We have come full circle this summer, and unfortunately our summer journey has come to an premature end. We are ending where we began – at the boatyard to address both anticipated and unanticipated issues. On the bright side, we are only cutting things short by a week. Read on to find out why, but I prefer to go in chronological order, so don’t skip to the end or you will miss the full dramatic build-up. (Throwing in some cute photos for those who are just reading this for the pics. For some reason, I did not think Paul would want to smile and say cheese while his hands deep into the poop tank.)
08/16/2024 One of our great friends from Virginia, Todd, told us he would be in Vancouver for work, so we changed directions slightly and headed to Vancouver. It was weird to pull up to a big city after we were used to small towns in Alaska and British Columbia. I am not sure I highlighted this fact before but several of the idyllic towns that we visited are only accessible by float plane or boat; they do not have any roads! Pretty cool. The marina in Vancouver told us they had room for us; they did not tell us that it would be a tight squeeze nestled within a foot of the boat in front and in back of us. I was so impressed with Paul; he did amazing, and I was happy to have the marina help us tie up and talk Paul through the distances (since I usually at least 1.5 to 2 times off of the actual distance).
We had a great lunch with Todd and then enjoyed a couple of beers while people watching and enjoying the great weather. The next day, we rented bicycles and rode approximately 7 miles around the Sea Wall, Stanley Park. It is a beautifully planned park: a splash park, beaches and a massive pool. Yet, it was not over-planned; there were plenty of places that you could just enjoy nature and the beautiful views. It was a beautiful, perfect day and the kids took full advantage of the sun and water.
We were going to leave Sunday but decided to stay due to the projected wind making leaving without a lot of buffer room a scary idea. It worked out because Hannah woke early (around 8a.m. – what?!) because her room smelled like a sewer – yuck. We pulled up the hatch in her room and found atrociously smelling, black liquid in the bottom – yuck. The bilge pump was able to suck it out, but in an effort to find the source of the water, we found water in the hatch in the master bedroom (we just have more vents that helped to relieve the smell). Paul called his cousin, Adam, who lives in Vancouver, to go to lunch, and he ran Paul to Home Depot to buy a pump. We had a great lunch with Adam and his family, and the kids and I rented bikes to go to the playground.
Todd stopped by and helped Paul pump out the water. It was clear – making Paul believe that it was not the black water (Poop tank); maybe the gray water tank (holds waste from every other source other than the toilets). Soon after pumping out the water, the air conditioner exploded – a surge of power from the marina fried our air conditioner unit – the smell of burnt electronics rivaled the effluent sewage smell. And then…the bilge in Kathryn’s room was running nonstop, so we (okay, Paul) looked for the source of the water and he found a ruptured hose bleeding out our freshwater system in another hatch in the master. The next morning, Paul cut off the ruptured part of the hose and re-attached it, but noticed a slow leak from the pressure regulator. So off went the water – no flushing toilets, no washing hands, no water to drink after the Brita was drained. Time to throw in the “wet” towel and head back to Philbrooks Boatyard in Sidney, BC. (Thanks to Phillbrooks – apparently we have reached the monetary value spent required to get full on the water support, and they helped us several times during the summer.) But first, a quick lunch at Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands, WA. Although anyone would want to visit picturesque Roche Harbor, why take time to get lunch when our boat was leaking water (who has been watching the news of the Lovebug in Maryland and the Bayesian in Italy?)? If we crossed back in the United States before re-entering Canada, we could not come in on a service visa and have to pay tax on our service done at Philbrooks.
08/20/2024 Philbrooks to the rescue – they were able to come the next morning at 10:30 and replaced the hose and removed the pressure regulator. So, at least we had water. The day proceeded without any additional drama thank goodness. There was enough drama to be had the next day.
08/21/2024 Paul was preparing our tanks to be filled up when we get back to the Sea XII by pumping diesel from one tank to another. A worker on the dock started loudly knocking on the door and notified us that we had diesel pouring out what looked to be the bilge pump. Uh oh. We called the gas dock and they came over and we put out a boom to contain the diesel and threw “diapers” into the water to sop up the diesel that had spilled. Based on the levels of the tank, no more than 25 gallons of diesel had poured from the boat. We also had to call the Coast Guard. They came and looked at all the bilges, which were all clear. We really have no idea what happened for the diesel to pour out. At least the boat is in the right place for them to examine and hopefully fix any issue. And then, when Hannah went to take a shower (we are all showering in the Master bathroom; the pump on the shower in the guest bathroom needs to be replaced), she noticed more putrid sewage in the shower. The good news is when Paul checked the hatch in the bedroom, it was clear that at least one the leaks was coming from one of the gray water hoses). Add it to the list…
08/22/2024 So, here we are, on a ferry from Victoria to Seattle. We will fly to Newark tomorrow and will spend the weekend in New York City before heading to Rawdon (Montreal) for the family tennis tournament.
On Labor Day, we will drive to Maryland to spend a week with friends before visiting family in Ohio. We will fly back out to Seattle and ferry to Victoria for leg 2 of the Sea XII adventure. So signing off of the Sea XII blog for a few weeks. Join us mid-September for leg 2 – there will certainly be drama and new learning experiences with our sleep deprived 24 hours of boating down the coast of Washington and Oregon. Leaving you with some interesting numbers Paul put together from an overall successful first leg of our adventure:
3,000 miles/4,800 kilometers traveled, 58 legs; 14 dockings; 44 anchorages (no groundings besides with the Fournado…), 3 hospital visits, 1 mechanic on board, 13 calls for technical support, 3,500 gallons of diesel (don’t do the math; it is depressing), 3 guests, 100 gallons of gasoline (Fournado), 1 oil change, 1 TB of Starlink data, 2 fish/1 crab caught (ouch; that is embarrassing), 7 border crossings.