Trouble in the Harbour City

July 24

Welllll, we were cruising through Newcastle Passage last Tuesday on our way north from Nanaimo and trying to avoid the seaplane landing and taxiing zone, when “CLUNK” we hit the only big rock around.  Disabled the prop, so Bill had to fire up the outboard while I looked up a marine repair yard.   As luck would have it, we were only ~500 yards from Stones Boatyard and Marina.  Called them and they said they could help.  We called to some nice boaters standing on the dock to help us, as the wind and current were not helping us with our docking attempts.  We all managed to tie the Bonaroo to the dock without harming it or hitting any other boats – whew! 

To make a long story short, we have been sitting up on blocks in the boatyard almost ever since.  The folks here had the prop fixed, put a new pin in the lower unit and put us back in the water Thursday evening.  No go!  Still had no forward or reverse.  Lifted us out of the water on Friday morning, called a Volvo/Penta specialist who thought he had the problem spotted.  Unfortunately, it was worse than he thought – the shaft on the lower unit was broken.  The lower unit is now in Campbell River being repaired.  It is supposed to be here on Monday.  $1000 and counting…

On the bright side, we got a great deal on a rental car, so on Friday we drove north to Qualicum Beach (warmest seawater north of Mexico) and had a seafood lunch.  A Canadian fulltime RVer who spends his winters at “The Slabs” told us about a couple of natural sights to see.  We went to the Little Qualicum River falls and Cathedral Grove – the last remaining stand of old growth forest on Vancouver Island.  Impressive Douglas firs and cedars – over 800 years old.  Then we drove on to Port Alberni, which connects to the west coast of Vancouver Island via a VERY long inlet.  It was a fun day and great to get away from the boatyard. 

Today, they held the 44th annual World Championship Bathtub Races in Nanaimo, so we walked to town to watch the start.  To call these things bathtubs is stretching it quite a ways!  They have three divisions:  modified, super-modified, and stock.  They look like a small fiberglass bathtub on top of a fast sled!  Here is a photo of one of the boats stuck on the beach and other photos of the start: They used to race these things to Vancouver!  But now, they go out of Nanaimo Harbour, up around the Winchelsea Islands, and back into Departure Bay.  A total of 56 km!!  Takes the winner about an hour.

Oh, and I did put my kayak together yesterday and took it out for a couple of hours:

Needless to say, Bill has been beating himself up pretty heartily for hitting the rock, but the important thing is that we are OK and the boat is fixable.  Guess I’ll have to sell lots more of my beaded trinkets to pay for this unexpected expense!!!

Hope you all are having a great summer and have wonderful stories to tell!!