We had planned on an easy morning, as Tessa planned on a 6pm slack at Seymour Narrows. We tackled what we thought would be a simple task of de-pickling the water maker (we fill the system with food grade glycol so the membranes don’t sour from lack of use over the winter season), but it turned into a multi-hour project as we couldn’t get the system to de-pressurize (Tessa was ready with a bowl to catch excess water), could only find charcoal filters and we also need a 5 microns (finally found one after tearing apart engine room storage), and then the high pressure pump wouldn’t pressurize correctly.
This is when we called it quits, shortly after 11am. What time was the slack at Seymour Narrows again? Tessa checked, and good thing, as it was FIVE pm, not SIX pm. We hurriedly got underway, as it would take us about five hours to get there.
Second “oh shit” of the morning: the low oil light was on for the stabilizers. We’d have to run without them. Which would be fine for this leg of the cruise, as we would be heading directly into the wind (and for the most part calm seas). But we would definitely want them for Johnstone Strait and rounding Cape Caution.
We kicked up the coals to 1400 rpm and made 14kts with the current (instead of 12kts) and made good time to Cape Mudge, the southern end of Quadra Island. Here, we know the current is always running South – regardless of the direction of the actual current. We also know from experience, to hug the Quadra Island shore for the back eddies running North. We had plenty of time, so we kicked it down to 1200 rpm, and again to 1100 rpm to transit Seymour Narrows forty minutes before slack with a 3kt push against us.
Seymour Narrows was relatively uneventful, as we transited with commercial traffic. North of Seymour was “supposed to be” calm. It looked like wind over tide, but we knew the current was still running with the NW wind. We used a commercial fishing vessel as a “wind block” aka tucked in behind him until our course deviated to the starboard to Granite Bay.
We put our “sailor hat” on, and went way North to come about South with the least amount of time with the swell on our beam (as our stabilizers were out of commission). We tucked behind Chained Islands out of the NW wind tumbling down Johnstone to pull the fish boat alongside, and headed into Granite Bay to anchor at 5:30pm – but our work had only just begun.
First task was to adjust the high pressure pump to get the pressure up from 400psi to 800psi where it needs to be for the water maker to make water. Like anything on a boat, nothing is ever easy – the high pressure pump is located outboard of the 20kw genset. Tessa facilitated the right tools and tested the water maker, as Tom did “boat yoga” behind the 20kw genset. We had success! However, the freshly made water still tasted like glycol. We let it run for forty five minutes or so, and the glycol content was down to a palatable hint of a taste. Check the water maker box: success.
Second task was to put oil in the stabilizers reservoir. Guess what – also outboard of the starboard main engine. This time Tessa slid her way around the front of the (still hot) starboard engine to try to complete the task. She wasn’t strong enough to turn the cap of the oil reservoir, so Tom squeezed his way around the engine to fill the oil. As we wanted stabilizers for our transit through Johnstone tomorrow morning. 2.5 qts of oil and almost as much of sweat, Tom did not recap the oil reservoir as tightly (thinking ahead that we’d have to do this again), and inched his way back inboard of the starboard engine. We were both dripping with sweat, 8pm, ready for a shower, dinner and a glass of wine.
As we’ve learned since the Bahamas, boating is just fixing issues in exotic places with no repair yard or marine store nearby. And so far this trip has lived up to this mantra. And as we have yet to detect the leak, we had more work waiting ahead of us tomorrow in Pt McNeill. Boating is FUN, they say!