Quick Summary of Our Travels, Meetups, Islands, Vancouver, and Another Repair

Allen takes a selfie with Norma with majestic Vancouver in the background.

We have had so much going on, much of it pleasurable and much of it dealing with repairs, that we have not shared a lot in our blogs. I will summarize:

• July 2 &3 was spent at Bedwell Harbor and Poet's Cove. That's where we entered Canada (Yea! Canada) and got to go swimming in their pool and took a walk where the Snuneymuxw Native tribes lived for 4,200 years prior.

• July 3: Ganges Harbor on Saltspring Island where we spent a wonderful time with Kay and Ken Greff on Seeker.

• July 4th: On Seeker, we celebrated with Ken and Kay and ate a wonderful meal of beans and brats.

• July 5th We met up with Scott and Donna Hansen on Celestial. They and Bill Schmidt and Deb McClure on Anakena were our guests for dinner, We were in Montague Bay on Gabriela Island.

• July 6th, Sunday, we were in Telegraph Harbor Marina on Thetis Island. We bought some great veggies at the "homor" store and kayaked through the "cut." We also played ping pong and ate ice cream! Great stop! Ice cream!

• July 7th--Monday-Pirates' Cove on DeCourcy Island where the infamous scoundrel and swindler "Messiah" Brother XII had set up a cult and eventually blew it all up after taking all of the money he stole from his hundreds (if not thousands) of believers.

Now Allen's story begins.

A week ago, while anchored at Pirates' Cove, Decourcy Island, we had a couple of days at anchor. The weather was quite cloudy, and so on the second morning, we decided to run the generator a bit. After about an half hour, the gen set shut itself down. During the subsequent inspection, we found the raw water pump had been leaking...

Time for a new raw water pump. Some hours of searching resulted in the realization that going back to Seattle was the only option that would work for us (long story, believe me), and so we kept up our plan to join the end of the Barefoot Raid race with Jaden and Jason Walker on Swallow. We had a fine time with both of them in Wakes's Cover off of Valdez Island on July 12th. After making sure they got the trailer to get their boat on to it, we headed off to Vancouver, BC with the plan that Allen would take a round-trip bus trip to Seattle to fetch a new pump. Norma had a lot of editing to do for the Magnolia Historical Society, so she would stay on the boat.

A wonderful sail across the Straits of Georgia

THE ROYAL VANCOUVER YACHT CLUB: We awoke early the day after seeing Jason, Jaden and S.V. Swallow goodbye and had a really nice sail across the Straits of Georgia and into Vancouver. We used the reciprocal dock at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, and what a nice club it is, located right on the promenade of Stanley Park and about a half mile to town. We walked into town and had ourselves some colorful soup dumplings.

Norma enjoys soup dumplings and seaweed salad

The next morning, Allen awoke at 5 am and caught the 19 bus to the Vancouver train station to take the Flixbus to Seattle ($50 US). Meanwhile, Norma had herself a good long walk through Stanley Park, the highlight of which was the First Nation Totem Poles.

First Nation Totem Poles at Stanley Park in Vancouver!

Allen got to Seattle in time for Adam and him to fetch the new part and go to lunch. We tried the Taco Truck near our house and loved it. That night, Allen joined Adam and his friends for their regular bowling night. Allen was exhausted but had fun with the guys bowling.

Another early morning for Allen, on Monday, he was back on a Flixbus bound for Vancouver. Unfortunately, the bus had a breakdown on the onramp to I5 and ended up being delayed for over 5 hours. Luckily Allen was reading Termination Shock by Niel Stephenson and so the time went by quickly as he finished the book while waiting on the bus.

The gen set with its new raw water pump!

Finally, at about 4 PM, Allen was back aboard Afterglow and installing the raw water pump. During testing the root cause of the issue was discovered: Seaweed had clogged the intake to the raw water strainer. Nothing made it to the strainer itself, but the pipe right at the inlet was completely clogged. This destroyed not only the impellor but the pump seals also. The pump was 27 years old and due for replacement anyway. Allen took the opportunity to clean the heat exchanger, change the oil and coolant and tighten the timing belt.

Sulfur Mound at Vancouver

Which brings us to this morning and finally Allen gets to sleep in (he is NOT a morning person). The current leaving Vancouver was favorable at Noon so that is when we left. Coincidentally, the book Allen finished was about shooting sulfur into the stratosphere to counter global warming (it was fiction, but an interesting read). On our way out we passed this huge mound of sulfur.

Paying it forward

No photos for this one. As we were headed for Gibson's Bay, where we are now, we heard a call to the Canadian Coast Guard. A powerboat had run out of fuel because they had just had maintenance on the tanks and the fuel gauge was stuck on full. We were passing nearby so volunteered to help out as we carry 20 gallons of diesel to spare. We gave them a Jerry jug which would get them into the nearest fuel dock, and they promised to return a full jug after we anchored. We left the scene but Allen was thinking he should have hung around until they got underway. It turns out they did not know how to prime their fuel injector and ended up calling their mechanic. He ended up coming out to them to prime the injector for them. We anchored up and had dinner then they came by with our Jerry jug filled with fuel.

Tomorrow we shall continue northwest up the sunshine coast. We are expecting to Rendezvous with two more Corinthian Yacht Club boats in the next few days. Stay tuned.