Troubleshooting, and Crabs

After Koukla had departed our anchorage for Village Channel, we had a bit of lunch, waited for the tide so that we could get a push into Port MacNeill, and then sailed off the anchor at 1400. With fair winds and mostly favourable tides, we managed to sail into the harbour at Port MacNeill by 1630. So far this trip had resulted in trying most days to catch crabs, with no luck. As soon as we were tied up to the dock, we lowered our traps into the water right at the dock....it seemed as good a place as any to store them, rather than on deck. Then a bit of meatloaf for dinner, to use up some ground beef which had thawed and had to be used soon, and a couple of wee drams to celebrate our arrival here.We didn't bother to get up until after 0900, had a leisurely breakfast, and then, after registering with the harbour authority it was time for some work on the boat. Lifting the traps we had caught a very nice dungeness crab, which is now in a big red pail waiting for a surf and turf dinner with our wives tomorrow. We may even catch another one by then! Ray was talking to his wife on the phone, and learned she was in sunny, warm weather coming home from Vancouver....we were in pouring rain, and we could see our breath – quite a difference a few miles makes around here! Ray worked on various jobs around the boat (fuel transfer, tidying up, laundromat, etc.), while I ripped apart my electrical panels to find a bothersome poor or corroded connection. I found a couple of suspect places, but still had my problem...so reconnected all of my battery cables, switches, and bus. That fixed it. But we still had problems, this time with the head (toilet). Our toilet is normally very trouble-free, and operates using a vacuum system. To do this, it has rubber seals, which had to be replaced. Luckily, I had the spare seals, and was able to do the repair – so we are now back in business again. Time to order some more spares to replace the ones we used. It has been a full day of troubleshooting, but we are now back in good condition, and waiting for a visit from our wives tomorrow.

This guy will be dinner tomorrow night