The wind was still blowing this morning with gusts up to 20 mph, but if we were to leave we’d wait until early afternoon anyway to catch Dodd Narrows at close to slack. The morning slack was at 7 o’clock or so and we weren’t interested in that, even if it had been calm. We decided to just wait and see what the conditions were around 12:30/1:00 o’clock.
Erin fixed a great breakfast that started out as a frittata, but ended up being scrambled eggs with fried potatoes and a couple strips of the turkey bacon. We listened to the dock and lines creak and groan with the wind as we ate breakfast.
We made one more walk around the harbor into town, or more accurately, to the deli along the waterfront where Erin got an iced latte. After that we busied ourselves with some reading, alternating with a little harbor activity watching.
Around 12:30 we decided we’d get going – the wind gusts hadn’t exceeded 14 mph for an hour or so, and we were pretty sure once we turned the corner out of Nanaimo and got squared away in Northumberland Channel we’d be out of the lumpy stuff with the wind at our back. We readied our lines for departure, stowed the power cable and got away from the dock, in a similar fashion as when we left the customs dock, sidling away into the wind.
We were right about the lumpy area, but it wasn’t too bad. Tribble has now become accustomed to the engines starting, and usually joins us on the bridge right away for the ride. We’ve discovered, though, that if the seas get a little rough, she goes down to the main salon and sits on a small square of green carpet until it calms down again. Once we were past Gallows Point we had the wind and seas from the Georgia Strait at our beam so quartered the waves for a little better ride until we were out far enough to come about and head for Jack Point. Once the weather was at our stern the ride got better, and the further we went towards Dodd Narrows the smoother it got. Tribble came back up on deck, only to scurry back down momentarily when a power boat zoomed by throwing some wake.
We entered Dodd Narrows behind three sailboats, who all slowed down to 5 knots in the channel. It was too narrow to pass for awhile and we slowed down as best we could, to 5.5 knots, our idle speed. I wasn’t going to put it in neutral as I needed the thrust past the rudders for steerage, so we loomed pretty close behind the trailing boat, pulling out to pass as the channel got wider.
We were back in the Gulf Islands with beautiful weather, calm seas and… smoke. Our port engine was putting out more exhaust smoke than usual again, made painfully noticeable by cruising at 8 knots with a 9 knot tailwind. I increased our speed, not necessarily to outrun it, but to warm the engine up more in hopes that it would improve combustion wherever it wasn’t happening properly. The port engine has also had intermittent overheating problems over the years, so I was watching the temperature gauge closely, or so I thought. It was registering just below 200 degrees but it didn’t seem right. A couple taps on the temp gauge changed the reading to 220 and we backed right down to 7 knots, where it gradually cooled down to about 180 again. We have run several degrees off course many times to quarter the waves for a better ride, but this is the first time we did that maneuver to let the smoke go off to the side. Not sure what’s going on, whether it’s a bad injector, or low compression in a cylinder or what – but it’s another notch in the ‘need to repower’ belt.
We decided that rather than cruise all the way down to Cowichan Bay we’d stop at Telegraph Harbour for the night – about half the distance. Because of the late start for the narrows, we wouldn’t have arrived at Cowichan until after 5, and with it being Saturday on a popular weekend we weren’t so sure we’d find moorage. Telegraph Harbour is busy as well, or at least the marina at the head of the bay is. They’re always holding rendezvous’ or yacht club events and this weekend is no exception. We decided we’d anchor if that nice spot in front of the canal entrance was open, and it was – so here we are. The bay is pretty shallow, but this area is maybe a foot or two deeper than some others, and I calculated we’d have about 6 feet under us at low tide tomorrow morning.
The other marina halfway into the bay, Thetis Island Marina, doesn’t seem to be nearly as busy and we speculated that they didn’t have as good a business model. They do have a wifi connection, though – and although a password is needed, they give out a freebie trial, so I’m hoping I can connect to post this and check emails. I won’t even attempt to upload any photos at this time though.
Tomorrow we’ll continue on to Cowichan Bay – or go over to Genoa Bay to anchor if we don’t find moorage at Cowichan.
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