My faithful readers have read about Étude but may have never seen inside. That’s easily rectified.
We left the Broughtons and their elusive bears behind this morning. We cast off from Lagoon Cove just before sunrise to have the current with us. This made for a satisfyingly quick journey to Blind Channel, but not a smooth one. The wind gusting to 30 knots behind us created an annoying effect in the rapids off Hardwicke Island. By the time things calmed down, I felt like I’d been in a washing machine. Not dangerous, but concerning because we’ve read stories of folks getting caught in the Johnstone Strait in dire conditions. Fortunately, the Dire-o-meter never rose above concerning today.
Nice boat. Was wondering whether you either chose or out of necessity stopped anywhere on your trip to get routine maintenance and repairs done on it or the engines. I don’t think you ever mentioned it if you did, a testament to a well built vessel.
Finally, I am going to miss the daily travelogue. It has been a welcome diversion from, well, everything else. Thanks for doing it, and so well.
Great question. The further off-grid you go, the more spare parts you need to carry. People who go to Alaska often have unlikely-to-be-needed but difficult to find items like propellers, fresh water pumps, sonar transducers, VHF radios, various filters, etc. Even in the Broughtons, you are only an hour or two away from a fast tow boat if necessary. We have insurance for this.
The only two issues I’ve had to deal with are a leaking washdown hose (freeze damage from last winter) and a destroyed impeller for the generator. An impeller is a little rubber paddlewheel that pushes cooling water through the engine. Fortunately, I had a spare.
Sea water is an agent of destruction and will eventually force a lot of replacements and repairs, but Étude is new so those problems are for another year.
Fear not, there will be more blog posts as we head south because we’ll be visiting different places than on our trip north.