Day 3 - The Five Gates and the 3 F’s

We departed Teakern at 9am sharp after an uneventful retrieval of the stern tie and a breakfast of eggs, toasted sourdough and Grandma Junie’s jam made from her raspberries. We were aiming for the 11:30am slack window at Dent Rapids.  Approaching Yuculta Rapids the turn was still underway as we passed the world famous Sonora fishing resort and we saw some good eddies and whirlpools.  Making the turn to port, we were outrun by a small flotilla of Grady Whites heading out for the day’s fishing.  Passing through Devils Hole was uneventful as were the remaining three rapids at Arran, Green Point with only Whirpool Rapids giving is a bit of a thrill with the turn starting as we transited. Aiming for slack at Dent was definitely the way to go if you’re headed this way.

Despite the forecast calling for westerlies, they will be light so I decided to tuck into a small bay called Bessborough before we head into Johnstone Straight tommorrow for the Broughtons.  After anchoring in 25 feet of water  I set out in the skiff to set a couple of crab traps in 40 and 100 feet of water in the hopes of catching some crab for dinner and then headed over to the rocky beach to explore.  The beach was not suitable for oysters but there were a couple of interesting finds, an old wooden window which will go well in our garden back home and an interesting tree root that I was sure Roman and Patti will think is sketch worthy.  

After an afternoon relaxing I convinced Patti that we should go and remove a large quantity of plastic piping on the beach and see if we can find a place in Port Hardy to take it.  We’ve come up with a new mantra, don’t just leave no trace but “take a trace” when you visit a place to make it just a bit better for the next person. The salvage operation went well and I managed to ferry the large rolls of plastic tubing back to the boat with only one mishap of the rope to the skiff slipping into the water which then involved me stripping down and diving in to swim to it.  Another “Roman, we’ve got a situation” moment.

Patti is on the floor of the salon (we’ve found  that everything in the salon seems to involve getting down on your hands and knees) in discussion with Roman on how to set the oven which requires an engineering degree to program its functions.  This is bread experiment day 2 so we’re trying a new function. 

We clearly have a guardian angel looking out for us on this trip. before we departed for our beach salvage operation I went back into the salon to get my life jacket and noticed wisps of white smoke rising from the front of the boat.  On closer examination, I saw that the glass chart globe that I had placed on the shelf was focusing the sunlight like a magnifying glass and was starting to burn a hole into the shelf material….if we had headed to the beach there may not have been a boat to come back to.  This item immediately got relocated to a drawer and all glass objects came off the shelf…like I said guardian angel.  I think I’ll name her Gabriela.

After our dinner of rock crab, steak, potatoes and salad, the genset kept shutting down.  I followed my rule of the 3 F’s - fuel, flow and fire and checked the fuel filter (dirty so it got changed) and re started it only to have it quit again.  The genset is an important item as we need it to keep the batteries charged when we’re on the hook but we also need it for Roman to run the stove to bake our daily bread so this was a serious matter! After dinner I headed back out to check my next F; flow and took out the sea strainer to check if I had water flow to the engine…and saw the issue, it was full to the brim with kelp!  A quick fix and she’s up and running again. You’ve really got to be self sufficient out here as there’s no crappy tire to run to!

The cribbage score is captain 2, chef and first mate 0.  We’ll keep a running total for the trip.  Yesterday’s sketch of the day below.  See you all tommorrow where we will begin our tour de Broughton! 

5 hours running time, 210L fuel used, 490L remaining, 12 hours of range.