North of Queen Charlotte Sound

8-16-17

At one time I believed Alert Bay was just a Canadian Coast Guard Radio outpost as we heard them calling the further north we travelled.  When we came up this way in 2000 we learned that Alert Bay has a very large First Nations presence and an outstanding cultural center.  I really wanted to stop in again to visit the cultural center and it was as good as I recall (but no photos of the displays are allowed and it is the Potlach Room full of historic dance masks that awakens something deep in my soul).

First Clarice made a fancy breakfast

Alert Bay Marina

Anglican Church Alert Bay

This time the Coast Guard Station has been reduced to an automatic repeater station for Victoria Coast Guard and we ended up at a grill owned by an Indian (NOT First Nations) family who served me really great halibut and chips and Clarice a tandoori chicken dish native to India. 

Sunday morning Clarice served a very fancy breakfast then we attended the Anglican Church in town before walking to the cultural center.

The next night we spent in Hardy Bay where we double checked the weather for the morning and all looked good for an early departure to cross Queen Charlotte Sound which is one of the two places we have no choice but to be exposed to the Pacific Ocean on this route north.

Sunrise leaving Port Hardy

Sun rises above the low clouds (Canadian CG ship)

Lots of little islets as we head out Queen Charlotte Strait

Rounding Cape Caution

Jarvis hunkered down by his heat outlet while we are on less than smooth water 

We had a very nice crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound with about 1 meter swells and about 5 kn winds usually off our stern.  During the crossing we had porpoises in our bow wake for a bit which was very entertaining to watch.  Overall it made for a long day but there was lots to see along the way. Our current sea mammal viewings include a humpback whale, a very large sea otter (that we thought was a log and almost ran over), lots of seals and sea lions, and periodically porpoises at a distance and now up-close.

In many ways this is our first long distance shakedown cruise after doing 3 years of upgrades and learning about the boat. In the last update I noted that I had finally buckled down and was trying to understand all of the nuances of our 12 v system and the measuring gauges that came with the boat.  My timing was serendipitous as I had just learned that I did have a way to watch the amperage output of the main engine alternator. I had been just using voltage changes as an indication that it was working correctly which really indicates a problem after it has been going on for some time.  Several times in the past few days we have noticed the alternator output drop to very low or zero.  The first time it happened I confirmed that no connectors had fallen loose, belts were tight, and other usual alternator trouble shooting.  We shut down the engine and restarted and had good power output so we figured that something had been loose.  The next time it happened I learned that if I disconnected then reconnected the external voltage regulator that it would reboot and we would have power again for a while but this strongly hinted that the external voltage regulator was the source of the problem.

Batteries on boats are one of those topics that can lead to long strings of absolutely correct opinions that all disagree in some way in boating interest groups.  In summary; it is generally agreed that flooded batteries, such as we have, should be charged in 3 stages.  Stage one (the “bulk” phase) is to get a lot of power back into the cells quickly and runs at about 14 volts.  Stage two (the “absorption” phase) is at a lower voltage and “tops off” the cells.  Finally Stage three (the “float” stage) maintains the voltage during light use and/or storage.   Fancy regulators are designed to maintain the batteries for the longest service life possible by running them through a very carefully prescribed charging process.  Many boats are equipped with external regulators that direct the charging process and are considered by many as superior to the internal regulators that are used on alternators in cars and trucks throughout the world.  Since we carry a matching brand new spare alternator which came with an internal regulator it seemed a good plan to either swap out the regulator or the entire alternator.  Swapping the brushes and the internal regulator from the new alternator was a pretty minor process compared to swapping the entire alternator so I decided to give it a try.  As we have carefully planned, but never had to put into practice before, Clarice started the wing engine (which started on the first revolution after all of our work on it!) and then shut down the main engine while communicating with me via a Bluetooth headset that I have adapted from my motorcycle helmet to fit in hearing protectors.  The swap went smoothly and the alternator immediately started producing power and continues to do so today.  Now the question remains is there a correction that I can make to the old external regulator or has it reached the end of its service life. Also will the new regulator work “just fine” or is it really worth the trouble to go back to an external device.

Installing a new alternator regulator underway

I also spend the morning yesterday while we were at anchor moving a bunch of connections in the pilot house and in the front battery bank area so that the gauges themselves are wired to better function with the changes that have been made since they were installed a number of years ago.  We now have good and reliable data on the alternator performance, status of the main engine starting battery and the forward house battery bank.  I still need to move some heavy wiring in the aft bank (which we tend to use as our backup bank) before I will have good data but at least I now understand the changes that need to be made.

After crossing Queen Charlotte Sound we anchored in Pruth Bay around the corner from the Hakai Beach Institute.  Not only is Pruth Bay a very protected and lovely place to anchor the folks at Hakai welcome visitors with a dingy dock, limited internet access, and boardwalk trails to several of the prettiest beaches we have encountered north of the Oregon Coast.  The difference between the beaches on Calvert Island and the Oregon beaches being that the crescent white sand beaches with picturesque rocks and islets off shore are places of solitude rather than covered with hordes of tourists.  The grounds of the Hakai Institute are also lovely with natural vegetation mixed with floral gardens.

West Beach Calvert Island

Clarice on West beach Calvert Island

Happy Jarvis 1

Happy Jarvis 2

White sand and rock on West Beach Calvert Island

Nature's sculpture

Shallow lake along the trail from West Beach to North Beach

North Beach

Selfie on North Beach

Clarice pulling the crab pot

We ended up staying two nights and taking Jarvis to the beaches a couple of times where we walked and enjoyed the scenery while he ran around being a picture of pure, unadulterated doggy joy.   Clarice was even able to stock the refrigerator with some crab meat for a future meal.

Today we are heading north towards the almost ghost city of Ocean Falls.

Jarvis and Clarice playing on the beach video

8/17/17

On arrival in Ocean Falls we quickly pulled down a ceiling panel as we had a small drip when it rained.  Turns out that a bolt holding the radar base was leaking.  We did a quick seal job and made a note that in the future we need to pull the whole base and re-seal the whole thing as one bolt leaking is suggestive that time has taken its toll and the other 7 bolts will drip before long.

We left Ocean Falls early this morning.  I have always had an interest in wilderness towns that have lost their reason to exist and are going back to nature.  Ocean Falls was created to support a paper mill which was built as the source of the paper’s raw material.  Forest were plentiful and power was cheap once a dam was built at the head of a falls near the apex of an inlet. Several huge concrete buildings were put in place for the mill itself and workers housing.  Initially the paper company decided they could no longer make a profit and so stated its intention to leave.  British Columbia bought the mill and tried to keep the workers employed but the mill could not make it even as a non-profit and so it was abandoned.

Approaching Ocean Falls - The tall concrete building is long abandoned

The dam designed to power a paper mill and town now needs to make only a fraction of its design electricty

The lake above the dam

At this time the dam still exists and makes power for Ocean Falls and two other towns.  A marina is maintained by the small cadre of full and part time residents for themselves and visiting boats.  There are just enough folks living on –site to justify a BC ferry run a couple of times a week with a tiny ferry boat.   A company that raises Atlantic salmon smolt  for the fish farm industry has taken over the old paper mill and provides a bit of employment.  Most of the original town is falling into ruins accelerated by the huge annual rainfall. I enjoyed walking about but was ready to leave this morning as we need to get north a ways if we are to make the weather window we hope will open next Sunday for Dixon Inlet.

We have arrived in Klemtu First Nations Village after a bumpy ride through Milbanke Sound with winds gusting to 24 knots. Our route from Ocean Falls took us through Gunboat Passage with some really nice scenery.  Exiting Milbanke Sound we encountered fog in Fitz Hugh Sound where we had some pleasant radio chats with a BC ferry and a small freight boat to make sure everyone knew what everyone else was doing with about 1/2 mile visibility.  AIS ("see and be seen" for boats) is really nice when visibility is limited. It doesn't replace radar but it certainly adds to it. From the fog we moved into lower winds (gusting to 14 knots) and its raining very hard so its nice to hunker down in our warm boat.  Clarice made soup and toasted crab and cheese sandwiches to warm us up after a walk into town.

Eagles adorning the entrance marker to Gunboat Channel

A tug and two barges headed to Seattle