Day 4

Day 4:

We raised anchor manually this morning because the windlass wouldn't
work and I couldn't take the time to troubleshoot it and still make
slack at Active Pass. We transited right at slack and as luck would have
it, both in& outbound ferries had passed through just before us.

Once we exited we had about 12 kts of wind that died within the hour and
we then ended up motoring to Silva Bay. Before motoring we were able to
go through training on using harnesses and jack/safety line.

Small rodeo during docking due to tight corner, wind blowing the bow off
and tense skipper; however no damage done and we are safely at dock. My
voltmeter has died , which i needed to troubleshoot the windlass; so I
went to wharfinger to see if they had one I could borrow for 20 minutes
and got a very frosy reception. I tried the Silva Bay Boat building
school and found Cameron working on an old canoe; he said sure but he'd
have to go get his meter; turns out this meant leaving his work, getting
his dinghy and rowing out to his boat at anchor. We gave him a couple of
cold beer [ Neil had already scoped out the cold beer store here] for
his trouble.

We got chatting and turns out that a friend of his has just bought a
Valiant and he wanted to see inside,etc. He is also keen on being crew
for Hawaii! A final intersecting circle: his good friends in Kamloops
are the organizers for the 1200 Km Randoneer ride that Mike is training
for.

Oh yes, back to the windlass: while rest of crew was off having showers
and drinking the new found beer, Ralph help me troubleshoot the
windlass; it turned out to be a slightly corroded deck switch which i
have got working again. However, it pointed out that I should carry a
spare anchor windlass switch - about the only spare we don't have. [ and
get new voltmeter!]

Dinner tonight was a previously frozen stew [same as last night] but
resurrected by disguising it as pasta sauce with spaghetti and cabbage
salad. We also carefully cut the last of the Otter Bay strudels into 4
very equal parts.

The plan at the moment is to find some wind that is not a gale and go
sailing; will report on how we do later.

Over and out from Silva Bay.