All washed up

The boat, not me.  I probably smell a little fuchi but that’s one of the advantages of being a bachelor – reduced need for bathing and more discretion in regard to what qualifies as clean eating utensils.

I’ve been busy washing algae off the boat.  In this damn damp BC climate there’s algae growing on everything.  I have now been all around the boat on the main deck including most of the outside surfaces – at least the ones that are accessible from the deck.  We’re starboard tied so I can’t get to all the port side surfaces but they are generally in better condition by virtue of being south facing.  The damn algae seems to thrive in the shade on the north side.

Its pretty lonely here on the dock.  German Bob, our ne0-nazi dockmate is apparently at home judging by the presence of his geriatric Volvo and the occasional light visible on his derelict boat but I have yet to actually see him.  Other than Bob I don’t think there’s anybody on any of the boats.  Curry and Seagull are in Mexico; hippy Bill and his woman are house sitting for the winter.  There’s the occasional lookie-lou walks the dock and Bill comes down to check his and Seagull’s boats but other than that its just me and the invisible Bob. 

It feels like all I’ve done since I got back is buy groceries but I may finally have got things stocked back up.  I’m getting ready for a run to Vancouver.  The boat show starts the end of the first week in February.  I told Bluenoser Bruce that I would be there for the boat show but I don’t want to wait another week to make the crossing to Vancouver.  The weather has been pretty good which is part of the decision but for a cheap SOB like me an equally important consideration is the current direction and I’ll have contrary currents to deal with if I wait much longer.  As it is I’ll have to cool my heels on the dock here until around 10:00 in the morning to get the best current boost if I get away by Wednesday and every day the favourable time will get later.  I’ve got a few parts to pick up in Duncan tomorrow but I think I can leave Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. (on edit) Waiting for more parts so the Wed. departure is off – Friday is likely the best I can do now.

Since I left here in late November Gary and Richard have dumped a bunch of money into our parking lot and it is a huge improvement.  Last spring the parking lot threatened to disappear into the ocean during the storm surge that accompanied the big wind while we were in Port Angeles.  I’m not sure whether the parking lot improvement was already on the books or whether that storm precipitated it.  Either way they have built a new seawall and expanded the lot by probably 20 feet into what was formerly ocean.  I’m not sure how they got that one past Fisheries and Oceans (and perhaps they didn’t) but it is a vast improvement over what we had to deal with before.

I ran into a wall today.  I brought some pulleys and hubs back from the prairies and apparently I managed to get the sizes completely wrong – wrong pulley size and wrong shaft size.  So today I tracked down a supplier in Duncan and got the one pulley and hub that I thought I needed.  When I started installing it I realized that the second one I had was wrong too so I called back, got assured that they had 13 of the size I wanted, went back in and learned that the toll free number they print on their invoices takes me to Edmonton.  WTF???  I should have known better – 13 of an oddball size in stock in Duncan, BC was really unlikely and it struck me that way when I phoned but I didn’t follow up with the obvious question – why the hell do you have so many?

So now I sit generator-less until they get me a pulley.  I’m too cheap to pay for rapid delivery so it won’t likely arrive until Thursday or Friday.  Meanwhile Ray & I spent most of the afternoon fixing Gary’s dock.  That was long overdue because every time the dock ices up I was afraid I was going in the drink so getting that fixed is a big relief.  Ray felt the same way so we were both donating our time.