Prepping to Leave Ocean Falls

February 15th and 16th (Saturday and Sunday)  

Spanish practice and boat projects, have been the order of the day. In one month’s time our plan is that we will be back out at anchor and adventuring.  Depending on the weather we may leave Ocean Falls closer to the beginning of March, so it really isn’t very long at all until we will be leaving. 
We have been doing a bunch of reading about the many anchorages up the coast, and we have picked out a tentative route that we will take on our way north. We are hoping to be somewhere very neat for the herring run, and we are looking forward to seeing the wave of life that apparently arrives on the coast in conjunction with it. 
We have made a list of things that we want to get done on the boat before leaving. Some of the projects are simply easier to do here, because of either having shore power or having the use of the dock beside us, but other projects are items that we actually want to have completed before we are back out and traveling. Either way, it seems that as we cross things off of the list, we inevitably come up with more to add, so as with all boat lists, it seems to be never-ending. That being said, we have made good progress. 
On Saturday, we unfortunately had to spend more time working on Kiki. The mysterious leak that we had already tried to find, continued to leak air, and we decided to search again. Armed with soap and water, a spray bottle, and a sponge, we meticulously examined every part of the bow section, and it was not until the third time over that we finally saw a very slow-growing bubble. At least we had found the leak.  
Strangely, it was coming from an area where a trim-coloured stripe runs around the boat just under the rub rail. It was a very odd place for a leak, and it made us worry that our tender was falling apart at the seams on us. This would be very sad since she is less than two years old. It was not an easy place for a repair, but we did our best. 
On Sunday we inflated the bow section again, and sprayed soapy water around the patch; no sign of a leak. Yay. We left Kiki in “The Shack” anyway, with the plan of putting her in the water the next day.
In addition to working on Kiki, we worked on projects in our engine room, while it poured rain and slush outside. We did the service to our engine, and also disconnected all of our batteries and checked the specific gravity for each cell. We have six batteries, each with six cells, and each cell must be tested individually, and the reading noted and corrected for temperature. More tasks crossed off of the list! 

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