Day 428 A walk in the park.

After yesterday, today was a walk in the park. Up at 0340 and underway by 0400(still living the dream?) to make the right times for the tides in Grenville Channel. As I have said in previous posts, the tides in Grenville flow in from both ends at the same time and flow out both ends at the same time so if you enter one end as it is filling, you can ride the tide out the other end as it is ebbing. I still don't understand how it works this way, I just know it does as today clearly proved.

We enter the West end of the channel shortly after 0530 and were pushed in quite nicely. We hit speeds up to 8.5 knots during the early push of the tides and maintained speeds in the 7+ knot area for the entire trip until we spilled out the opposite end. We covered all 57.5 miles in just over 8 hours, so that is over 7 knots per hour on average. If you had talked to us about this a year ago, I would have stared at you not comprehending what it was you were saying. This has been a trip of learning and discovery.

We were followed into the channel by a tug hauling something but he never caught us. A BC ferry did just about as we were at the end of the channel. Thanks to our AIS, we knew he was coming so we were prepared for him. He was doing 19.5 knots to our 7.5 as he passed us. We stayed way out of his way along the right side of the channel. Ahead of us was a San Juan 24 foot sailboat with their spinnaker and main up under full sail. After the ferry passed us, he veered over toward our side to avoid them. When you are under sail, your maneuverability can be very limited. It was good of the ferry captain to recognize that and stay out of the sailers way even though he was on a small 24 foot boat. I'm sure the wake he caused was enough trouble as he passed the small boat.

We saw a few more whales but none close enough to get a good picture. They don't seem to want to come as near as we would like, or at least I would like. Tracy wants them to stay a good distance away from us. Other than these events, the passage today was a piece of cake. Off by 0400 and in just after 1200.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing odd jobs around Zephyr. I had to plot in courses into the computer to see how far we could each day and find a good cove to park Zephyr at night. We can easily average 50 to 60 miles each day unlike the 30 or so we did on the way up. Tomorrow, we are off for Bottleneck Inlet. We stayed in on the way up. About 56 miles. From there, we're headed to Fancy Cove just South of Bella Bella. We expect to have to stop in Shearwater to get more diesel. A quick stop where, with luck, I'll get these posts posted for you. Hopefully you have read the ones I did in Prince Rupert yesterday.

The forward head continues to give me problems on an irregular basis. Some times after I flush it, the waste matter comes back into the bowl and some times it doesn't. Some times, I can hear the vent for the air from the waste tank as it lets out the air whose space was taken by the waste matter and some times I can't so this afternoon I took the vent apart to see if it was clogged. Heck, I already changed most of the rest of the workings of the head already over this past year but not the vent. Yep, it was clogged. I shoved a wire into to clear it out and then pumped water and vinegar in to dissolve anything that might be left in it. Once clear, I put on some new hose clamps as the old ones were quite corroded and went below to pump the toilet some more(still living the dream?). So far so good. It's not putting the waste back in the bowl. The waste tank may have been acting like a big balloon since other than the vent, it is a sealed tank. It expanded as I pumped waste in but with no way to expel the excess air, it just pushed it right back down the hose. I'd already replaced the "joker valve" that is supposed to make the waste flow in only one direction. It was either the vent or take the head apart(living the dream?)again(stinks) and replace the valve again. I guess we'll see over the next day or so if I got lucky with this fix.

From Fancy Cove, we expect to make it to Millbrook Cove just to the North of Cape Caution, the last big hurdle we have to cross on the trip South. That is where we will make the decision wether to sail down the West coast of Vancouver Island or continue down the inside passage. The trip down the West side would make our trip much shorter and save a lot of time. We would be on the go 24 hours a day for about 3 days if our figures are correct. Four hours on and four hours off for the entire trip(still living the dream?) but we would get more off shore experience and give us more time in Port Townsend to get more jobs done. I guess you won't know till we get to a place--Neah Bay in the Straits of Juan de Fuca after we sail the coast or farther down the inside passage.

As I have said before, stay tuned, there's more coming and even we don't know yet what it is.