Once again conditions are perfect for paddling this morning. I set off for the Northwest anchorage, hoping to find something to photograph. It was so quiet all I could hear was my paddle striking the water. I searched in all directions and came up with zero photo ops. So, I decided to head for Booker Passage. It isn’t slack tide for a few hours, so I can’t go through to Cullen Harbour, but I just want to see what the current is like at this tide level. Even though I was almost two hours later than yesterday, the current didn’t look all that bad. But, chicken that I am, I decided I’d better not try it. I had just turned around and was heading back north, when I heard someone calling on my VHF. I thought it was just a fellow who had been talking earlier to another boat about some whales he had spotted. All I really caught was “Do you Copy”. The voice sounded stressed. Then, I heard “I need you back at the boat, now. We’ve got a major problem.” This time I recognized the voice as Al’s, and responded, “I’m on my way.” and started paddling as fast as my skinny arms could paddle, all the time thinking, “What kind of major emergency? Is he bleeding? Are we sinking? Is the boat on fire?” Well, I couldn’t see any smoke, so I felt fairly certain the boat wasn’t on fire.
It took what seemed like an eternity to reach the boat, although it was probably about twenty minutes. Al was ready to catch my lines as I got to the boat. I couldn’t see any blood, and the boat wasn’t setting any lower in the water. “What’s the problem?”, I said. “I’ll tell you when you’re aboard.” Uh, oh. “What did I do?” I asked. “Nothing you did”. Then he showed me a little bronze disk with a bolt in the center and pointed out a few cracks in it, one pretty severe. He said he was in the head when he heard the bilge pump come on. Then, about 3 minutes later, the pump came on again. Not good. So, he immediately went down in the engine room to take a look. At first he didn’t see anything. But when he got to the other side of the generator he saw water gushing out of the end cap on the generator’s heat exchanger. He immediately shut the generator down, turned the water off to the generator, and then went to see what the problem was. He discovered that the cover plate on one end of the heat exchanger had a gaping crack in it. Unfortunately, it’s not a part you would carry a spare for. Until we get a replacement part, we don’t have a generator. Well, I felt much better knowing the “major problem” wasn’t life threatening, but we would have to head for Port McNeill at the next slack tide in Booker Passage, which would be at 1245 hrs. That gave us almost three hours to go out and pull the prawn trap, process the prawns, stow the prawn gear, get the dinghy and kayak onboard, and eat breakfast. No problem.
When we pulled the prawn trap, there were three rock crabs and 38 prawns; not great, but enough for dinner tonight.
Al used our satellite telephone to call Steve Jackman at the marina in Port McNeill to ask if he could have the end caps shipped to the marina. Steve said that would fine. Al then called the marine parts supplier in Nanaimo that carries Westerbeke engine parts and, miracle of miracles, they had the parts in stock. Since the parts are coming from a Canadian supplier, we won’t have to worry about waiting for them to clear customs. We’ll probably have the new parts in a couple of days. We’ll see.
As luck would have it, the seas were flat calm, perfect traveling weather. Three hours later, we were tied up at the North Island Marina in Port McNeill. There were more boats in the marina than we’re used to seeing, but that’s just because it’s later in the summer. In talking with Steve, he says business has been a lot slower this year.
Summer Cruise Aboard "Jubilacion" 2017 