Captain's Log

I thought I might motor to Chatham Island this evening. While the wind was a respectable 10 Knots from the North, I had arrived a little late in the day and didn't want to bother rigging for sail. I know, lazy right? I wanted to see how the new dinghy towed. Turns out, it's a pig. The RHIB is OK, but the six horse power, four stroke outboard is too heavy. Under tow, the bow is up to high and the stern drags way too much water. While I don't really want to have to lift the damn thing on and off T2's transom mount, I might be able to improve the towing by removing the motor from the transom of the dinghy and lay it down farther forward, in an effort to flatten the dinghy while under tow. Still a hassle.

On another note, the engine (Yanmar Diesel) was not cycling it's typical amount of cooling water and there was much steam coming from the exhaust. So, I shut it down and opened the through-hull valve by a few more wrench turns. That seemed to take care of that and the engine is now performing nominally. Whew! After a half-hour motor to Chatham Island, it turned out that the North Easterly was blowing right off Haro Strait and into the anchorage. Given that the tide was fairly low, I couldn't get far enough into the bay to shelter from the wind. That and the fact that the sun was setting, I decided to forgo anchoring and return to Cadboro Bay.

Leaving Chatham Island, I soon had a warming fire going in the wood stove, below deck. When I returned to my mooring buoy, I quickly scurried below and warmed myself by the fire. I enjoyed some greasy meat and cheese for dinner and then left T2 and headed home. I can't wait for the days to get longer so I can enjoy evening sailing after work!

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En route to Chatham Island. Note the wake off the stern of dinghy.

Sunset through Banes Channel, returning from Chatham Island.

She's draggin a lot of water behind her.

Rio finally got out on the boat with me alone and under sail! He was so excited about it. He packed his suitcase, his back-pack, a snack bag and his fishing rod. It was a clear and sunny day with a light North Easterly wind. A perfect day for Rio's first sail. Tania dropped us off at Cadboro Bay and then carried on with the girls on a date downtown.

Rio and I launched the dinghy and were soon rowing out to T2. As per Tania's instructions, the first order of business was lighting a fire in the wood stove, in case Rio got chilled. After that, we raised the mainsail and ran out of the bay. Rio soon had his fishing rod rigged and was trolling for the big one. Glad he didn't catch a whale after yesterday's sighting.

We sailed and fished and snacked on croissants, dried mango, seaweed and figs packed by Havana. I was thrilled to finally be sailing with my son. He enjoyed it too and hasn't stopped talking about it since.

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I don't usually create a log entry unless I'm clocking sail or engine time. But I felt I had to make an exception in order to detail installing Cubic Cub on Trouper 2!

The Cub by Cubic (a Quebec based company) is a mini wood-stove. It's exceptionally well made at a very reasonable price of $500. This is the fourth furnace that has graced the main salon on Trouper 2. She was originally equipped with the notorious Chesapeake by Dickinson Marine. These stoves were problematic, to say the least and ours never worked properly. Looked damn nice though.

Once I finally gave up on the Dickinson, after Tom and I broke the carburetor and I couldn't find another one, I found a British made, brass, kerosene furnace. It stunk (as all kerosene appliances do) and needed to be pumped up frequently in order to keep burning. The needle valve gave up the ghost on one of the guy's weekends. It looked good hanging on the door of my shop for a while Next up, for all the 'good-ol'-boys' out there, a Hunting Buddy from Canadian Tire. The Hunting Buddy is a propane furnace with an oxygen sensor. Presumably that means if it sucks all the oxygen out of your cabin, it will turn off. I'm not sure if I'd be dead or alive when SAR finally found me.

Obviously I survived.

Enter this lovely wood burning stove, The Cubic Cub. Perfect for eating polish sausage hot dogs from Costco while listening to Johnny Cash on a cold January day...by.

The Cubic Cub arrives in the mail from Quebec.

How cute. I real wood burning stove!

Mounting hardware was not included, so I made my own out of a ten dollar piece of angle iron.

Straitening the original heat shield from the ol' Chesapeake.

No problem flattening the stainless. It's still a little curved but that's desirable.

A new piece of stanless sheeting between the stove and the heatshield. Stove is bolted to both.

With stainless steel stove pipe attached.

First burn with deck cap attached.

Freakin' out the neighbors. Burn baby burn!

The whole unit, stove and heat shield, hang on the bulkhead by four screws. We'll find out if this is a good thing or a bad thing in the days and weeks ahead!

Nice.

I didn't set out sailing to Oak Bay Marina. In fact the thought hadn't crossed my mind. What I intended to do was fix my broken clutch cable. Yes, the very same cable I had replaced by Gartside Marine back in the Spring. That didn't last long.

I had borrowed a die from Tom and managed to extend the short length of thread on the end of the cable where it attaches to the 'ball joint' on the Transmission 'operation lever'. In fact, I don't have a ball joint on my operation Lever. I have a brass slug which passes through a hole in the lever. This slug had become seized and that's what ultimately snapped the cable.

So, I extended the thread, screwed on the slug and applied a liberal amount of grease. I'll have to keep checking it to make sure it doesn't seize again. All in all though, I was happy to save $70 on a new cable.

After fixing the cable, I started the mighty Yanmar and tested the shifter. It worked. Yay. So I cast off my mooring lines and went for a bit of an about the bay cruise. Stopping in the middle of Cadboro Bay and drifting about for a while, I decided on sailing to Oak Bay Marina. It was around 16:30 by this time and I thought maybe Barnucka would still be working on his Trimaran, Inkla. 

The long and the short of it was, he wasn't there. So I put Trouper 2 in gear and steamed back to Cadboro Bay under running and steaming lights.

Next week, I'll endeavor to get the sails up. 

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Yanmar clutch cable connection

In a surprising turn of events, my wife actually suggested I get out on the boat this week to take advantage of the incredible fall weather. I love sailing the gulf Islands at this time of year. It's warm and sunny and there are no humans! So I fueled up at the Oak Bay Marina and sailed Trouper 2 to Sidney Spit. OK, I can't in good faith call it sailing when it was almost four hours of diesel noise but I justified it with the knowledge I only had one night and wanted to do some hiking on Sidney Island. BTW I bought 36 litres of diesel which cost $49.73.

Arriving mid-afternoon, I squared Trouper 2 away, jumped in my R.I.B. and visited the National Marine Reserve campground, located at the mouth of the lagoon. What a difference a few weeks makes. There were no scantily clad high school girls cavorting in the field this time around. Actually, there were only 7 other boats at anchor and all of the docks have been removed. No foot passenger ferries either so, basically Sidney Spit was 'closed'.

I try to always bring back something for the kids when I go out on Trouper 2 and this time was no different. Because of the large population of deer on the Island, I thought it would be cool to find an antler or two to bring back for show and tell. I spent the next hour hiking around the meadow near the campground and finally managed to actually find one. At first it looked like a mushroom peeking up through the grass but on closer investigation it was the tip of an antler! Exciting.

I love the feeling of being alone in the late summer sun in spectacular surroundings. As I told Tania, it's my cathedral. I was soaking it up. I had deployed the crab trap shortly after dropping the anchor but after checking it and moving it a couple of times, I left in in over-night. One of the power boats that was anchored nearby, cruised by and Terry, (the Skipper) asked if I caught any crabs. I said; "Not yet". So he asked if I wanted a couple. Of course I said yes. I asked him what he was using for bait and he told me chicken. I said; "I'm using chicken too. Where did you buy your chicken.....?" He said he bought his chicken at Fairways. See, that's the rub. I buy fresh chicken not the half-rotten product sold by Fairways. Crabs like their meat 'bad'.

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While sailing the gulf islands, a foreboding reminder of the consequences of fire at sea.

I came across this wrecked Minto while sailing the Gulf Islands. The fire had returned the prow to fiberglass mat and roving.

Not sure if it's related but kinda coincidental spotting this military helicopter in the same vicinity as the fire damaged Minto. Just sayin'

The meadow at Sidney Spit. Ideal antler hunting.

Ta Daaaaaa!  Daddy's bringing home some show-and-tell kids. Antler found in meadow.

I wanted to go ashore but.....

...on inside of what exactly? The campground is closed but there's still hand sanitizer in the pit toilets!

Captain Terry and partner leave the spit on-board 'Fish N' Chix' after dropping off a couple of Dungeness crabs.

Two crabs and a foot. Thanks Captain Terry.

Surf n' turf for dinner. Ribs, crab, spuds and Caesar salad.

Sunset after a breathtaking fall day at Sidney Spit.

After safely arriving at Portland Island I cut open the strip loin I bought from Save On Foods and applied a generous portion of seasoning followed by a liberal brush of extra virgin olive oil. But when I tried to turn it over to season the other side, I realized it was vacuum packed and there was another layer of plastic to cut through. Fortunately I had lots of seasoning and oil. Hilarious.

On a more serious and potentially life threatening note, I almost blew myself up with my Sea-B-Que. I had it out on the Port side cockpit lazarette, hooked up to a 5 lb. propane tank, preheating the grill. I kept smelling propane but dismissed it as paranoia. That’s when the regulator caught fire.

I couldn’t believe it. The whole regulator unit, sticking out of the side of the bar-b-que was engulfed in fire. Engulfed I tell ya. The end of sailing days passed before my eyes.Naturally and without thinking I turned off the valve on the propane tank, which was lying only inches away from the open flame! Catastrophe avoided.

It’s 21:24 and there have been no further safety concerns. Although I’m writing this in the glow of my propane heater. Doors and hatches are battened down. We’ll see if I’m alive to post this later.

 Boston is on the stereo. I’m warm and happy and almost ready to call it a day and slip off of this conscious plain. Goodnight from Portland Island.

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 Bar-B-Que strip loin, roasted potatoes and Caesar salad for dinner.

In another first for her current Master, I sailed Trouper 2 off and on her mooring buoy tonight. Just imagine, sailing without an engine. Who knew you could do that?

There was a pleasant North wind blowing 5-10 Knots, and I enjoyed a brisk transit of Baynes Channel with the flood. Come to think of it, I did alright coming back against the flood as well. Let's chalk it up to the amazing capability of the crew.

Unlike last week, the wind didn't fail me and, as mentioned I managed to avoid the engine altogether. Entering Cadboro Bay, near the end of my sail I crossed the Wednesday Night Racing, finish-line. I asked for and received the horn from the race committee for crossing.

Another lovely sail under perfect fall conditions. I Can't wait til next week.

Entering Cadboro Bay from Baynes Channel. The fleet is in the background.

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Enjoyed a very nice sail under main and Genoa. The wind was light but enough to get out to Plumper Passage and back. My new method of single handed sailng on board Trouper 2 is to raise the main while on my mooring buoy and then sailing off without using the engine.

Speaking of the engine, it looks as though my original battery is nearing end of life. I had to switch over to my second battery in order to start the engine.

I managed to use up every last bit of wind and by the time I had put Trouper 2 to bed, Cadboro Bay was dead calm. 

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Here's a photo of my new boat. (In my dreams....)

Trouper 3?

West 5 - 10 Kts. Smoke from all of the forest fires in the province obscured the sun.

I managed to get out for Wednesday night racing. I don't race but I like to be out sailing when all the boats from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club are racing.

The wind was light and variable until I approached Plumper Passage. Then it was quite fresh and exhilarating. I sailed under main and jib and was quite comfortable.

A strange thing happened when the wind picked up. I managed to get my jib sheet caught on one of my port side turnbuckles. The pin ring actually pierced the sheet and prevented me from tacking. I had to come up into wind in order to free the sheet.

Ironic because I started off with rigging tape around all the rings when I attached them to the turnbuckles but later removed the tape because I was worried it was trapping water. Of course the literature suggests using the tape to avoid damaging your sails. But I never thought the sheet would get hung up.

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Catching up with the fleet on 'race night'

It would be sunny and hot if not for all the damn fires burning in the province.

Sun setting on the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.

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Dodging BC Ferries en route to Portland Island.

Trail marker on Portland Island.

Princess Bay, Portland Island.

Beating the heat with my chair in the surf at Shell Beach.

Galley made Bolognese sauce on pasta!

SHARK!

Sunny South 5-10 Kts. Flood tide.

Tania is in S.O.S. over her relentless crisis management with Hab. So no day at Sidney Spit. :-(

I took the bus to Tsehum Harbour and spent an hour or so visiting Tom. Finally I cast off and motored back to Caddy Bay. Tom suggested I talk to Janet about cheap moorage out there. Not sure about year round as I don't have a fucking car but it's certainly an attractive option for the Summer cruising season. Following our family cruise on Sunday, someone packed all of the sunscreen and took it off the boat. So I had to hide in the companionway all the way home to avoid turning into a lobster. It was hot. We're in the middle of a 'Special Weather Statement' heat wave.

Boat continues to perform flawlessly. God bless that Japanese diesel!

Not the Savana. Sidney Spit meadow.

Fully loaded and heading for the Spit.

Rio and I enjoy a San Pelagrino at the Spit.

Havana shakes hands with the devil.

Look mom, a dead fish!

India, Rio and Havana chasing  birds at the Spit.

India doing 'the crab'.

Ivan, Maria and Tania enjoy some quite time after throwing the children overboard.