A swift trip to Anacortes on the mainland for refuelling, collecting some engine spares, cigar provisioning and then our summer plans for exploring the west coast of Vancouver Island began.
Alas it wasn’t meant to be. Our engine coolant system was experiencing some issues and despite the skipper troubleshooting together with advice from Todd Lee at PTSW co op, it was necessary to return to our new “home port” for further investigation. We will admit that we both felt very deflated over this prospect as we were keen to enjoy our summer doing what Amelie does best……sailing. The saga continued with meetings, telephone calls to experts at Yanmah, more engine accessories ordered, a lift out organised so any work would be performed on the co-op site and undetermined time spent researching, waiting, testing and troubleshooting. Amongst all this, the generator started to hiccup again. Once again we ordered further new parts to be installed when Adam was able to fit us into his frantically busy schedule. Emotional rollercoaster was an understatement, we felt totally flat and pretty emotional, despite all the support from Matt and his guys. During our month long stay at the dock, we had further upheaval by an individual in his powerful motor boat, colliding with us, the impact was significant and we sustained external gelcoat and internal cabinetry damage. The saga continued as the individual refused to accept responsibility, suggesting we are exaggerating despite having witnesses and a marine survey, consequently we had to get our insurance company involved, who were extremely efficient. As reasonable people we were astounded by the individual’s attitude and total disregard for his actions. Luckily we don’t engage with, or try to avoid people, of this demeanour but it still left a bad taste in our mouths.
Whilst we were on the hard, we trawled through all the outstanding boat projects just to keep us occupied and focused on other things other than our current situation. One such “day filling” project was to locate the slow leak in the seven year old kayak. We found many tiny holes and decided that we needed to replace the whole unit. Several weeks later a brand new, improved Kitty Kayak arrived. However the delivery of this item did not go smoothly. A delivery of a domestic ‘fridge arrived at the boatyard, much to the amusement of everyone. Eventually Stephen got through to a human at Amazon and reordered our kayak. The kayak is heavier and better made than the last one, despite being the same model. We struggled to haul this one out of the water but with the use of a halyard, Kitty swiftly comes aboard to be stowed. Our stealth mode form of transport.
Once again we enjoyed our PT friends’ company and hospitality. One evening we were invited to Matt’s place for an impromptu get together, which turned out to be a fabulous French feast, foraged and cooked by Faith and Lulligay. Memories of our various stays in France flooded back, an absolute treat. Live music and wine with Ginger and Peter. Brunch with Virgie and Jim plus a few more suppers on board Amelie. We were invited to several PTSW co-op barbecues where we met up with many friendly faces. We got to know an inspiring young man, Odin, who at only twenty years old had already experienced several gruelling sailing races, he was the youngest to take part in the R2AK (Race to Alaska) at sixteen, boat deliveries and over time, he improved the boats that he owned. He left PT in early June to skipper a boat in the Transpacific race, from Los Angeles to Hawaii. We will be watching his progress and wish him well.
The R2AK started in PT and together with Natana (Curtis and Julie’s daughter) we visited the various boats the day before they set off. The nature of this race is 750nm and to get there without the use of an engine. Many of the boats had bicycle contraptions on the back to enable them to pedal the miles during light winds. There were rowers, SUPs and a wind foil together with mono and multi hulls. The competitors had to overcome tidal races, very strong winds with huge swells, narrow passes, rocks and of course, floating logs. Many of them described their sightings of whales breaching and bubble net feeding right beside them. The race is a feat of human tenacity but with humour. One boat called Budgie Smugglers were suitably attired for the start of the race (the Americans call these swimming garments banana hammocks). Monkey Business had a cloth monkey the size of an eight year old on board, complete with its own life jacket. We saw them off at 5am by Point Hudson, with a full moon over the Olympic mountain range and the dawn breaking over the Cascade range with Mount Baker in its splendour. Stephen relived the “start of a race” emotions from his 2005 OSTAR experience. We continued to follow the progress of the race throughout the following few weeks.
4th of July celebrations are big in the USA and we were invited to join a crowd on the 98 foot “New Pacific”, motoring to a sheltered bay where some of the hardy individuals took a dip, the barbecue was fired up and everyone shared food and beverages throughout the evening. The barbecue area was sensational, custom built in stainless steel, plenty of work space for preparing, cooking and serving food. Stephen was particularly taken by the fish prep station which was built into the contours of the port bow, drainage overboard and once again built in stainless steel. Returning at midnight we were delighted by the many firework displays all around us, commemorating the Americans independence from the Brits. We were treated well, felt honoured to be included in this evening of fun and we weren’t ordered to walk the plank.
The update on the main engine was a cracked head gasket, a hole in the exhaust elbow and a cracked alternator bracket. The bracket delayed the work for several days as a special order was placed after finding only two available in the world and lucky for us, one of them was in the USA. Todd and Adam performed many tests on the engine, checking for further minute cracks and flaws, fortunately the engine seemed in good condition. The generator needed to wait for the launch until we could test if we had solved the issue/s.
Launch date came, the engine sea trials went superbly, the water maker was performing but alas the generator continued to cause huge stress. Lucky for us, being regular customers of the PTSW co-op, we had an expert on board within hours and eventually we got to the final problem with the generator, now known as “Westerjoke”. The summer cruising season will tell us if we’ve solved the conundrum, so far so good.
While at the dock we were entertained by a family of Raccoons playing on the rocky breakwater, camouflaging with the surrounding boulders. Well fed by the size of some ofthem, although classified as vermin in these parts, we find their masked “Zoro” faces so cute.
Later we found a sweet anchorage, Kala Point, where we were visited by a group of House-martins, using our dinghy engine and boom preventer as their perches and serenading us with their melodic song. Fortunately not leaving any calling cards.
Amongst all this stress and work, Paul on El Mundo arrived in PT with a back stay that had parted at the top of the mast. We helped him take it off, cleaned it up and reinstalled it. We left Paul and El Mundo in PT tackling his many boat projects.