Fall Trip – Part 2

DAY 4 – Tumbo/Cabbage to Montague
When we last left our fearsome threesome (intrepid trio? three stoog… oh, never mind), we were dropping the mooring lines and heading out of Reef Harbor at Tumbo and Cabbage Islands, before the controlled burn on Tumbo threatened to make things less than peaceful.

With no wind in sight, we spent the morning on a beautiful motoring course out of Reef Harbor heading NW along the eastern side of Saturna Island. No way were we tempting fate in Boat Pass (narrow, rocky and very strong currents… no thanks) so we continued around Samuel Island and through Georgeson Passage, a picturesque little jaunt through some tights passes around islands dotted with rustic cabins (note to selves, if anyone offers to give you their cabin on Lizard Island, say yes!). Back in wider waters, we headed NW in the Navy Channel, dodged the ferries coming through Active Pass, and motored on into Montague Harbor, all under sunny skies. Montague is a very popular location with a small village on one side of the harbor and a provincial park on the other. The park has a small dock as well as lots and lots of mooring buoys, and lots of campsites on shore. But, this being the offseason, the dock was empty, only about two mooring balls were taken, and there were no campers… so we had it pretty much to ourselves! Of course, this being cruising, our paths diverged at this point… Brig and Hobie went for a walk around the state park:

… while Bass undertook some boat work / investigation. Our previous trips had never been long away from a marina, and we had not a lot of electrical draw, so our three Type 27 house batteries always kept up just fine. This trip we were using the heat quite a bit and we were running an Engel freezer that draws on average about 2 amps / hour. So our batteries were getting drawn down a bit, but as we discovered on rolling into Montague, even long motoring trips weren’t recharging them. Hmmm. Some investigation showed 14 volts coming out of the alternator but only ~12.6 volts were reaching the batteries. Springing for pay-by-the-hour internet available in Montague, some research on Google and very helpful replies to a post on Cruisers Forum lead Bass to discover that our alternator was trying to charge our batteries throw a woefully small wire that was way too long… something that is neither effective at getting a good charge (WAAYYY too much voltage drop) but also truly a legitimate fire hazard. What is more amazing, this is how the boat came FROM THE FACTORY, and no one had fixed this horrendous setup before in our boat’s 30 years of life. Wild. The fix would require a little bit of help from a marine shop, though, so nothing could be done today. Knowing we were heading to Ganges on Salt Spring tomorrow, we put it out of mind as best we could and tried to go easy on the power draws.

Montague Harbor beach video:

DAY 5 – Montague to Ganges
Day 5 dawned cooler and damper, with showers coming in and out during the early morning. But it also dawned with a little potential for some breeze. We had only about 12nm to go to Ganges, where we planned to catch the farmer’s market and spend a few days. With what turned out to be wind in the mid teens from the north we had a truly delightful sail from Montague to Ganges, broad reaching and moving right along, and only had to dodge one piece of commercial shipping as we crossed the Trincomal Channel. Arriving at Ganges in a suddenly very heavy rain, we took a slip at the Ganges Marina, which is a little maligned in Active Captain but suited our needs quite well, was close to town, and within easy walk of some good spots for the dog. First order of business (after getting plugged into shore power and starting to get our batteries recharged) was the Saturday Saltspring Market. This is not a few farm stands with some old tomatoes, this is just about everything delicious and locally sourced that you could imagine (cheese, seafood, bagels, spreads, etc. etc.); after looking forward to it for weeks (literally), we were a little afraid it would be anti climactic but it impressed even with the hype, definitely worth visiting.

Sailing Montague to Ganges video:

DAYS 6 & 7 – Ganges
We spent a total of three nights in the Ganges Marina, taking a little down time after a busy travel schedule to get here. Plus, Sunday was a great day to hang out, nap, and listen to NFL games on satellite radio. Ganges itself is pretty tight and pretty busy, I imagine in high season it’s a little nutty, but our spot was quiet and mellow in the marina (all marinas have that great, calming effect as you step through the gate and leave the “real” world behind), other than the occasional close encounter with low flying sea planes.

Floatplanes in Ganges video:

Monday was devoted to some reprovisioning, long walk in local park for the hound dog, and solving our charging problem. Thanks to a very helpful, very detailed post by MarineHowTo.com (a true guru site if you’re not familiar with it, the person behind it doesn’t believe anything and tests everything before posting!), it was a pretty straightforward fix. Walked down to Harbour’s End Marine Equipment and had them make me up a 1.5′ 4 gauge jumper cable with the correct size ring terminals crimped on, then disconnected the crappy 20′ long 10 gauge original charging cable, jumped the alternator to the starter so charging current could travel through the large starter wire and voila, 13.8 volts at the batteries when the engine is running. For ANYONE with an older Universal / Westerbeke engine, I highly encourage you to make sure you don’t have this crappy OEM wiring setup, and then follow Maine Sail’s directions for the fix.

DAY 8 – Ganges back to Montague
We enjoyed Montague so much that we chose to sail back there and spend another night for our anniversary. Slightly overcast and not much wind, but pleasant enough jaunt back across the Trincomal Channel. We found Montague pleasantly empty again and, not being concerned about the charging system, Bass got to walk the trails and enjoy the sights as well.

Stay tuned for Part III, coming soon… getting south while the getting is good, seeing Butchart Gardens and berthing in front of the Empress in Victoria!