It’s Monday, July 29th, and I feel the need to publish one more blog in this series. The afterglow for me is tinged with the scent of camphor from the sore muscle massage cream.
But first I want to tell you about time. That continuous creeping or headlong rush into tomorrow depending on your immediate situation. That is just everyday time. No what I am talking about is “Island Time.” The special unique Island Time of the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands that allows the shops to open about 10 am and close about 4 pm. That gives you time to set out the crab traps in the morning. There is time to slow down and drive on the opposite side of the road for pedestrians.
One particular example I just have to elaborate on. There is a fleet of float planes by Kenmore Air. They have the ubiquitous DHC-2 De Havilland Beaver with its 9 cylinder radial engine. They have a few of the Beavers they have upgraded with turbine engines and they have the newer DHC 3 De Havilland Otter with its long turbine nose. These planes land and take off right beside the boats entering the harbor.
The other morning an Otter landed near the marina on West Sound, Orcus Island. This plane was special, It was painted with an Orca whale motif. The youngish pilot in a crisp short sleeve uniform stepped down from the float and twisted a short dock line about the handy cleat. Two girls were walking in from the end of the float, one was carrying a carry-on bag. The pilot greeted them and asked if they were his passengers. “No.” They were headed for the ferry.
I kept tabs on the pilot over the next half hour as he walked to the marina office and to the parking lot at the top of the hill. I saw him checking over the plane and at one point talking over the radio. Finally a car pulls in at at the hilltop parking lot, and a man walks down the hill with a bit of carry-on luggage. The pilot greets him and he boards. Soon the plane is drifting away from the float as the turbine began to bite into the cool morning breeze. Who says that whales can’t fly. They can on Island Time.
The second topic is space. I figure that my 34 foot cruiser has about three times the usable interior space as Glen’s 34 foot cruiser. For five active adults that means carving out a little “My Space” for individual water bottles, clothing, cell phones and charging gear. Groceries and cooking/eating space dominate the cabin space during the day, but most of that is converted to sleeping space at night. This is an interesting time since we must simultaneously stow many of the cushions and assemble the rest into a mattress. We had things like the Guitar that had to move from the bow compartment to the galley. It all got put back together the next morning before we could cook breakfast.
To round out the trip we saved the failure to the last 5 miles. Barb was at the helm and declared the exhaust pitch sounded wrong. Glen was trouble shooting the problem, I was hanging over the back rail listening to the water surging in the exhaust, when the over temperature alarm sounded. We shut down just off Port Orchard. We got the sails up and were able to maintain steerage way. We finally called the tow service and got a 5 mile tow to home port. The problem was traced to a plugged thru-hull on the raw water intake. The stuff never got to the raw water strainer. Probable cause; we must have backed into one of the floating mats of seaweed when taking a mooring at Blake Island. No damage, even the tow was covered by insurance. It’s just the disgrace for Abby Normal to g et towed home after braving all of the challenges so valiantly.
