Haul home.... or maybe not!

Friday May 28,2009

Splendid Mane still in the sling, with bottom paint all done.

Still in the sling, being lowered into the water, only a few inches to go.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Jerry motored away from the dock and I got in the car to head home, hoping to meet him at our dock in a little more than 3 hours. After I got home, I checked messages on the phone (we are one of those few people that do not have a cell phone) and there was one from Jerry. He was back at Cove Yachts, there was a problem with the impeller (or that is what he and Phil thought), so could I come and pick him up? Good grief! Jump back in the car, drive 45 minutes again, and there he was, waiting for me. I think he was quite worried I wouldn't check messages on the phone right away. 

Monday a mechanic will have a look at the engine and hopefully we will get it fixed quickly. But on the way home in the car, we talked about what good luck we had in that we were so close to help when we had the problem! There is always a happy side to every problem!
Update: as suspected, it was the impeller that broke. Splendid Mane is back in her berth now all ready to head out for a sail. Our next trip on the water will not be until the first week of August when we will head up to Seymour Inlet for 3 - 4 weeks. But we head out on June 9th by car and will end up in Alaska somewhere around June 21 for summer solstice. We will be blogging our road trip, so stay tuned!

Haul Out Day

Thursday May 27, 2009
Leave: our dock 1140
Arrive: Maple Bay Marina, Cove Yachts 1500
new zincs and bottom paint

Stephen doin' his part gettin' Splendid Mane in the sling.

We motored all the way to Maple Bay to Cove Yachts for our bi-annual haul out. Once they got the boat in the sling, we were glad to see it didn't have as much growth as we had thought. The donut zinc on the shaft was gone but the autostream zinc was still in pretty good shape, but still we will replace it. The bottom of the keel had a good growth of mussels and anemone and around the shaft was quite a few mussels. Other than that, she looked pretty good. More pics tomorrow when we go back to pick her up.

North Cove to home....

Tuesday May 25, 2009
Leave: North Cove, Thetis Island, 1130
Arrive: our dock, Ladysmith Harbour, 1415

We lazed around all morning, me reading a book (Napoleon's Buttons), and Jerry on the computer watching the stock market go down then back up. The sun finally warmed up our cockpit and then we had visitors looking for handouts for breakfast. This pair of geese only has 4 goslings, but maybe that is all that has survived to this point. We also had several harbour seals hanging around our boat, checking us out and a couple loons.
Back home again now, but we will be heading out again in a few days to get the boat hauled in Maple Bay.

Montague Harbour to North Cove

Monday May 24, 2009
Leave: Montague Harbour, Galiano Island, 1050
Arrive: North Cove, Thetis Island, 1420
Lat: 49 00.96 Lon: 123 41.50

Splendid Mane (left) at anchor in Montague Harbour

It is an absolutely beautiful, picture perfect boating day today. Although the forecast is for winds between 15 and 20 knots this morning, we are only seeing light winds, nothing to get excited about. Our destination for tonight is North Cove on Thetis Island, one of our favorite anchorages.
It's been a beautiful day, we got some sailing in down Tricomali Channel with winds up to about 18 knots. Saa-weet!

Another sailboat getting some wind.

First cruise of the season! yeah!

Sunday May 23, 2010

Leave: Ladysmith Harbour, our dock, 1100

Arrive:  1615 Montague Harbour, northwest of Gray Peninsula

Lon: 123 24.61 Lat: 48 54.07

Canadian Coast Guard Hovercraft checking out a submerged sailboat in Ladysmith Harbour.

Our first stop was in Princess Cove on Wallace Island, but with the wind blowing at about 9 knots and already 10 other boats there, we decided a better option was to head to Montague Harbour on Galiano Island. We are heading south in Trincomali Channel, the water is very choppy and the wind is blowing at about 15 knots right on our nose, but the sun is shinning. It is a beautiful day after all!
*oil change 1600 hrs

We headed over to the beach before dinner and had a walk around Montague Harbour Marine Park. There were over 80 boats at anchor or tied up on moorings in the main part of the harbour, very busy start to the boating season!