**** I've added some "gadgets" to the side bar on the right. You can subscribe to the blog by e-mail, and check out the site where you can track our location. I'm told these might not show up on your phone. If you can't see it, the tracking site is www.marinetraffic.com. Just search for the "Arctic Loon," and choose the sailing vessel.
Thanks to those who have been following along and checking
in with us! Some have been asking about the poor baguettes that turned out not
to be the culprits of our water problem… very good question. Thankfully, the
baguettes (along with the rest of our food) are just fine, and so is the boat! I’ll
make this post short because I’m sleepy and there’s not all that much to
report.
Dean Marine the mechanic (oh how we laughed about his name…turns
out it’s just his business name. His last name isn’t really Marine..) came to see us at 10am on Monday and an hour and a
half later we were cleared to go. He found absolutely nothing wrong with the engine
and diagnosed us with classic case of bad luck. We likely ran over something plastic
or rubbery. He also helped us fix our water problem for good (Captain Diana
nearly fixed it herself…Paula and I were amazed). Dean Marine just put the final touches on what she had already
done (something about air being in the tubes…I really couldn’t tell you). So we were on our way to Canada by 12:30 that
day.
Bedwell Harbour: We anchored in Bedwell Harbour after clearing
Canadian customs there. We’d meticulously planned our menus and alcohol
consumption to ensure we wouldn’t have the wrong fruits and vegetables or too much
alcohol - we can’t be throwing away bottles of wine now can we? Of course, the
customs guy on the phone didn’t care about any of that in the slightest. We’re
finding a lot of things are a lot easier in the off season. Reciprocal moorage
is another – it’s easy to find free spots to dock where the Poulsbo Yacht Club
is affiliated. The journey to Bedwell was nice and stress free. We even got to
sail most of the way!
Nanaimo: We started off early in the morning hoping to make
it to Nanaimo in the mid-afternoon. It was a stunning morning – a mixture of
dark clouds, bright sunbreaks, and even a rainbow in the distance - a
photographer’s dream. We did a lot of
bird watching and played around with the sails. We were “running with the wind”
(the wind was coming from directly behind us), so the sailing technique was a
little trickier to handle. We finally arrived at Dodd Narrows (our first of
many narrows I’m told), a tiny little passage just before Nanaimo. We had to
wait a half an hour until the currents were just right. Otherwise, Captain
Diana says, “you might make it or you might not.” I didn’t ask what happens if
you don’t.
We made it to Nanaimo just fine, went out for dinner and are
settling in for bed nice and early. Our plan was to head out super early for a potential 11 hour day, but we elected instead to spend another day in Nanaimo when we read about gale force (30 mph) in the forecast for the Georgia Straight. We hated to lose another day, but we have to stay safe. We've allowed plenty of wiggle room in the schedule anyway. We went grocery shopping instead and are now officially heading out tomorrow with plenty of fresh veggies on board!
