Long Drive and Big Money

No, this is not about golf!

After what seems like years of searching, I have found someone who says they can put a real autopilot into our boat. For those of you who are not boaters, you probably have no idea why we would want one. For those of you who are boaters, you probably wonder why we don't have one already.

Basically, having an autopilot on a long passage is almost a must, as no-one wants to hand steer for weeks on end, 24 hours a day. Up till now, we have used a "wheel" pilot (just a motor and belt that drives the steering wheel). These types of autopilots are generally not able to handle a boat the size of ours, particularly under sail, and we can confirm that that is the case. We want a more powerful, below deck. autopilot with lots of powerful hydraulics and smart software. The problem has been that this boat has very little room in which to mount such an item, and everyone who has looked at it so far has been unwilling to attempt it (or in some cases even look at it). I certainly did not have a clue how to go about it either.

Enter the folks at Nanaimo Ship Yard ( http://www.nanaimoshipyard.com/ ). They actually came and looked at the problem and instead of running away, they came up with a plan. And they said they could start work on it right away (pretty much unheard of in the marine world).

So, not to let this opportunity slip by, I rushed back to the boat and we immediately moved it to their docks where they will have more of a problem ignoring it. They offered to put us into one of their slips free of charge for as long as it takes, so that should be some incentive for them to get it done. (Pictures courtesy of our good friends, and fellow boat trash, Barry and Hazel)

The big money comes in with the cost of this miracle from heaven. Lots of labour and custom fabricating. Plus the fact that if I have a working autopilot I would also like a complete set of working instruments to go with it. Chartplotter, Radar, Wind instruments etc. So I have dropped the whole project in their laps.

They want the boat for a month and we really can't stay on the boat in their marina, so we made a hasty retreat back to Edmonton. This is where the long drive comes into play. Not having gone that way for a couple of years, we elected to take the long way back via highway 1 and Banff. Who knew that a town like Revelstoke would be completely booked up with Snowmobilers and Skiers to the point that no accommodations would be available within 150 km. So it was that we found ourselves driving the usually scenic Rogers and Kicking Horse passes in the dark - the only company being the non-stop semis going the other way on the twisty, treacherous two-lane road.

So the short version is that we are in Edmonton for at least a month and will hopefully be going back to a boat fully prepared to take us anywhere when we return.