One Year Out

April 29th to May 1st, 2020 (Wednesday to Friday)

One year ago, April 30th, we left our slip in Mosquito Creek Marina in North Vancouver, BC and headed out on our adventure.  If you had asked us where we thought we would be in a year, we would have said Mexico.  If you had asked us in August where we thought we would be come spring, we would have said Haida Gwaii, and here we are now, one year after leaving Vancouver, and we are in Ocean Falls on the Central Coast of BC.  It just goes to show you, you never know where life will take you, and the important thing is that the adventure along the way, whether you get where you are planning on going or not, is awesome; for us, it has been.  This past year has been full of so many awesome adventures, wildlife encounters, new experiences, and new friendships.  It has been a great journey!!
Some highlights would include watching Humpback whales feeding, boogie boarding in the surf on Calvert Island, kayaking through the tidal rapids of Blunden Lagoon, catching our first salmon and making caviar, watching a Humpback whale breach over and over for half an hour, watching a super pod of orca whales feeding, finding and picking wild chanterelle mushrooms, catching our first Halibut, eating sea cucumbers, relaxing in the hot springs of Eucott Bay, and seeing the amazing bioluminescence at the shores of Calvert Island. 
 Humpback whales feeding

Tidal rapids at Blunden Lagoon

Salmon caviar

Humpback whale breaching

Chanterelle mushrooms

Eucott Bay hotsprings

Of course this is just a few of the many great experiences that jump to mind when we think about our last year.  It has been a great adventure!

These last few days we have spent working on our outboard.  When we went out to check our prawn traps on Wednesday, we decided that while we were out there we might as well do some fishing.  It was a calm day, and after our first drift line we went to start the outboard to move for a second drift, and it wouldn’t start.  We did end up getting it started, but it was much harder than normal and it made us a little worried about staying out fishing; what if it got worse and actually wouldn’t start the next time?  We headed back in toward home.   
On our way, planing along up Cousins Inlet, we saw two cougars on shore.  Unfortunately we were not that close to shore, and they did not stay very long, but it was really neat to see them.  They were beautiful cats.  
One of them put its front paws up on the top of a rock and looked out over the water at us before it turned and followed the other one up and into the forest.  Beautiful.
After a bunch of effort over the last couple of weeks trying to find a service manual for our outboard, we ended up finding one on ebay for $20, a great deal for a full Yamaha service manual.  It was a downloadable PDF copy so we had it right away, which was perfect for us.  At some point we will probably get it printed so that we have a hard copy, which is easier to flip through, but for the time being the PDF copy is perfect.  
After reviewing the manual we went to work with some troubleshooting, and over the next few days, during breaks in the weather, we made our way through the many electrical tests for components that could be affecting how it is starting and running.  We also have had our carburetor apart three times.  The first time we just gave it a quick clean and soak.  The second time we borrowed an air compressor and blowgun, gave it another quick soak and blew out all of the passage ways, and right now, as I write this, it is apart for the third time.  We are going to let it soak in cleaner for the weekend as rain is forecasted, and we plan to blow it out again and put it back together on Monday.  
After the second time of having it apart and cleaning it, our outboard was running way, way better at high RPMs.  However, we still found that after about 20 seconds at full throttle it would start to struggle.  We discovered that if we pumped the fuel primer-bulb at that point it would then smooth right out and keep running with no problem.  Hopefully after one more clean that problem will be all fixed.  Unfortunately none of the work that we have done to the carburetor has made the starting problem any better, so we shall see what we can figure out about that.  

Comments

  1. JanMay 14, 2020 at 1:57 PM

    Nice memories of the year! The cougars were a gift but you have to pay for them with outboard problems. Good luck with the next carburetor cleaning.

    ReplyDelete

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