Barkley Sound Day 6 – The Dinghy Fail

We woke up later than usual, you know, 8:10am, with no real plan for the day. We had some breakfast and decided to head to the little store in East Bamfield, which is at the dock near the head of Bamfield Inlet. So we all piled into the dinghy, fired it up, and headed out for a little wet excursion. It was still cloudy and misty like yesterday but we soldiered on. Once we got to the market and tied up to the dock we met the post office manager who told us, “if you don’t have any stamps just drop your mail in the slot with some cash and I’ll figure it all out for you.
Then we headed in to the store and proceeded to buy EVEN MORE food. The girls wanted candy, I needed a breakfast sandwich, and we needed a few other items to complete the menus we have in mind. Devon checked out the “treehouse bathrooms” which are basically just composting toilets up on stilts. West Bamfield has a long boardwalk that runs along the businesses and houses, and the bathrooms are a little jaunt down that boardwalk from the store.
Next we dinghy’d back to the boat and relaxed, put the new food away, and the girls did quiet time. I nearly fell asleep since I wasn’t doing anything and had built up some #tired. After lunch and quiet time, we decided to head back out to the boardwalk to explore, find the “bistro” for some coffee and then walk to “Brady’s Beach” on the north side. The dinghy motor failed a few times on the way to shore but we got there in the end after getting it running again each time. The boardwalk walk was longer than I expected and once we got to the “bistro” it was closed. It looks pretty cool actually, but I really dislike places that supposedly serve coffee but with hours posted as “sporadic and unpredictable” since that tells me nothing about when I can come back and actually BUY (ie: GIVE THEM MONEY) for coffee.
So we soldiered on again and headed over the hill from there towards Brady’s Beach. This turned out to be quite a bit farther than we’d anticipated with some fairly steep hills. The beach was pretty nice though, very nice sand, some awesome tide pools, steep rocks, a chair mounted up high on rocks, sea caves, and more. The girls played with sand toys with another family for a while, got their feet wet in the ocean water, and then got cold/tired and wanted to go home. In the future we should being towels, sand toys, and a change of clothes. So we walked back to the dinghy, another long slog with a steep uphill grade. Overall the walk to and from the Bistro and Brady’s Beach was about 3 miles. One way from the Government Dock to Brady’s Beach is 1 mile, in case you are planning on it in the future.
Back at the dinghy, it wouldn’t start. I tried everything. So we pulled out the oars and Devon started rowing (with all 5 of us) while I continued working on the motor. We didn’t get too far from the dock when a nice little Alberg from Vancouver powered in and offered to tow us the rest of the ~1 mile to our boat. Then they anchored themselves a little bit north of us and went ashore.

By this time, it was time for dinner and Katherine offered to make Chicken and Rice for dinner. I set to work trying to diagnose the dinghy motor and pulled out the tools while Devon found the rum. I pulled the spark plugs to check–they seemed okay. I pulled off the fuel filter–seemed okay. I then poured all 3 gallons of gasoline into a bucket, and then filtered it back into the dinghy tank checking for water and particles. Nothing seemed to be a problem. I then swapped the spark plugs with new ones, losing one of the old ones to the water in the process. Still no start. Just then a boater came over in his dinghy and offered a hand. He was convinced he could solve the problem. So he played with the safety key a bit, pushing it in tighter and farther and BAM the engine started like it had been waiting to start ALL FREAKIN DAY because it had been. I was SOO pissed–and thankful at the same time.
Capt’n Pete (as we’ll call him from now on) said that the safety switches get worn out and need to be sort of manhandled a bit more. But I realized the actual problem. I was using the Yamaha key on the Tohatsu motor. The Tohatsu key is thicker and pulls the safety switch out further. This wasn’t the first time this has happened. Deep down I knew it was the damn key the whole time, and apparently Devon knew it too. Last time it happened I swore to remove the Yamaha key from the boat, and this time I had thought all day that I had removed it, so the key must be the correct one, but alas, I was mistaken. Put the Tohatsu key in and all was well.

Capt’n Pete, as it turns out, runs a fishing charter on his 46ft Maxum.. And invited us to go fishing tomorrow (for a fee of course) which would include advice on how we can catch fish from our boat on our own. Feeling a bit thankful for his help on the dinghy, and actually wanting to go fishing, we signed on for an 8am fishing trip tomorrow. Part of me wonders how much on the up and up Capt’n Pete is but we’ll give it a shot. The kids and Katherine all seem like they want to try it out.
After that, I convinced Devon to try showering on a boat for the first time in her life. She has a stigma about it (“no showering on the boat, it wastes water”). We fired up the genset to charge the batteries and warm up the water heater and off she went, and I think she enjoyed it, as much as someone can who’s also worrying about wasting water. Incidentally, with the two chargers on the boat, we can charge the batteries from 70% to 95% in 1 hour with the genset. About 160amps of charging at 1/3rd of a gallon of fuel per hour. The weather is clearing now and it’s really starting to look like a nice evening.

Also incidentally, our poor shore neighbor (whoever they are) with the unsecured WiFi must be confused by now, we are pretty much blowing up their router with our extender. Sorry! Put a password on your WiFi next time.

* Anchored in Bamfield, Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, BC
* Engine Hours: 0 hours
* Genset Hours: 624.4 – 627.0 = 2.6 hours
* Water Consumption: 318 / 8.1 = 39 gallons
* Water Produced from Watermaker = 4 gallons (only ran for 30 minutes)
* Barometer at 1016mb and rising