A very lazy morning until about 9:30, when we all decided to just go for it. Why not? We'd have the current behind us coming in, so why wait for slack?
Once we were out from the shelter of the islands, we were hit with pretty sharp chop. The wind was blowing in the high teens to low 20 knots, pushing up the waves into steep sided slaps that had Quijote sometimes pitching and bringing water in over the bow. Still we were making a respectable 4 1/2 knots of progress.
Along the way Tina pointed out an Orca and I turned just in time to see the last bit of its back and tail as it dove. We caught sight of it once more before it disappeared into the water. It might have been a small humpback too, I suppose but it seemed orca-ish, the little bit of it I saw.
Nanaimo can be a busy harbour with not only pleasure boats, large, and small ferries, but also float planes, so it was with caution that we proceeded to our anchorage off Mayne island. This used to be all anchorage, but they've placed a lot of mooring balls as well, which has squeezed those of us who anchor into a smaller space. Choosing a place to drop anchor wasn't easy, but finally the chain was rattling out and we backed down until Rod decided we had let out as much chain as possible without risking that we would swing into another vessel if the wind or tide changed appreciably.
After a bit of a respite to kill time, we started getting ready to put Tina ashore since today was the last day of her voyage with us. And here is where the adventure truly begins.
Three of us in that dinghy were definitely pushing its limits, plus we had to cross the harbour with all the above-mentioned traffic. In addition was the previously mentioned strong winds. Because of this, it was decided to use the outboard motor, which Rod mounted while I was working on repairing one of the safety lines. Soon we were all boarding - Rod, Tina, Tina's bag, and me. The engine was a little cranky about starting, but eventually it settled into a throaty purr and off we went... for about 200 meters before the engine stopped. Rod started it and we continued until the motor stopped again. It was on the third repetition that the motor simply refused to start again. Looking back and forth, it was decided to row back to the boat rather than across the channel.
The blade on one of the oars was slipping and would keep feathering itself, which would then require that we stop rowing, readjust it, and then continue. Progress was slow and about to get slower. You see, the blade that was feathering itself? It decided to go on vacation and slipped off the shaft, floating off for some other destination. We were now down to the following resources:
- overloaded dinghy
- three passengers
- one working oar
- the shaft of an oar, but without the blade
- Non-working engine.
So we started paddling for all we were worth towards the oar blade, still floating on the surface. Over the next 20 minutes we made, perhaps, 10 feet of progress towards that blade as we were paddling upwind in a dinghy not designed to be paddled, with an oar not designed to be a paddle, in steep chop and heavy winds. And both the blade and us were losing ground to the boat. There was simply no way we were going to make it back to the boat without that second oar, and we weren't going to make it back to the oar, never mind figuring out how to temporarily fix it.
Fortunately, the small water taxi that plies back and forth between Protection Island and the mainland spotted our troubles and came to investigate. They couldn't actually help, but they stood by until another boat towed us back to Quijote. Once there the problem with the engine was diagnosed, corrective action taken, but it was decided instead to motor to the nearby Dinghy Dock pub, throw ourselves on their mercy to allow us to tie up to their dock, and take the water taxi to the mainland.
All this time, one of Tina and Rod's friends were awaiting our arrival at the Lighthouse pub as well.
Eventually we made it there and had a nice early dinner with them. Tina bid her farewells to us and went with them for a ride to Victoria and thence a ferry homeward. Meanwhile Rod and I did a little provisioning, took the water taxi back to the dinghy, cast off and made it back to the boat without any difficulties.
Tomorrow, conditions are supposed to be much the same. It will be just Rod and me for the rest of the trip, and we've prepped the boat to sail across the Georgia Strait back to the mainland for a few days of travel up the east side and into Desolation Sound before crossing back over to Campbell River, the point at which the trip turns and we head back towards Seattle.
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