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