I’m flying to Chicago next week and then back to Newfoundland for a few weeks of snowmobiling in Feb so Deb and I decided to get some sailing in and head to Ganges, Saltspring Island for the weekend.  We packed a few things and headed to the boat Saturday morning where we loaded our gear and cast off by 09:45am…

After a quick steam out from the marina, we raised the sails near Kamai Pt, Coal Island and sailed NE towards Moresby Island.  We tacked back towards Portland Island but lost our wind in the lund of Portland Island so we motored north for 20 minutes until it picked up again.  Then we enjoyed a nice sail up Swanson Channel and into Captain Passage where we dropped the sails and steamed to Ganges.  I checked the motor frequently and things remained cool so I’m relieved the overheating issue is resolved…

Winter sailing is surprisingly pleasant if you are dressed for it.  We both took turns dropping into the cabin to get a quick warm up from the warmth of the Dickinson and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and some warmed up bone broth…  Ah, life’s good…

We tied up at Ganges Marina, had a beer and went for a walk around the market at Ganges.  After an hour or so we ended up at The Oystercatcher Seafood Bar and Grill and went inside for a few drinks and appetizers…  The calamari was excellent.  Everyone we talked to at Ganges was very relaxed and easy going and we watched the sun go down while overlooking the marina.

We retired for the night back aboard Treylya where we enjoyed a drink of Jamesons and turned in around 9pm after a full day.

We awoke the next morning to a peaceful island sunrise and after a lazy start we fuelled up and cast off near noon.  The wind was fairly light and from the SW which was in our face for most of the trip back so we decided to motor the whole way back.

About an hour into our journey home there was a loud thump which seemed to come from the v-berth at the forward of the boat.  Deb came up and took the helm and I did an inspection but couldn’t find the source of the bang or any damage so I assume we hit a submerged log or something.  Kinda scared the crap out of us but everything seems OK and there’s no water pouring in so I’m not too worried.  I’ll do a more throughout inspection once we’re back on dry land.

We took a small detour and circled around Princess Bay on Portland Island to check it out.  Looks like a nice little anchorage close to our marina so we’ll have to plan a night there on one of our next outings.

We pulled into our slip around 16:00, packed up and made for home…

Day 1: 20160123
09:45 – 15:17
Total time: 05:33
Sail Time: 03:10
Engine Time: 02:23

Day 2: 20160124
11:41 – 16:03
Total Time: 04:22
Sail Time: 0
Engine Time: 04:22

Wanting to take care of this overheating issue right away I came back to the boat on Monday following our weekend.  I started the engine and found that no water was coming from the exhaust and within a few minutes the exhaust elbow was too hot to touch again.

I’ve been researching the issue online and I’ve read 100s of posts on various websites saying that the issue could be caused by anything from clogged raw water pipes, to a bad heat exchanger, a bad thermostat, a bad impeller, a clogged raw water strainer, plugged raw water inlet, plugged exhaust elbow, etc… I already did the easy things like checking the impeller, cleaning the raw water strainer and checking the raw water intake to no avail.  I suspect it’s either the heat exchanger or a plugged exhaust elbow.

I started out by removing the heat exchanger as it’s looking in pretty rough shape.  I’ll take it somewhere to get it rebuilt this week.  John, the previous owner of Treylya, mentioned that it hadn’t been serviced in 5 years and it shows.

I blew into each tube coming off the heat exchanger to see if they were blocked and air passed thru each pipe except the one leading to the exhaust elbow.  I blew until I was red in the face and I couldn’t force any air thru the pipe.  Hmmmm…  Something’s not right here…  I decided to take the exhaust elbow off and found it to be plugged with scale and rust…  Not good…  The inlet at the top of the elbow where the water from the heat exchanger enters the elbow was completely blocked by crud and over the years of heat and pressure it was as hard as iron.

The water which was suppose to come into the top inlet was suppose to be flushed thru the head of the elbow (keeping it cool) and injected into the exhaust pipe but all water inlets were fully or partially blocked and the water outlets were non existent…

I took the heat exchanger and exhaust elbow to a local marine shop (Gartside Marine Engines) and they showed me where it was blocked and suggested that the elbow probably needed to be replaced but that I should bring the exchanger to a local auto transmission shop and get them to rebuild it.  I followed their advice and ordered a new elbow and dropped the heat exchanger off to Townside Auto in Victoria.

By the end of the week the parts were ready so I picked up the new elbow and couldn’t believe the difference…  This was probably the main source of the issue as the flow of water was blocked and therefore no water was circulating and therefore the heat exchanger couldn’t do it’s job of transferring heat from the engine.  The new elbow should make a big difference.

Next I dropped over and picked up the new heat exchanger and it looked brand new.  I’m ecstatic about what a great job the shop did to rebuilt it.  Initially I was concerned that the exchanger was ruined so I priced a new one and a new Volvo replacement part was $2100.  The rebuild cost was only $200.  I’m so relieved…  I installed it and moved to the exhaust elbow.

Before reinstalling the elbow I checked the coolant and raw water pipes and found that the pipe which goes from the heat exchanger to the elbow was about 90% blocked.  There was built up of scale and rust and only a small hole, about the size of a head of a match, remained open…  In a previous email John mentioned that the water flow was always low on Treylya but he never determined why.  I think I found the issue…  I grabbed a screwdriver and scraped it out and after about 30 minutes I had it opened up pretty good.  That should help…

The next thing that I thought I would check was something I read online about a pipe that runs thru the head with small holes in it that sprays water into the head to keep it cool.  This is called the “water distribution pipe” in the Volvo Penta Workshop Manual.  Sometimes the holes get plugged with scale which can lead to overheating issues.  I took the connecting tube off the end of the pipe and shone a light in to check the holes.  They all looked pretty good but I took a small piece of wire and poked each one to ensure they were clear.  All was good so I put the tube back on the end of the pipe.  One less thing to worry about…

Next was to reinstall everything…  I purchased a few steel brush heads for the drill and some sandpaper and spent the afternoon cleaning rust from the engine.  Once the exhaust area was clear of rust I cleaned and spray painted the surfaces.  To reinstall the elbow I installed the exhaust tube, placed the gasket onto the block, then lined up the elbow and screwed the bolts down.

The old bolts looked pretty tired but it was getting late and I just wanted to get the elbow back on so I decided to reuse the same bolts.  Bad idea…  The first 3 went on pretty good but the forth twisted off as I was applying the final bit of pressure to it…  Oh no…  WTF!  How the heck did I make such a dumb mistake?!?  It was the end of the day and I was tired from wrestling with this all day so I decided to leave it for the morning.  Groan…

Next morning I stopped by Home Hardware to pick up a screw extractor.  I was feeling apprehensive about what lay in front of me as I drove to the boat.  I removed the three bolts and to my relief there was still about 1/2 an inch of the broken bolt sticking up when I removed the elbow.  Whew!  That should make things easier…

I worked at the bolt for a few hours using Liquid Wrench and a pair of vice grips…  Pitting a software developer against a broken, corroded, seized head bolt was a bit of an unfair fight and there were many phone calls to my brother Doug, several Hail Mary’s and various small dents in my knuckles but in the end it came out.  Whew…

For some reason whoever installed the exhaust elbow used zinc plated bolts and with the salt water environment they were pretty badly corroded and the one that broke was narrowed in at the middle of the bolt.  Being lazy I used it anyway and it broke…  Lesson learned…  I ran out and picked up some stainless steel replacements…

I reinstall the elbow, opened the raw water shutoff and was ready for the initial live test.  Deb monitored for leaks with a flashlight and I ran up and turned the key.  After a few seconds she fired up and apart from a few minor leaks (where I forgot a seal) it appeared to be working fine.  We let her run for about 10 minutes and the exhaust elbow and engine remained cool.  I put her in gear and rev’ed up the motor for about 25 minutes and all was good.  There was a nice heavy flow of water coming out with the exhaust and things remained cool.  Wahoo…  Looks like the overheating issue is solved.

I’m really enjoying getting to know my new boat better and troubleshooting the various issues.

It’s been a busy couple of months.  During November I travelled to Atlanta, GA for another install and then went back to Newfoundland (great to see old friends and family) to pack the remainder of our items for shipment to Victoria.  Had a night up to the cabin with Perry to winterize it and put the rain barrel away.

Then back home to Victoria to help mom get moved from Newfoundland to Victoria and prepare for Christmas.  The whole family joined us for a great Christmas of eating and drinking and we enjoyed the family spirit of Christmas.

We’ve been missing spending time on the boat so we planned to get away for New Year’s eve.  During a summer trip to Genoa Bay the restaurant owner, Gordon, told us about a New Years bash planned at the restaurant so we made our plans to be there to ring in the New Year…  We left Sidney around 14:00 figuring we’d be in Genoa Bay in a little over an hour to begin our celebrations.

We provisioned the boat, lit the heater and steamed out of Tsehum Harbour and turned north between Goudge Island and Coal Island.  The current was against us a little but we kept making progress as we dodged ferries outside of Swartz Bay and moved into Satellite Channel.

I checked the exhaust elbow and it was very hot to touch – I couldn’t keep my hand on it…  Uh oh…  The engine is running hot and the afternoon is wearing on…  I put up the sails and sailed for an hour while I tried to figure out the problem but to no avail…  The impeller looked fine but not much water was passing out with the exhaust.  I looked for the nearest harbour where we could spend the night and found that Deep Cove, North Saanich was just around the corner.  We started the engine and steamed towards it.  I looked up nearby marinas in the Cruising the Gulf Islands guide I have aboard and found that Deep Cove marina was at the south side of the bay.  Their number wasn’t published so I googled it and when I called the fella said that they had a slip available at E76.  Perfect.  The engine was running hot but the overheating alarm still hadn’t sounded so we kept going.

We pulled in around 16:30 but couldn’t see any wharf finger letters so we pulled up at a finger near the outside of the wharf that was vacant and I went to pay for the night.  I walked up to the road but didn’t see anyone so I called the number on the sign and the fella who answered told me they were a private marina and weren’t really set up for overnighters but when I explained my circumstances he agreed to let me stay the night and said to throw $20 on the counter of the house near the wharf.  Excellent…  All set for the night…  I poked my head in and shouted hello but no one was around so I left it until the morning.

We settled in, had dinner and poured a drink.  The sun went down and we watched the stars come up.  It was a beautiful, cold night under a sky filled with stars.  But we were warm and comfortable thanks to the Dickinson.  It turned out to be a very rocky night as Deep Cove pretty exposed to waves from the large tankers that travelled thru Satellite Channel.  Groan.  It made for a poor night for sleeping.

Deb ran up to pay the next morning while I got the boat ready.  Apparently whoever I spoke to didn’t let the lady that owns the house know that we were staying and she was, understandably, rather unimpressed when Deb knocked on her door at 8am.  She came out wearing her PJs and told Deb and it was a private marina and that we should leave.  She warmed up after a few minutes and told us to stay as long as we needed and was quite friendly.  We steamed out of the harbour and were greeted by decent winds so we sailed pretty much all the way to Genoa Bay.  The wind was on our nose to we made slow progress as we tacked back and forth but it was a beautiful, sunny day so we enjoyed our time on the water.

We started the motor and steamed in to the marina.  The motor heated up and after just 15 minutes and the overheating alarm went off as we were pulling in to our slip.  James and Sue (Hounds Hollow) were there to catch our dock lines and I organized and prepared the cabin while Deb went for a drink with our friends.  I talked with a few people who were also on the dock and joined Deb, Sue and James to begin the celebrations…

We relaxed on Hounds Hollow for a few drinks.  Got cleaned up and went up to the restaurant for our 9pm seating.  Had a delicious seven course meal and brought in the New Year with the crowd.  Our host, Gordon, was his usual flamboyant self and we all enjoyed a great night.  Happy New Year!

We relaxed for New Year’s day and flirted with the idea of heading to Ganges on Saltspring Island on Saturday but decided that with the hangovers, the overheating engine and little wind that plan might be a little ambitious so we decided to stay put.  We spent Jan 1st and 2nd relaxing at Genoa Bay, hiking and setting and checking the crab traps…  Made for a relaxing start to the New Year…

Winds were 10 – 15 knots NW and we left early to have the whole day to make it back to Sidney.  We motored out of the harbour and set the sails.  The wind was behind us and pushed us along pretty good and we enjoyed wing on wing for most of the trip back.  The wind dropped off around noon and we motored for about 15 minutes but it picked back up just northeast of Coal Island so we sailed right into the harbour and only had to motor into our slip.  We were back at the dock by 15:15.  Perfect.

So, now the task before me is to figure out this engine overheating issue…

We woke up around 7:30am after a nice warm night at the dock.  We took stock of what we still needed before we set out and I went out to pick up ice, water and diesel for the Dickinson.  There was no diesel in Sidney so I went out to Brentwood Bay to fill up the jerry can.  I was back in about an hour and the girls had the boat ship shape and ready to go.  We filled up the tanks with water and cast off around 12:20.

It was a quick steam (about and hour) across to Sidney Spit so we tied to a mooring buoy and settled in for the afternoon afloat in our little paradise…  Sidney Spit is a beautiful little anchorage at the north end of Sidney Island.  It isn’t well protected from northwesterly winds but the forecast is for relatively calm winds (5-15 kts NW) so it made an ideal choice for this afternoon / evening.

The wind picked up a little in the late afternoon and we flirted with the idea of heading out for a quick sail but the amount of work to organize things to head out and then come back and get setup again for an hour sail didn’t seem worth it now that we were nicely squared away.

We enjoyed a BBQ, played card games, talked, watched the sunset and enjoyed an evening together on the boat.  Everyone got tucked away by 22:00 and we settled away for a night sleep.  Around 02:30 the wind picked up a bit. Waves were lapping on the hull and the halyards were clanging on the mast.  It woke us up so I jumped onto the deck and bungied the lines away from the mast.  That reduced the noise somewhat and we settled back down for a another few hours of sleep.

We were all up by 08:15, had breakfast and untied from the buoy by 09:05.  The girls had to catch the ferry back to the mainland around noon so we had a short sail and motored back to Sidney.  We arrived back at North Sannich Marina by 10:25 and the girls grabbed their things and I took them to the ferry.  Sara joined me and we dropped the girls off in time for the 11am ferry.  We said our goodbyes and went back to pick up Deb who was at the boat cleaning up.

Sidney to Sidney Spit
Total Distance: 8.5 NM (15.7 km)
Engine Time: 02:06
Sail Time: 00:15

I worked for the day, organized the cabin and left Ladysmith around 14:30 PDT (17:30 EDT).  Sunset is at 18:20 today so that gives me a few hours to get closer to Sidney so tomorrow’s journey won’t be too long.

It was a warm sunny day and there was no wind so I motored all the way to Montague.  It was a nice and relaxing, low stress trip.  The passage from Ladysmith to Trincomali Channel was pretty uneventful.  Enjoyed the sun on my face and calm seas.

At one point in Trincomali Channel (just south of Walker Rock) I saw what I thought were small porpoises breaking the surface just off the port side as I chugged along.  As they grew closer I could tell they were too small to be whales, dolphins or porpoises and as they got within 15 feet of the boat I could see the shiny silver sides and tint of dark pink going down their sides.  They were salmon!  I wouldn’t of believed it if I hadn’t of seen it but here were about 5 or 6 large salmon porpoising as they swam towards the boat.  I’ve never heard anything like that before but here in the middle of a wide channel in the ocean were salmon porpoising thru the water.  I’ve often seen salmon porpoise in fresh water rivers back in NL and wondered why they did it but wasn’t aware that they did that in the ocean.  Perhaps the behaviours they learn in the ocean are carried with them during their migration to the fresh water and their porpoising in fresh water is triggered by instinct.

I arrived at a little anchorage just to the NE of Montague Harbour and since there were only two sailboats there I decided to drop the anchor.  Montague looked rather full and there was no wind in the forecast so I should be fine here tonight.

I fired up the Dickinson using a 1/4 cup of Ethanol to get her started and within 10 minutes she was purring along throwing out comforting heat.  After a few drinks I went on deck to enjoy a beautiful night sky filled with stars and the laughter from one of the other nearby boats.  As I write this I’m surrounded by the warm glow of the Dickinson casting flickering shadows off the walls, and of the Gibsons in my glass…  Life’s good…

Woke up, had breakfast and fired up the laptop for another “day at the office”…  In the afternoon I packed a few things, organized and decided to get a start on the trip.  It was a beautiful day with light winds which should make for an easy trip to Sidney and into my new home berth.  I motored thru Montague Harbour and was about to enter Trincomali Channel when I noticed a bunch of water on the floor in front of the engine…  Hmmmm…  not good…  I jumped down into the cabin, took off the engine cover and found a thick mist of water spraying everywhere from what looked to be a pin hole in the engine.  Oh no…  This is terrible…  Upon further investigation I found that the water was coming from a hole in the raw water intake hose.  I decided that since the hole was small and time was of the essence I would make the repairs underway so I continued to steamed out into the channel instead of going back into Montague Harbour.

There was a decent wind by now so I raised the sails when I got into Trincomali and set the auto pilot toward Prevost Island while I dropped back down into the cabin to try to assess the situation.  It seems that the drive belt has worn a hole thru the raw water intake hose.  Groan…  The hole was only a pin hole so a quick fix was to put a clamp on the hose until I was back in harbour and could fix this right.  I found a clamp that was the right size and threaded it behind the hose and tightened it down.  Hopefully that’ll do the trick.  I sailed for another hour and due to time constraints I took down the jib and fired up the engine.  I let her run for about 15 minutes and checked the engine and no leaks.  The quick fix was working…

I chugged towards Sidney and as I went past Otter Bay, North Pender Island, I noticed a speed boat coming in my direction.  As it drew closer it turned and headed straight toward me and when it circled behind me a could tell it was a RCMP / fisheries boat.  They pulled up along side and two gentlemen (one RCMP and one fisheries) jumped out and requested permission to board.  They introduced themselves and told me they were doing a routine safety inspection.  As it was getting late afternoon they told me I could continue along at my original speed so as not to loose any time getting to Sidney.  The RCMP officer reviewed the safety regulations with me and we reviewed what equipment I had on board…  throw line…  check…, two fire extinguishers… check…, paper work… partial check (it was a new boat so I’m still working on the registration)…  12 flares…  expired… (ouch)…  Turns out that the previous owner of Treylya had loads of flares but most of them had just expired…  Groan…  The RCMP office wrote down a few notes and gave me a copy of his report.  He said that I was in pretty good shape but need to get my registration in order and get those flares replaced but since the flares had just expired he was gonna just give me a warning…  Whew…  They said their goodbyes and jumped back onto their own boat, waved and were gone.  The two fellas who I talked with were good guys but it was still a bit of a nervous encounter.  This was the first time I’ve been checked in my years of sailing so it was nice to finally get that experience out of the way.

I continued down to Sidney and pulled into Treylya’s new berth at North Sannich Marina.  I went up and paid my moorage until the end of March and met up with Debbie and Sara (Debbie’s daughter).  We picked up my girls (Brooklyn and Taeya) at the ferry later that evening and we all relaxed for the night on the boat.

Ladysmith to Montague
Total Distance: 19.7 NM (36.5 km)
Engine Time: 03:58
Sail Time: 00:00

Montague to Sidney
Total Distance: 17.9 NM (33.2 km)
Engine Time: 04:02
Sail Time: 00:45

I’m back in Victoria researching Dickinson Newport operating procedures on the internet.  One of the main issues I’m experiencing is the buildup of soot on the door when I go to light the heater.  After 30 minutes to burning you can’t really tell the size or type of flame in the stove because the glass door is sooted over pretty badly.  After several hours on the internet reading blog posts it seems that this is a pretty common problem which is caused by the flame burning too rich during startup caused by too much fuel and not enough draft.  This is due to the length of time to get the heater hot enough to vaporize the diesel when it’s first ignited.  The built in fan helps with draft apparently but I don’t have it hooked up yet.

After hours of research into lighting procedures I purchased a bottle of BioFlame Ethanol from Canadian Tire as a starting agent.  Apparently a quarter cup of this will burn for 5-8 minutes and raise the temperature in the burning chamber to vaporize the diesel and heat the chamber and chimney to create draft in the chimney.  It’s odorless, doesn’t produce soot, is 99.999% ethanol and apparently is non toxic so should get the chamber nice and hot for burning diesel.

I’m moving the boat from Ladysmith Marina to Sidney as the girls are coming over to sail this weekend and therefore I wanted to have the diesel heater up and running as it’s getting cool at night.  I packed up the truck, picked up Deb after work and headed to Ladysmith.  She’s bringing me up to Ladysmith to drop me off and I’ll spend the night and sail down in the next couple of days.  I’ll see her in a couple of days in Sidney when I get the boat moved down.

When I went to start the heater this time I turned on the fuel shut off valve on the day tank, made sure the diesel was entering the chamber and turned the fuel shutoff valve off again.  Then poured about a cap full of Biofuel into the heater and lit it.  I watched as the flames grew and then died off after about a minute.  Hmmmm…  That’s not quite long enough to get things hot enough to cause a good draft.  It’s bad news to pour more fuel into the burning chamber until it cools down so to kill some time I changed the oil in the engine for the next 15 minutes while the heater’s chamber cooled.

Next time, I poured 1/4 cup of BioFlame and threw a match in and whoof up went the flame and it burned a nice clean blue flame for about 5 minutes heating up the burning chamber.  When I noticed the flame dying down I turned on the flow of diesel and in a few seconds the flame started to build again.  However this time it was a nice lemon yellow flame that was burning optimally with no soot or smoke.  Wahoo…  I enjoyed the yellow flame for a while and went back and finished changing the engine oil.

After letting the flame burn on setting #1 for a couple of hours, and the cabin heat build to a comfortable temperature, I increased the flow of diesel to setting #1.5 and noticed the yellow flame turned orange, smoke whisked from the end of the long tongues of flame and soot started to build on the glass.  It appears that without the fan working the setting #1 with minimal fuel flow is optimal when the outside temperature is around 10 C and there is little wind outside.

I’ll hook up the fan tomorrow and play around with the settings some more.

I’m very pleased with the heater thus far.  Setting #1 is nice and cozy here in the cabin while I’m listening to blues and enjoying a drink of Jameson…

Debbie and I are planning a trip out with my girls this weekend.  Cruising in late Oct can get cold so I’m focusing on getting the Dickinson diesel heater up and going.

After a few trips up to Ladysmith I finally decided on a location for the heater.  For various reasons I’ve decided to mount it to the main bulkhead where the viewing window will cast a warm flickering glow in the saloon and the heat will be spread evening throughout the cabin. Also, this will be in front of the mast by about 2 feet which will allow easy access to the mast without having to worry about tripping over the chimney cap and soot shouldn’t be too much of a problem for the sails.  I purchased the chimney parts so I can proceed with installing the heater.

Next was to install and hook up the Day Tank…  This is a temporary tank that will gravity feed the diesel to the heater.  I purchased the 2 gal Dickinson day tank which should hold enough fuel for about 48 hours of steady burning.  This is an optional, but in my opinion, an important addition so that I don’t have to keep the small Dickinson pump running all the time that the heater is on.  I’ll pipe the day tank, fuel pump and fuel shutoff valve to the main fuel tank.  Then from time to time when needed (and the engine is not running), I’ll open the fuel shutoff valve, turn on the pump to fill the day tank.  This will eliminate any chance of the engine being starved for fuel from the heater (which inevitability will happen when I really need the engine).  After several trips to the hardware store to get fittings and connectors I finally had the tank mounted in the forward starboard locker and was ready for the initial test.

After the Day Tank was hooked up and fuel added to the tank, I turned on the flow of diesel but was disappointed that nothing appeared in the bottom of the heater’s chamber.  Deb and I just stared in the chamber and nothing…  We started to guess what the problem could be (was the day tank too low? was the copper tubing kinked somewhere?) and after about 2 minutes we were elated that the diesel started flowing into the chamber…  Yippee…  I followed the instructions to light the heater and it went remarkably well.  The Newport belted out lot’s of heat during this initial 30 minute test.  I’m not sure actually how we’re going to be able to keep the heater on while in the cabin as it’s very hot even on the lowest setting.  Also the flame is not burning to maximum efficiency (too rich I think) and it caused the small window to soot over.  Not bad for the first lightening but I still need to research how to operate this little gem more efficiently.  But boy am I pleased with the first test run.  I noticed a few slow leaks which I wiped up with a paper towel, turned off the fuel shutoff valves and let the flame die out… I’ll have to focus on those leaks during my next trip to the boat.

Deb and I planned to meet friends (James and Sue of Hound’s Hollow) for a little rendezvous at Genoa Bay for a weekend of eating, drinking and laughing.  We were at the tail end of a hurricane that just came up from Hawai but the eye made landfall up near the Queen Charlotte Island and therefore most of the high winds had passed us by and have had gone northward.  I had to finish up work before we could leave Ladysmith at 14:00 (17:00 EST).  Genoa Bay is about a 5 hour chug from Ladysmith when using the diesel and I didn’t want to count on the SE winds (which were in our face) for more speed so I figured we’d stop for the night somewhere along the way.

We left the dock shortly after 14:00 and, as forecast, the winds were blowing pretty good (25 knots) which made for some pretty exciting sailing for the first 1.5 hours or so.  The wind was on our nose so we tacked out of Ladysmith Harbour and across Stuart Channel towards Thetis Island but were making little progress towards our destination.  I decided that since it was getting close to 16:00 we might as well bring in the jib and motor thru the little pass between Hudson Island and Thetis and head toward our known little stopover at Princess Cove.

We motor-sailed around Kuper Island, up to Houstoun Passage and pulled into Princess Cove around 17:15.  Princess was sheltered from the southerly winds we were getting and there was only one other boat in the anchorage when we arrived so this was a great spot for the night.  We dropped anchor and she dug in well so we uncorked the wine and put steaks on the BBQ.  We sat on the deck for a while but it started to rain a little and the wind was howling above us so we ducked into our cozy little cabin to eat and relax.  The wind dropped off and we decided to hit the sack around 21:00 so that we would be ready for a long sail tomorrow.  I woke around 04:00 with the wind howling and the boat being pushed around the cove with each wind gust.  Although the cove was protected the high winds above push gusts down over the tree line from different directions and the anchored boat drifted which ever way the gusts were blowing.  I didn’t get much sleep after that as I had visions of the anchor dragging and Treylya being slammed into the shore of this narrow little cove.  I set the anchor drag alarm on my GPS at 05:35 and finally drifted off to sleep around 6:00 (as it was getting light) and woke again around 08:30 to find that and everything was fine and that we made it thru another night.  Deb put on coffee and made breakfast and I prepared to weight the anchor and set out again.

We pulled the anchor at 09:26 and motored out into Houstoun Passage and with a nice southerly wind behind us we raise the main and sailed downwind around the peak of Saltspring Island.  Saltspring shielded us from the heavy wind so I unfurled the jib and tried to take in a bit of the breeze.  Here on the north side of Saltspring the wind was almost gone and since we were making very slow progress I furled the jib and motored toward Parminter Point.  Once we rounded the point the southerly wind picked up again and we sailed into it for the next hour or so.  The wind made for great sailing but on one tack near the Vesuvius Bay ferry terminal the port side block flew off the runner and smashed into the winch while I was tightening up the head sail and took a couple of notches out of the plastic wheel thingy (not sure of official name).  The rope was jammed, we couldn’t bring in the jib anymore and the wind was howling.  This made for some hairy moments so I removed the jam during our next tack while the port side line was free.  I was adjusting the block positions during my last outing so I probably didn’t fasten it properly in the track a week ago.  Another project…

Since we had a damaged roller I was worried about using it anymore and cause a bad jam so we took in the jib at Sherard Point and motored the rest of the way to Genoa Bay.  It was a pretty uneventful few hours except for the current at Sansum Narrows.

We arrived in Genoa Bay around 14:10 and pulled in to a space at the dock just forward of Hound’s Hollow and James and Sue were there to grab our lines and welcome us to Genoa Bay.

We met several interesting and cheerful people around the marina’s restaurant and store.  The gentleman who checked us in was very witty and easy to talk with and Gordon, the restaurant owner, was a pleasure to chat with.  We talked and laughed as Gordon treated us to a wine tasting of several of the local wineries.  We were delighted with the quality selection of wines and ordered a few bottles to have with lunch.  He even joined us for a glass of wine after the restaurant closed and invited us over for big New Year’s Eve bash which we will try to fit into our plans.  Great to meet people of such character…

The girls spent Sunday afternoon setting crab traps and within hours were treated to four crabs for dinner and three small ones (which they let go).  We will feast tonight…  James and Sue treated us to a “surf and turf” aboard Hound’s Hollow and we enjoyed many hours talking and telling stories until I put my head on the bunk and drifted fast asleep while the party raged on.

Life is so pleasant when you are surrounded by warm, loving people and not a day goes by that I am not thankful for this little beauty that has come into my life.  We share so many of the same qualities and dreams and are very closely aligned in our day to day thinking.  I didn’t realize life can be this easy and this refreshing every day.  Looking forward to a lifetime of living our dreams together as we sail thru this beautiful existence together.

We said our good byes and cast off by 11:34 and motored to Maple Bay where we filled our tanks and then motored all the way back to Ladysmith as the winds were too light for sailing.

Total Distance: 60.66 NM (112.34 km)
Engine Time: 11:19
Sail Time: 2:25

Now that fall is in the air and the evenings are getting a little cooler one of the first projects for Treylya will be to install a diesel heater.  Fall and winter cruising will be somewhat tolerable, perhaps even comfortable, with a good source of heat and a dry cabin.

After doing some research into different types of heaters (propane, diesel, 12v) I’ve decided on going with a Dickinson Newport Diesel Heater (http://dickinsonmarine.com/product/newport-diesel-heater/).  They are a very robust marine heater and almost all the reviews have been great.

I follow several blogs (http://www.gudgeonblog.ca/) and have been gaining an insight into how to tackle the installation (turns out I have to drill a 5 inch hole in the deck…  Gulp…).  I ordered the heater online from Steveston Marina and it was delivered last week.  Turns out that the cost of hooking it up (chimney, fuel filter, fuel pump, etc) with be about the same as the cost of the heater itself!  Groan…

There are several factors that come into consideration regarding the chimney placement.  I don’t want the chimney positioned on the deck where it’ll be in the way when try to walk around on deck, or in the way of the lines, or the dingy, or the sails… also it’s shouldn’t be subject to downdraft caused by the mast or other things on the deck.  I also don’t want a bunch of chimney piping taking up space and obstructing movement while in the cabin.  I’m considering of two areas: on the main bulkhead forward of the mast or the half bulkhead forward of the chart table.

There are pros and cons to both areas but these look like the two most viable options.  We’re heading out again this weekend so I’ll measure up the spacing and make a decision…

Well after waiting in anticipation for a month, the Raspberry Pi 7″ touch screen LCD has finally arrived!  I ordered it from Raspberry Pi Swag on Sept 8th and finally received a knock on the door today from a delivery guy holding the box containing it…  Wahoo…  I’m planning to use this screen on the Raspberry Pi boat project that I’m working on…