraction of an inch deeper and sewage leaks out. We spent a lot of time and effort looking for a way to make the old parts work because we wanted to preserve our options. We didn't want to screw up the new part by over-tightening and be left with no way to fix the problem. How tight is too tight and how loose is too loose? The effort to make the old base with the stripped screw holes work failed, but thankfully we didn't screw up the new base and all is well. High fives! It is so nice to have the toilet working again. Though it was convenient to toss our bags of garbage in the unusable bathroom. Now we have to make room for them somewhere else.

Hunkering Down

It’s been a couple days since my last post. We’ve been busy. We’re tucked behind a small island in a small bay at the start of Johnson Strait. The wind out in the strait has been blowing 35 to 45 kn. We’ll wait that out and spend a second night at this anchorage, protected from big wind and waves waves. The way the wind sounds in the fighting, I'm very glad we're not out in it  

It'll put us a day behind schedule, but that's much better than getting beat up by the weather. We're making mushroom risotto for dinner tonight. It'll be creamy, cheesy, and delicious. 

Ready set go

We are untying at 8:30 AM tomorrow. Weather is expected to be about 15 kn in our face for the next three days. That’s better than 30. I’ll take it.

The current is with us. Or should be. We’ll probably fly along at 6 kn, eat up the 8 miles to the the Seymour narrows in an hour and a quarter. If it takes 10 minutes to get out of the marina, we’ll have 20 minutes of waiting for the 10 AM slack.

Toilet is fixed, tanks are full, decks are clean, cupboards are bulging, crew is ready.

Listing

We're safely in our slip in Discovery Harbour, Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada.

It was a long day. We didn't do much except eat breakfast, pull anchor, navigate 28 miles, fill the fuel tanks, occupy our slip, fill the water tanks, check in with the Marina office, collect the parts delivered for the toilet, walk around town looking for #14 1" 316 stainless self tapping toilet screws, eat dinner, go to bed and a few other things.  

Today we'll try another place for those damn screws, think about using epoxy instead, see Tina off, go for a run, scrub the boat, re-provision, fix the toilet, fix the broken rubbish bin in the galley, check the engine, replace the sail drive oil, pump the bilge, shop, do some route planning, program the plotter, eat a couple of meals, write a better blog post, go to bed and a few other things.

Success? Stay tuned…

Weather

A weather system is making its move. A ridge is building off shore creating gale force winds from the southeast in this area. They tell us it will reach 35 knots this afternoon. We'll stay put for the day. I built a couple of weather days into the itinerary, so why not?

We're in Melanie's Cove, a landlocked anchorage that holds dozens of boats with sterns tied to shore later in the summer. At the moment there's only three boats in here. It's an excellent place to weather a storm.

We arrived in the afternoon yesterday and charged off for a 5 mile hike. Today was a little less ambitious. We hiked up to a ridge to see if a cell signal could be found. (No, but we did find one later in the day by rowing out to an island)

We put the bimini up to keep the cockpit dry. It's been raining on and off since last night. Every now and then a gust of wind comes through and rattles our world. The wind generator spins up, the bimini shakes, and the boat, suspended between stern tie and anchor, staggers like prize fighter reeling from the blow, but won't go down.

When there's no cellular coverage I have to send posts via satellite. I use an iridium Go! It's good for sending short messages, but photos are impossibly large to send.

Tomorrow we'll tie up in Campbell River. Two nights there to shower, fill tanks, and re-provision. And we'll get the toilet working again. I received an email yesterday that the parts I ordered are there waiting for us.

It turns out this message is too large to send by satellite. I'll have coverage after we leave in the morning. I'll post it then. That will allow me to include a photo or three.