Day 370 A mixed bag

It started out beautifully sunny and worked itself into a cloudy and sprinkly day by the time it was over.  Oh well, it still gave us time for some projects.

Early in the day, just about all the boats that had been here took off for parts unknown.  One by one, they upped anchor and out they went.  Only three joined us in the afternoon.

Mid morning, we piled into Puff and slowly worked our way around the hull scrubbing the marine growth off.  If left too long, it gets a lot rougher to get off and will drastically slow our speed.  Tracy extend the handle on the pole till she could get all the way to the bottom of the rudder.

With that project done, I went at the deck.  Bucket and brush and lots of sea water.  Started at the bow and worked myself to the stern.  Apparently, from what we have heard, it's good to scrub the deck with sea water instead of fresh water.  Something to do with the teak.

Next, while inspecting the deck hardware, I came across our forestaysail halyard.  That's the sail that sits right behind the big Genoa sail at the bow.  The screw in pin that holds the shackle to the halyard had never been seized.  That means winding a piece of stainless steel wire through the hole in it and wrapping it around the bale nice and tight.  Then you wrap the fitting in a rubbery tape that once it comes in contact with more of the tape, fuses to itself and slowly binds itself to the rest of the rubber.  This way you eliminate any chance of the stainless steel wire catching on anything.  

 Not a tough job, but one that takes time to do it right.  You want to make sure that that pin doesn't come loose when the sail is in use.  Since that sail is used normally during big blows, that's the last time you would want it to come apart.

 I spoke with another boater as they slowly motored their dingy across the cove.  Apparently another pair of boats had come loose the previous night.  It was the pair of sailboats that had "rafted"(joined together) at the back of the cove.  They had drifted down on a power boat that was stern anchored to shore missing it by 10 feet before they could get the peoples attention and get them to move back to their anchorage.  They had no idea their boat had broken loose.

While Pirates Cove is one of the most popular coves for cruisers, the "Waggoner Cruising Guide"(one of the main books you take with you as you cruise around) says of the cove "Pirate Cove has only a fair holding bottom of sticky mud.  If the wind comes up during the night, you can expect a fire drill as boats drag anchor".  Now with that in mind, other than the beautiful forests and great trails and a very protected cove, why would you stop here?  I think we dragged our anchor during the same small blow.  We pulled up the anchor and reset it farther back in the cove late last evening just to be safe.

The Maple Bay Yacht Club is the "host" club for this cove.  Yesterday, one of their boats came in and hooked up to the small dock they maintain here in the cove.  I rowed over after our dinner and spoke to them about Dodd's Narrows.  It's a small pass we will be going through this afternoon on our way to Nanaimo famous for being a bit tricky to get through since it is so narrow and the current can reach 9 knots as it passes through the narrow pass.  It can only be taken at "slack tide".  That's the time when the current going through goes down to just about zero.  I wanted to see if they had any suggestions or hints since they had probably gone through before.  The same advise the book had--slack tide.  Apparently a power boat was hauling a sailboat through the pass yesterday and suddenly lost power as it's propeller got caught in a line.  The sailboat got dismasted and an emergency helicopter had to be dispatched for medical assistance.   Like I said, not a place to play around.  The tide goes slack just after 1315 hours so we expect to be in line with the other boat that need to go through just before 1300 hours to play it safe.  There is only a window of 25 minutes for everyone to get through--both north bound and south bound.  I know we will have our AIS system(identifies the big boats) working as we get there.  The last thing I want to run into is a tug hauling a barge through at the same time.    

I pulled the "pencil"zinc that goes into the engine cooling system to make sure it was alright and hadn't eaten it self to death as zincs on boat are supposed to do.  It looked just about brand new.  It pays to stay out of harbors where they disintegrate quickly.  The zincs on  Zephyr have to be checked and changes regularly as loosing one can cause lots of problems.  The engine can literally corrode itself to death. 

One of the boats that anchored here on Saturday night was a small 26 foot MacGregor sailboat.  Onboard  was a father and his two teenage daughters.  It was obvious that the two girls did not want to be on board with their father.  As they motored in(sprinkling) the girls were not about to help their father anchor the boat.  They just sat in the cockpit and read their books.  Poor Dad had to motor in, jump up and rush forward and drop the anchor and set it.  He then went below(girls kept reading) and made dinner for the three of them.  They were not about to lift a finger.  Poor Dad!!  Trying to have a good time with them was just not going to happen.  Some day, maybe they will learn.  

Well, we are off to Dodd's Narrows and will be anchored off Nanaimo tonight.  More exciting adventures to come today.