Day 1 - Trapped

A Late Start

This morning, we were all ready to leave except that a strong NW wind had come up over night, effectively trapping us in our slip at the marina.  Bitter experience has shown us that the best strategy is to just wait for the wind to die before making any attempt to leave (we have some good friends that could testify to that).

Fortunately, by 4 PM, the wind died down and we grabbed the opportunity to blast out of there.  We have gone about a mile to the nearest anchorage at Mark Bay in Nanaimo harbour, where we will spend the night.  This way, we can leave any time we want tomorrow, regardless of the wind.

As far as our new systems are concerned, everything appears to be working fine.  Not that an hour is a very good test of anything.  One possible problem has cropped up though - we made two attempts at anchoring today (I was not happy where we ended up the first time) and the windlass seemed a little pokey getting all the chain up.  When we were firmly established, I checked the batteries and sure enough, the windlass battery was almost dead.  We checked our log and found out it was now 6 years old and is probably due for replacement anyway.

The way our electrical system works, this battery is completely separate and dedicated to the windlass, charged via a "Dual-charger" that will only give it power if the main house bank is full.  Nevertheless, I know it was fully charged when we left, so it is most likely not long for this world.

Thus, tomorrow we will be launching the dinghy to make a quick trip to shore to buy a new battery before we venture any further.  Again, experience has taught us that it is better to get things right when the resources are available - you never know when they may be again.

Note: Our windlass can also be operated manually, so we could still manage without the battery - but we would rather not.

BTW - While we were waiting at the dock, we observed a local yoga class in session.

Oh, in case you are wondering, this update has been done courtesy of our new WiFi booster/antenna, stealing somebodies unsecured access point.  Pretty sweet.