Comox to... Comox, Tuesday, September 20,2011

                                                     Sunrise as we leave Comox







We are off at 7 AM,  going south to Ninaimo, on the east coast of Vancouver Island. It should be a six hour trip and the weather looks like it will be beautiful.  The water is so calm it's like we're floating on glass.  We're sipping our coffee, enjoying the scenery going by when our engine stops.  Yes, just  25 minutes out of the harbor and we have no engine.  How can this be happening - it's sunny out!

Luckily, this is one of the few times we have cell service so we put in a call to our Seattle John Deer mechanic who confirms Jim's suspicions - we have air in the fuel line.  There is no wind and we aren't drifting toward the rocky shore so Jim heads below to bleed the fuel line.  And bleed the fuel line and...you get the picture - that air ain't moving.  But now we are as the wind has picked up and is blowing us to shore, and rocks.

I call the harbor we just left and Liz, my new best friend, puts in a call to a towing company who will be here in an hour or so.  The shore is quickly approaching and Jim drops our one remaining working anchor.  While we wait, the Canadian Coast Guard comes out to see if we are OK.  I love the Canadian Coast Guard.

At 11:30 AM our vessel assist arrives,  by the name of Ata Tude - which it will need as it is 28 feet long and we are 65 feet.   

Our Rescue

 They attach a towing line and sure enough, proceed to tow us in at a brisk 5.6 knots.  Once we get to the marina - the same one we just left - they remove the towing line, sidle up along our starboard side and nudge us to our dock while I operate the thrusters to guide us.  Of course, in all the confusion of  lines, our emergency windlass handle gets caught in the towing line and flies overboard.  This is the necessary tool for pulling up an anchor should hydraulics fail.  So now we have neither of our anchors fully functional.  But that's ok because we no longer have a functioning engine to get anywhere we could anchor. 




Getting ready to pull

And there we go

One more night in Comox - we are now on such a friendly basis with the harbor master that I've added her to my contact list.  Meanwhile, our BC Search and Rescue friend Gavin, whom we met in the bar several nights ago, invites us to his house for dinner and offers us the use of his truck while we're stranded.  We may never leave Comox. Of course if we don't get this engine fixed, we actually won't be leaving Comox.

Sunset