The Case of the Chocolate Vacuum

Note: We’ve had little to no cellular coverage for the last week or so and we have several blog posts queued up. . Sorry for the delay

(July 21st, 2017)

The morning after the Limestone Cave tour, we departed our anchorage behind Divide Island and found quite a bit of wind outside the protection of the hills. It was blowing a good 25+knots from the east, so staying close to shore provided some wind protection. The forecast indicated the wind would die down in the evening. As we exited the small channel from our anchorage we heard over the radio that Sea Otter’s engine temp was rising. They discovered that they were not getting enough sea water through the engine to keep it cool. There was nowhere to “pull-over” so they put up some sail to keep going until they got clear enough to shut down and repair. Ruby Slippers came close and transferred a crew member over to help, diagnosing first the raw water pump impeller (which turned out to be okay) and then the sea strainer which was not clogged but had been re-seated incorrectly last time it was emptied. After fixing that the engine was running fine, so they soldiered on. We slowed down to fish in the outer channel bringing one salmon on board which we believe was a sockeye rather than the coho “silvers” that we’d been catching.

I spent a little time below vacuuming up the boat, which proved to be quite aromatic since the vacuum smelled like chocolate. Last night while looking for candles for Sea Otter, Morgan spilled some cocoa powder in her room, which was eventually vacuumed up. I emptied and cleaned out as much of the vacuum as I could, but the powder was still embedded in various nooks and crannies inside the vacuum and the smell remained. Oh well, there are worse smells.

For lunch I prepared some red and yellow bell pepper strips with smoked salmon and cream cheese on wheat thins.

We arrived in Wooden Wheel Cove and took a bit to find a spot to anchor but we found a spot eventually. Some boats found some dock space and rafted, others anchored near the docks. We anchored across the bay to find a shallower spot.

There was a seal swimming inside the kelp bed behind us chasing little fish. Dozens of fish jumping out of the water at times, the seal lying on his back for some time, then diving back down chasing the fish.

We dinghied to shore at 4:30 to check out the store, but it closed at 4pm so we missed it. There was, however, free wifi outside the store so we sat there for a while while Devon caught up on some work, the girls used their iPads, and I checked email, the budget, and bills.

We watched The Lego Batman movie, had pork chops for dinner (what?! no salmon?), and relaxed while it rained, a lot.

Next up, Devil’s Elbow and Rocky Pass which looks pretty hairy, we will need to time it just right for high slack as it is quite narrow, shallow and contains lots of rocks.

Did I mention it rains a lot here?