15 Sep 23

Happy Birthday to me; three score and ten. It was a lovely, clear, warm, calm morning when we finally crawled out of bed at about 08:00. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast up in the solarium, for a change. To catch slack water at Hole in the Wall at 11:30, we started getting the anchor up about 10:45; the chain was very muddy. We made a close pass by “Carisma” and promised to look for them on down the road; they may join us tomorrow at Roscoe Bay. After Hole in the Wall, we turned to the SE down Calm Channel, followed by Lewis Channel on the east side of West Redonda Island. We pulled into Refuge Cove at 14:22 to fill up the water tank and see if we could get some groceries, but the shelves were pretty bare - not even any ice cream. They did have gin and a bottle Bruchladdich, which has been hard to find this summer. We were only in Refuge Cove for about 45 minutes, then headed over to Roscoe Bay, where we anchored with a stern line ashore (to German Spotlight Hill) at 16:30. I managed to get a nice puncture wound on my right forearm in the process from one of the cotter pins on the starboard back stay; hope my tetanus shot is up to date.  

50-09.638’N, 124-46.133’W; Log = 31.0, Sum (2023) = 2882.3; Eng hrs = 5.6, Sum = 3567.0

16 Sep 23

We slept like rocks and woke up to another clear, warm morning. By 08:00, the sun was up over the mountains to the east and warming up the solarium very nicely, so we enjoyed a nice al-fresco breakfast. The morning was spent doing chores: defrosting the freezer, transferring the contents of the two diesel gerry cans into the tank and washing Terri’s walking shoes. Just before noon, we decided we were indeed closer than we liked to the reef to starboard, so we let go the stern line, picked up the anchor and moved a couple of hundred feet out into the middle of the bay and re-anchored, with no shore line. After lunch, we rowed ashore and walked up to Black Lake for a swim, but the water in the lake was not as warm as it might have been, so it was only a short swim, but very refreshing and nice to be swimming in fresh water, or any kind for that matter; that was only my second swim of the year. I could swim in the bay, as the water is warm enough, but there a millions of jelly fish swimming around, which sort of puts me off. We were back at the boat by15:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping in the cockpit. About 16:30, we saw “Carisma” cruise past the entrance to the bay, but keep on going. I called them on the VHF and convinced them that there was both room to anchor and that the entry was deep enough for them. They came on in and anchored nearby; we invited them over for cocktails and the ended up staying until 20:00. We had an omelette for a late dinner.

Log = 0.1, Sum (2023) = 2882.4; Eng hrs = 0.4, Sum = 3567.4

17 Sep 23

We were anticipating another relaxing day at Roscoe Bay, but boating got in the way. First, it was cloudy with occasional rain showers, so no swim in the morning. Then, I decided to run the generator for a while to charge up the batteries, which were not getting anything from the solar panel. After 45 minutes, a strange sound came from the generator compartment, I noticed that we were no longer making amps and started up the companionway to investigate, when I saw lots of smoke pouring out of the starboard locker, where the generator is housed - very bad. I immediately shut down the generator and opened the locker cover and smoke poured out. I got all the extraneous stuff out of the locker and opened the generator cover with some trepidation (and the fire extinguisher in my hand), but other a bit more smoke and a quantity of water in the bottom of the generator enclosure, there was nothing obviously wrong; oil level was at the top, coolant level was at the top. I then took the cover off the impeller and found that it was seriously disintegrated. I fished out most of the pieces, but need to flush the inlet and outlet hoses and the heat exchangers to get all the bits out. So, why was it disintegrated? I next checked the raw water inlet strainer and found it to be completely blocked with a large gelatinous mass that I took to be a jelly fish; well, there are millions of them in the bay. Nothing further to be done with the generator, so I put it back together until we get to Powell River and started the main engine to charge the batteries. I don’t understand why the generator did not shut down on overheating, nor where all the smoke came from, so I hope no permanent damage has been done. The generator has overheated before and shut down, as the result of a raw water blockage, but has never produced smoke like that. Ah, the cruising life for me. Jim came over and invited us for dinner on board “Carisma”, so we had another very pleasant evening chatting and yarning and swapping stories with them. We got back home just before yet another rain shower and it was still raining when I fell asleep around 22:00.

Gen. hrs = 0.8, Sum = 318.1; Eng hrs = 2.2, Sum = 3569.6