After a leisurely long morning in Egmont we left for a long day of cruising to Gorge Harbour for the evening. It was an easy calm cruise except of course for the aptly named Grief Point where it’s almost always rough. No problem, though, our new stabilizers worked perfectly!

We were welcomed into Gorge Harbour by a large school of dolphins who apparently had been fishing in Gorge Harbour the last few days. Fantastic!

After anchoring and showering we headed in on the tender for a yummy dinner at the restaurant at the marina. One of the other guests snapped this photo of us.

The next morning we didn’t rush again because we only had a two hour cruise to get to Campbell River. Using the tender we first explored the less developed parts of Gorge Harbour before we lifted up the anchor and headed out where we immediately encountered a pod of orcas! Our first this trip! They must of gotten the message from the dolphins that there were lots of fish to be had in Gorge. After a short show, the orcas disappeared so we continued on to Campbell River, but we learned later that the orcas passed through the narrow “gorge” entrance and entered the harbor! That must have been amazing for all the boaters anchored there.

The day was calm at first although we could see thunderstorms over Campbell River about 15 miles away. As we got closer, however, we encountered some big rollers from the north and again the stabilizers were working beautifully.

That is when our next problem occurred.

The Captain thought he smelled something burning. I thought it was the popcorn I had just made, but he checked the port gauges (which of course were off because of the battery alarm) and we got a different alarm: the engine was overheating! He immediately turned off the port engine, which unfortunately runs the stabilizers, so they were off line. We looked at our closed circuit video of the engine room to make sure there was no smoke and there wasn’t. Then the Captain went down there to make sure nothing smelled or looked wrong, it didn’t. So we continued on to Campbell River with just our starboard engine. We’ve always said that’s why we had two engines: in case one fails. Although we prefer to run on two engines, one working engine is much better than none!

Still, the next hour of our cruise was less comfortable and more stressful than it otherwise would have been, especially because our stabilizers are powered by the (now shutdown) port engine. And strangely, despite the port engine being off, the port engine temperature didn’t decrease. This made us think it was a gauge problem. But we didn’t want to risk damaging to the engine so we continued all the way into the marina on the starboard engine alone. After mooring at a lovely space at the end of “H” dock at the Discovery Harbour Marina, we started up the port engine again and it ran fine. No problem. The temperature was perfect. So it seemed like another case of intermittent failure, our favorite.

During the same cruise we also noticed that the auto pilot screen on the lower helm went dark, but the auto pilot remote continued to work perfectly. Seriously! 😳.

After checking in, we did our laundry, grabbed some dinner, and shared repair stories with fellow boaters in Campbell River. One couple had engine failure in their only engine and so had to be towed back to Campbell River down Johnstone Strait over 7 hours in big waves. So by comparison, we felt lucky.

Monday morning bright and early, Marcus from Altech Diesel Repair (thank you Laurie for the tip!) came to the True Love, to investigate our original problem, the alternator. It was fried as we expected. The first mate watched him remove it and video taped the whole process so we could do this ourselves if we had to in the future. We also asked him about the overheating and he told us that was probably an expected “false alarm” because of the fried alternator. Phew 😅.

Over the last couple of days while waiting for our new alternator to arrive we have spent time calling tech support, reading engine and equipment manuals and really learning more about our electrical systems. We even fixed the auto pilot by unplugging the power cable in the back into another plug next to the first one. It was smart to have two plugs on the back for the one essential power cable!

We’ve learned a lot about our inverter and our large, 800 Amp Hour “house” batteries. They haven’t been holding a charge at night like they have in the past. And although they are reaching the end of their lives, they were supposed to last for another three years. We’ve spent a lot of time turning things on and measuring how many amps each requires. And we discovered our 15 year old small fridge on the fly bridge is probably drawing way too much current. It probably is what has been triggering the inverter to shut itself off at night. No problem, we will just turn the little fridge off before we turn off our generator each night. It just holds drinks and makes ice, and the outside temperature is pretty cold at night here anyway, even in summer.

After calling the inverter company, Magnum, to see if they had any thoughts about our evening shutoff problem, they suggested we equalize the batteries. There was some concern from another expert that we weren’t supposed to equalize our AGM batteries, but thanks to the internet, we discovered that was the correct approach with our “Lifeline” brand batteries. Great! After fulling charging the batteries with the shore power, the Captain pressed the appropriate button on the inverter control panel for 5 seconds on the inverter increasing the volts going into the house batteries to create a chemical reaction inside that should return the batteries to their proper balance. We’ll see if it works.

We are feeling so accomplished!

Our final project was creating a bug screen, McGyver style, for the sliding entrance to the fly bridge. This has been a goal for a while. It took us three visits to Canadian Tire (a great store with a ridiculous name that sells pretty much everything except food). We created a screen that attaches with magnet strips and should allow better air flow while keeping out the mosquitos and evil biting horse flies (half horse fly/half wasp) that are sometimes abundant during the summers here.

Tomorrow the alternator should arrive in the morning and we are really keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to leave with the ebb tide midday and make the long cruise up to Port McNeil or Port Hardy. From there we will be perfectly positioned to head across the open ocean to our goal: Fjordland and the Great Bear Rain Forest.

Although we didn’t plan this delay, it wasn’t bad. We aren’t rushed, we learned more about our boat than we have in the past 7 years and we were able to work on and finish some important work projects we didn’t think we could accomplish. Everything happens for a reason.

Last night the sunset surrounded us with 360 degrees of lovely color. But we are now very ready to move on. Here’s hoping that the alternator arrives on time tomorrow!

The Captain and First Mate of the True Love

Princess Louisa Inlet 2019

Egmont is one of our usual stops and after a long day of cruising with our new exhaust hose we headed in for our moorage. Unfortunately we arrived during one of the biggest currents of the year and they hadn’t left us a proper space on the outside of the dock, so we had to wait for the currents to calm down. That would take 4 hours. We were tired after a long cruise, but that’s how it goes sometimes. So we cruised around some nearby sites, made some phone calls and let time pass until we could come back to the dock. By the time we got back, the dock crew had cleared an appropriate space and we tied up easily. But we were exhausted and pretty much got ready for bed right away.

Egmont is usually a calm and peaceful place, but the nearby Northwest Wilderness Lodge clearly had a big and jovial outdoor wedding party, complete with every hit wedding song playing loudly, as well as lots of hooping and cheering. It sounded like a great wedding and I wish we had the energy to crash it! But alas we didn’t, so we closed the hatches and fell asleep.

Another positive change in Egmont is a new cell tower which allows us to make calls and improves the WiFi.

We awoke on Fathers Day morning and got to use the improved WiFi to video with Jasmine, David, James and Robert. James is becoming such a great reader and he read us some of his chapter book. Robert was his usual cheery and energetic self. But soon we were ready to celebrate ourselves with a walk to one of our favorite places: the little bakery in the woods. And to our surprise when we got there we were welcomed by one of the owners smiling and saying, “are you Jasmine’s parents?” Jasmine had called ahead and asked to buy our breakfast for Fathers Day. It was such a thoughtful gift and it really made our morning!

After our yummy breakfast and lovely walk back to the True Love we headed out on our way to another very special place: Princess Louisa Inlet.

We had a mixed cloud day but the views were as stunning as usual. Unfortunately along the way we ran into the second boat issue of our trip. The First Mate forgot to turn on the generator when cooking some lunch using the microwave/convection oven, which draws a lot of AC power. The two main engines have big alternators that supply AC current without using the generator but if that’s not enough the “inverter” can create even more AC current by changing (inverting) some of the DC power in our batteries to AC power. If the AC power draw is too much, the inverter is supposed to shut off the power supply, but that didn’t happen. Instead, after about 15 minutes of using the microwave without running the generator, the port engine battery alarm (a VERY load and annoying beep) started blaring. We turned the engine off which turned off the alarm. And the port engine restarted no problem, and ran, no problem, but with the port engine key turned all the way on, the annoying engine battery alarm blared again, which was unacceptable, so we turned the port engine off again.

Needless to say we were frustrated. Not another repair! Not another multi-day trip to a boatyard! We ran for a while on one engine and then the Captain realized that we could start the port engine, and then turn the key back only a quarter turn, which would turn off all of the engine gauges (tachometer, temperature, oil pressure and voltage) and all of the engine alarms, but did not turn off the engine. As a result, we had the power of both engines again and they seemed to be running perfectly. And at any time, we could turn the key all the way on, quickly check the gauges, and then turn the key back a quarter turn, all before the annoying battery alarmed blared.

Once again we arrived too early to enter Malibu (tidal) Rapids that guard the entrance to Princess Louisa so we had to spend a couple of hours cruising and exploring the surrounding area. Clearly we aren’t in the habit of scheduling our cruising for tidal currents! We will improve to make our cruises more efficient. We hoped that running the engines longer would recharge the port engine battery and make the alarm go away but it didn’t.

Our usual very special anchorage spot in Princess Louisa Inlet was open so the Captain set the shore tie and we dropped anchor in our favorite spot with two waterfalls and a stunning view of the mountains and Chatterbox Falls. We were pretty tired from our long day and worried about the engine alarm, but we decided to stick with our plan and enjoy our special place in this truly amazing part of the world. It feels like home to us in so many ways.

Over the last 4 days the worry has been replaced by a joyful serenity as we kayak, practice yoga, stretch, paddle board, meditate, read, play chess and just float in this beautiful place. We’ve seen seals, eagles, otters, and butterflies. A juvenile eagle caught a fish and ate it in the tree behind the boat and we get a photo.

Super fat starfish!

Our hope was that coming earlier would mean more snow on the mountains and bigger waterfalls. There is more snow on the mountains and a few more waterfalls, but this time of year the waterfalls seem more affected by rain than the snow melt. The moss is definitely brighter on the rocks. And we’ve had mixed weather, some very warm periods and some cooler times with afternoon thunderstorms. We went for a beautiful 2 hour kayak yesterday morning in sunshine and came back just as the raindrops began to fall for a very rainy afternoon.

Today however it’s sunny and glorious; perfect for paddle boarding and exploring on the tender where we spied the big eagles nest used by the local pair. We always see eagles here but, in over 10 years, we’ve never seen the eagles’ nest. I even captured a picture of the nest with the pair around it. James and Robert, can you find both the eagles?

During our 4 days here, the First Mate had time, as usual, to organize the provisions in the fridge and the pantry. We spent yesterday’s rainy afternoon organizing our new charts for cruising north to Fjiordland and planning a more precise schedule for our summer.

The electrical system is one of the great mysteries of boating for us. In our electrical book, which we have read and highlighted, but barely understand, it says the batteries are the least understood equipment on the boat. That rings true for us. But over the last 4 days we’ve pulled out all the applicable manuals, and tested the batteries. We’ve confirmed what we already suspected: the battery alarm light is not something that requires you to turn off the engine (like the high temperature or low oil pressure alarms), at least according to the Volvo Marine engine manual. We can safely run the engines even if the battery alarm is “on” or “silenced.” Our battery bank seems to be ok. The batteries may be draining a little faster than usual, but that is to be expected with the age of our batteries (which are scheduled to be replaced next year). We are concerned that the inverter didn’t prevent us from pulling too much AC power from the DC batteries when the convection oven was running without the generator being on, but we are not sure what to do about it.

The Captain figured out today that the port engine warning lights don’t all light up (temp, oil, battery) like the starboard engine warning lights when we turn the engine on without starting it. Instead, only the temp warning light comes on. However, the port engine starts right up and runs fine, either with the battery alarm blaring or without any alarms (or gauges) as long as we turn the port engine key half way off after starting the engine.

So with our limited knowledge and skill we have a few theories.

1. The warning sensor on the port engine is broken or loose. This would be the simplest and easiest solution.

2. The alternator is dead. Again in the electronics book it says you should always have a spare. I’m not sure what good this would do us, because I can’t imagine us changing it. But it does speak to the factor that they do fail.

3. The batteries despite appearing ok when we tested them need to be replaced.

4. We are too ignorant to have a clue.

So our next mission is clear: we are going to visit another boat yard or repair shop. This time, we are determined to cruise north, not south, so we are going to look for some help in Campbell River. Tomorrow we will leave early at high water slack tide so we can ride the ebb current out of the Fjord. When we get close to Egmont (about 40 miles away) we should have phone service again so we can make some calls and make a repair reservation for Monday at a Campbell River boat yard.

The good news is we really aren’t stressed about it! The magic of Princess Louisa Inlet has worked and we are calm and relaxed. The First Mate took one of her best photos ever of this beautiful place! It begins this post. Our boat is organized and we have a great plan for reaching our goal of Fjordland on the northern BC coast. Of course we will need to fix the engine light/battery/alternator/who knows what problem, and we will, but we aren’t going to let this new little problem distract us from the beauty that surrounds us.

Overcoming the unexpected is part of life in general and certainly part of our boating adventure!

Update: We are in Egmont. After making all our calls, it appears the alternator was fried by the use of the microwave without the generator and we have found someone to replace it on Monday. Another learning experience. All is well.

Lovingly,

The Captain and the First Mate of the True Love

Yoga on the True Love

Our visit to Sidney was a success. The guys at Philbrook’s Boatyard at Van Isle Marina were amazing. Thank you Ben for the tip!

Of course, as in all boat repairs, it was a bigger deal than they thought. Just the prep work for putting plastic up to protect the engine and all the electronics was a work of art, including taping in a zipper to get in and out of the “work area” of our little engine room.

It turns out the fiberglass pipe coming out of the heat exchanger of our port engine was severely deteriorated and had to be cut way back. Using a heart surgery analogy, it wasn’t a simple stent, but a full bypass. They had to rebuild it, before putting in the metal sleeves on each side to attach to the new super strong silicon tube that can withstand over 300 degrees of heat (way more than we need). The metal sleeves allow the tube to be clamped down without worrying about crushing and damaging the underlying fiberglass pipe. We are pretty sure this repair will outlive the engine itself. On our way back we will probably have them do the same thing to the starboard engine fiberglass exhaust pipe, just to be safe.

Our two days at port unfortunately gave us time to catch up on some work, we hadn’t completed before we left. But that’s ok. So we engaged our work brains.

The Van Isle Marina is a family owned business. We met the 3rd generation granddaughter of the founder (same as Jasmine) who is now overseeing the business. It was great to meet her and work with another successful, multi-generational family business. The marina is very well run, clean and we used the free bicycles to bike into town.

Sidney itself is a perfect little sea town with lots of good restaurants, grocery stores and a stunning view of the water and Mt. Baker. It’s a fun place to visit and easy to get to from Anacortes by the special Anacortes-Sidney ferry. Jasmine, David, James and Lucas took that ferry last year to meet us at Sidney. From there its easy to get to Victoria and beautiful Butchart Gardens.

Our first day into town by bike we parked the bikes at one of the many bike racks and walked around. The First Mate was drawn to the Victoria Distillery on the waterfront, where they make a truly lovely gin. We are not big gin drinkers, but I loved their gin. It’s a fantastic purple color from the herbs and makes a yummy gin and tonic. I think that will be my new summer cocktail when I feel like a little extra relaxation after we anchor. The bar/showroom is beautifully set-up too.

FYI, while I’m writing this, the Captain informed me that we crossed over the 49th parallel while cruising north up the Strait of Georgia. This is the big strait that separates Vancouver Island from the BC mainland and the waves and wind here can be brutal. Today, however, the strait is almost calm. That’s two consecutive calm crossings of the Strait of Georgia! The sun is on my shoulders as I compose this and I’m feeling very blessed and lucky.

More about Sidney. Thursdays in the summer the town closes down 3 long blocks of their main street (Beacon Avenue) for an evening street fair. So yesterday after monitoring the repairs and doing work and calls, we headed into town. The fair was a cornucopia of food and art! We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, bought some local goods and then headed to the top-rated sports bar to watch the 6th game of the NBA finals.

Needless to say, the Canadians were excited about the Toronto Raptors. But there were some Golden State fans in the bar too. What a game! Clay Thompson was a true beast coming back to shoot his free throws after tearing his ACL. Despite all the adversity Golden State almost won. Although our team lost, we congratulate our Canadian friends on their the first ever NBA Championship. It was a true pleasure watching those stunning athletes do what they do.

Yesterday, we still were unsure if the repair would be complete in time for us to leave before the weekend. If not, we wouldn’t be able to leave until Monday. We didn’t know for sure until the super strong tubing arrived by UPS at around 3. I took the bike into town again to buy some final perishables for the next week. With the repairs complete we left Sidney around 6:30PM and headed back to Montague to watch the sunset, say our prayers and light the Sabbath candles.

Tonight, we’ll dock at the Back Eddy Resort in Egmont, the last possible stop before heading down a 40-mile long fjord to the entrance of Princess Louisa Inlet. We plan to enjoy dinner at the pub and then walk to the “bakery in the woods” tomorrow morning before riding the big flood tide into PLI.

It’s still early in the season so we expect more and larger waterfalls to cascade down the many cliff faces of PLI in spectacular fullness. However, we are not sure how warm the water will be this early. This is one of our favorite places for its beauty and isolation, enhanced by a complete lack of cell phone or internet service. It’s a wonderful place to enjoy the tranquility, peace and quiet of nature, with the only sounds coming from the various waterfalls that are all around us.

Happy Father’s Day to all the amazing Father’s out there! We also want to ask all of you to send healing prayers to our dear friend Alan Middleton. Jim has known Alan since kindergarten and he’s been very ill and in the hospital for almost month with acute pancreatitis and other complications.

We will check back in with everyone after we exit PLI. Have a fabulous week everyone!

The Captain and the First Mate of the True Love ❤️

All our team worked hard to make sure the True Love was ready to go for our big cruising adventure north to where we have never gone before: The Great Bear Rain Forest. Everything on the boat was working beautifully, even the satelite TV system. Our plan was to start in early June, a month earlier than usual, and head north past The Broughtons Islands and Port Hardy at the north tip of Vancouver Island and then cross the open ocean to the fjords of the Great Bear Rain Forest.

Armed with our new anti-roll, side-fin “stabilizers” we finally have the equipment to tackle this adventure comfortably.

Crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca between the USA and Canada was easy. After topping off our fuel at Roche Harbor on San Juan Island (and grabbing an ice cream cone) we continued a long day of cruising into Canada where we anchored in one of our favorite spots: Montague Harbour on the SW side of Gabriola Island. From there we were perfectly positioned to pick up our “Camp Oahu” friends (Debbie & Tom Magson) at the BC Ferries terminal at Sturdies Bay on the SE side of Gabriola. They grabbed the ferry at Towassen to meet us for a long weekend of fun on the True Love. The pick up was easy.

It was so great to see Tom & Debbie and we had so much fun! First, we cruised to Chaimaneus. With an extremely low tide the Captain was concerned about docking in the spot the harbor master gave us. But Jim was masterful and we had just enough clearance above the bottom of the harbor.

We love Chamainous! It’s a great little town with artsy murals, several bakeries and two ice cream shops! We feasted on the the delicious baked goods, beautiful murals and tasty ice cream. The weather was lovely. Then we headed out for our evening anchorage and after exploring a couple of new spots, we ended up back on the north side of Montague Harbour. We enjoyed a nice dinner with salmon (purchased not caught) and watched the lovely sunset.

Our second day together (after sleeping in surprisingly late) Debbie and Tom played around on the tender and Jim and I did a long kayak. We had a super special interaction with an eagle 🦅 on the shore and a yummy lunch at the restaurant int the Harbour. It’s a fairly new restaurant with a big outside deck and the food was yummy. We spent the late afternoon singing and dancing while listening to Neil Diamond’d “Hot August Night” album (Tom’s favorite) playing on our new stereo speakers. Although sunset was a bit of a bust, the company was wonderful and everyone had a great time.

Our final day together we had to set the alarm to wake up early to ride the tide up to Nanaimo where Debbie and Tom were taking afternoon ferry home to White Rock, BC, which is just north of the USA border. We stopped to start some laundries, before walking into town in time to see parts of the local Pride Parade before we headed to lunch at a new spot: Rita’s Pink House. I found the article about it before we left and it was a sweet stop for a simple lunch. Then we said our goodbyes to our very special friends, did our grocery shopping, finished our laundry, put things away and went to bed very early excited to get up early and head across the Strait of Georgia to Pender Harbour on the mainland coast.

But then, the problems arose.

While crossing the Strait of Georgia a problem occurred with our new stabilizers. They were working but we we kept getting alarms for various things. After we docked at one of our favorite places, The Painted Boat Resort and Spa, I was on the phone with Tyler and Troy, our tech guys at S3 Marine, and they asked me to go into the engine room to look at a relay they installed to let the stabilizers know when the boat was in neutral. In a freak thing the little bolt that holds the relay in place had broke in half. This looked like an easy fix (and it was) but while down in the engine room I noticed a lot of black soot coming out of the exhaust pipe for the port engine. This was potentially a very big problem, but fortunately we discovered it early. In a way we were very lucky that the stabilizer relay screw broke which led us to to see this new problem before it got a lot worse.

Our original plan was to stop at the Painted Boat, enjoy the spa, and then head out to “super natural” Princess Louisa Inlet the next day. However, we were a little uncomfortable going into the wilderness where there’s no cell phone or text or email service before understanding our new exhaust problem. We we sent out a lot of texts with pictures and called our Seattle boat mechanic and boat manager for advice. We also contacted the local boat repair service to see what they could do and whether anyone local could come out and take a look. We also reached out to Tom (who is a master mechanic) and asked for his advice. And in the middle of all these calls for help, I went and got a great massage and Jim enjoyed the hot tub at the spa.

After getting lots of advice from Tom and Ben and Irvin we decided to call it a night and start fresh in the morning.

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning Tuesday and got back on the phone. The local “mobile mechanic” (Dave Laird) also stopped by the boat, adjusted the pipe with a special tool he had just bought recently, tightened the clamps with another special tool and tested the exhaust system with the engines at full. No leaks!

Still, we agreed it was best to get a more permanent fix before heading into the wild north BC coast so we called a big boat repair shop Philbrooks in Sydney (just north of Victoria, BC’s capitol city) and they’ve reserved a spot on the work schedule for us for tomorrow (Wednesday).

So today we are cruising south back to Montague Harbour and tomorrow we’ll leave early in the morning to arrive in Sydney by 10am. Hopefully, the permanent fix for our exhaust problem will be completed by Friday and we’ll turn around and head north again. Until then, we plan to explore the Sydney area and maybe visit beautiful Butchart Gardens.

Stay tuned! The summer voyage of the True Love is just beginning!

The Captain and The First Mate of the True Love