I could see this wreck from the marine park where we’re tied up but there’s water between us and the little island that its washed up against. The full story is here but its the same old “derelict owner abandons responsibility for his boat” story that gets told and retold everywhere there is an anchorage outside a coastal community. Some ass who is either too stupid to understand the implications of long term anchoring or simply can’t afford to do the necessary ongoing maintenance (or quite possibly both of the above) ends up with a boat that has a significant negative value. In other words the cost of making the boat usable exceeds the minimal value that the boat would have if it was usable. We’ve seen hulks floating in harbours with saplings growing out of the deck – sometime in the past a seagull shit out a poplar or birch seed on the deck and then nature took its normal course. We had one wooden tugboat in Cow Bay that raised a huge alarm when it appeared to be sinking. When the Coast Guard investigated they discovered that the interior of the “boat” was so full of expanding foam that it simply could not sink. The boat in the image above wasn’t so fortunate and I suppose even the unsinkable tug would have got beat to ratshit if it drifted aground in a storm.
It was frosty here this morning. We don’t have a thermometer but it was likely minus 5 when we got up.
Despite the cold its really pleasant here and we are having difficulty getting motivated to untie the lines and go somewhere else. Last night the park ranger invited us and the couple from the only other boat on the dock for a potluck supper. We had a great visit, not to mention an incredible feed of halibut which our host had traded some fisherman for. I forget the details of the commerce but it sounded like he had an endless supply of fish and last night we certainly ate our fill with plenty to spare. The other boat left early this morning to make the flood tide on the Fraser River and this afternoon we’re all alone on the dock again.
I’ve been running the little red dinghy back and forth to Nanaimo for parts pretty well once a day. Nothing major – I’m just futzing my way through a list of “nice to do” jobs. Yesterday I replaced the starboard side deck light with an LED. I had to butcher a new fixture but it ended up looking really good so today I went back to the chandler to get a second fixture so I can do the same to the port side. When we walked home from supper last night the difference in lighting between the starboard side and the port side was dramatic. LEDs have really come a long way – the chandlers are still overly proud of them, I think I’m into about $300 in bulbs and fixtures over the last 3 days – but the improvement in lighting is dramatic compared to incandescent and at a fraction of the current. I didn’t look at the exact amperages yesterday but its usually 10% or less for comparable illumination with LED compared to incandescent. There’s been a big kerfluffle here in BC because the gummit is forcing incandescent bulbs off the store shelves but I couldn’t care less about the environmental footprint of incandescent lighting – I’m switching because it makes my batteries last so much longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment