We really have had a lovely week. As expected Dent Island filled us with great food, loving care, a jet boat thrill ride and tranquility. We’ve never taken the jet boat ride before. But his year the “Super Moon”tides were creating some super big tidal rapids nearby and Trish told us there were surprisingly a couple of spaces still available. Oh my what a thrill! Riding on the flat bottom jet boat is the only safe way to experience the powerful, bubbling tidal rapids that surround Dent Island. As intelligent boaters, we work hard to schedule our arrival at Dent at “slack” tide to avoid being caught in even mild rapids. But the jet boat can go out even when the rapids are at peak tide! It also is a perfect time to get up close to the eagles as they swarm and dive to catch the hake fish that get stunned by the churning water and then rise to the surface where they are scooped up like eagle potato chips. We’ve only seen this once before in the area when our California friends Greg and Carolyn were visiting for a few days.

We left Dent yesterday. Because of the continued strong NW winds we headed south to a lovely new anchorage (for us), Walsh Cove. It’s one of the beautiful Desolation Sound Marine Parks and offers stern tie chains to make it easier to anchor in the deep but protected waters there.

The spot was recommended to us at Dent by John and Nancy of the “Sea Esta” and it didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, we were a mess with our shore tie procedure. My tender technique didn’t improve. The Captains advice wasn’t helpful. The extreme low tide made climbing up to the chain a bit challenging. I saw a snake cross my path as I was climbing! The stress bloomed exponentially. Eventually, after exerting way too much effort and making many mistakes we anchored with a good shore tie. We were both exhausted however and separated with very little speaking. I went for a cool down float in the 72 degree warm water. The Captain went up to relax in the sunshine on the top deck. Neither of us were ready to discuss our crappy performances, individually or as a team, until much later.

We have no idea how it happened. It looked like there was quite the impact that took a chunk out of the bottom of the outboard and cracked it, exposing key components to sea water and releasing the oil that fills the lower engine shaft and lubricates the drive train that transmits the power of the engine to the propeller. The only thing we could think of was that it happened when we returned from an amazing dinner with our friends at the Laughing Oyster back to a spectacular anchorage in Isabella Bay off of Oakover Inlet. The strong NW winds were against us and the water was quite rough. We do remember hearing a big thunk and slamming down a bit, but we thought is was just a big wave. Maybe it was something else? Who knows?

After a “calm before the storm” lovely dinner we showered and I knew in the morning I was going to have to wake up and get busy finding a replacement outboard engine ASAP. There is no way we could get a part and have it replaced anytime soon, and at 20 years old, the salt-water-cooled outboard engine was reaching the end of its useful life anyway.

As soon as I woke up, I checked my email and Irvin, another of our other lifeline boat service guru in Seattle concurred with Alex and repeated twice in his email: DO NOT DRIVE THE TENDER. We then called Jim’s brother Doug, our third expert, to get advice about which brand would be the best replacement (assuming we had a choice).

Our outboard is 20 years old and we were thinking of replacing it next year. Time to move up that timetable! Because we have our trusty Starlink Satelite now I could actually make calls and use the internet even though there was no cellular service at Walsh Cove.

The Captain/Barista made my latte and I went to work on the internet and phone. After about an hour and a half we had three possible choices. Now we had to wait for quotes and verification that the service people had time on Friday to install a new outboard motor assuming we could find one in stock somewhere nearby.

So instead of a glorious day kayaking and blissing out we untied the beautiful shore tie, lifted anchor and headed out. I kept of my communication with my three options: Egmont – the easiest best choice for our next scheduled rendezvous with friends; Comox – second easiest only 5 hours out of our way; and a deep back up in Nanaimo (10 hours away) for mid July. In the end, Comox had a 40 HP Yamaha engine and they said they could install it tomorrow!

Next challenge, navigating into Comox at an extreme low tide. We are completely unfamiliar with the area and of course we didn’t have the highly recommended chart suggested in the Waggoner guide. Luckily, it wasn’t very windy so navigating the drying shoal was pretty easy. But, there wasn’t room at the dock unless we “rafted” onto another boat. We have never rafted in 14 years of boating. The idea of tying up to another boat and walking over it to get to the dock is extremely unappealing. But we did it with the help of the lovely young women, Teagan, at the marina. We were stressed, but she was chill and very skilled. She couldn’t believe we had never rafted before. Oh well. By the time all this was over, exhaustion set in and I was “good for nothing”, as the saying goes. We could have dropped the kayaks and enjoyed the area and the low tide, but I just couldn’t rally.

Tomorrow morning we will meet Dan from Parker Marine at the nearby boat launch at 7:30 AM where he will bring his trailer to scoop up the True Love Tender, take it over to his shop and install the new 200 pound, 40 HP outboard. If all goes as planned (🤞🏽) we will grab breakfast, reprovision our food supplies and the tender and its new outboard engine will be ready so we can leave the dock sometime in the afternoon. Then we will cross back over the Strait of Georgia and return to the Garden Bay Marina in the Powell River area where we will be perfectly positioned to head back to Egmont and meet up with our friends Ken and Maria Kribel on Sunday night so that on Monday morning, we can ride the flood back into PLI for our second sojourn there of the summer. Wish us luck!

Update: The tender handoff went off without a hitch this morning. Outboard installation is underway. Looks hopeful. We walked around the town of Comox and did some reprovisioning. Also, turns out our dock hand, Tegan, is only 14. She wanted to work with the marina and kept bringing her resume in so they finally agreed to hire her. We told them she is a keeper. They of course agree.