17 Jul 22

We had a very pleasant night and a good night’s sleep, awaking to an absolutely cloudless sky. We had decided to move to Nuchatlitz Bay and to fish along the way; as the turn of tide was 10:11, we got going about 09:30. We both fished along the west and east banks of Esperanza Inlet between Birthday Channel and Rosa Island anchorage; although I got one good strike, it jumped out of the water and shook the hook out, and that was it. We motored into Nuchatlitz Bay and anchored at 12:30. As we were going astern (to set the anchor), we experienced a lot of vibration of the binnacle as we went astern and revved up the engine. And, as we had anchored a couple of hundred feet from a Nordhaven power boat, “Irene”, Sequim Bay - American, of course, they came out and shouted at us that we were too close, given the entire bay was empty. We smiled and said to ourselves “isn’t that nice”, and then simply ignored them. They have obviously never anchored in any bay in the San Juans where there would typically be another boat between them and us. Anyway, I did not need that shit with a potential transmission issue looming. I pulled the engine/transmission cover off and had a look at everything; nothing amiss, that I could tell. John and I spent an hour or two going through Nigel Calder’s books on marine diesel engines and going through the trouble-shooting guides; nada. Finally, after looking at the prop with the GoPro on a selfie-stick and seeing nothing wrong, I struggled into my wet-suit and went for a dive in the 13 deg C water; again, all correct and normal. We debated whether to head back to Tahsis (where there is a marine mechanic), either this afternoon (too late for a comfortable arrival time) or tomorrow. We figured out how to communicate with each other in that event - Spot X to Garmin InReach; it worked. Finally, having exhausted all other options, I simply started the engine up again and put it in reverse, and, wait for it, everything seemed just fine. Go figure; maybe it was some kelp or eel grass stuck on the prop or something. Or maybe I am still extremely paranoid after yesterday’s grounding and jumping at every shadow. But there was a serious, unusual vibration there for a bit. After I got dried off and put all the tools away and put the stern cabin back together, it was too late to do anything but have a beer and happy hour. About that time, another sail boat came into the bay and anchored just as close to “Irene” as we did; sort of gave me a warm feeling all over.  

49-48.733’N, 126-57.751’W; Log = 8.1, Sum = 418.7; Eng. hrs = 3.4, Sum = 2958.8