May 20. Outa Sayward at 6am. We motored against varied winds and currents. Into the Port McNeil Civic Marina about 3pm. All services seem to be a short walk from the docks. Showers and toilets are “sub par”. $1:50 per foot. We do a grocery shop and watch the Canuckleheads lose to the Oilers over a pub dinner. The next day; a dripping leak is discovered near the salt water engine cooling pump. No mechanics available until Friday ish. We will want to stay here until that is fixed. We do meet several other sailboaters waiting out the winds to ease to make the jump across the straight. They give us some tips about that jump and further north bound anchorages. One of them has a 5 year old female Brittany from a Vancouver Island breeder. It’s a small Brittany breeding club so; Tilley is probably closely related to Pi. Sure looks like it. A mechanic from Progressive Diesel, in Port McNeil came by on Thursday morning and confirmed that the raw water pump on the Yanmar diesel engine was indeed leaking. It was going to cost as much to rebuilt the water pump as it was to purchase a new one. New pump ordered on Thursday and it was delivered and installed on Friday morning. ( @$600 fo r a new pump and another @$650 in labour etc.) Whilst checking the connections for my hour meter under the helm I accidently dropped the fiberglass hatch cover onto the swim grid and into the water at the back of the boat. AARRRGGGG! It was in about 10 metres of cold water, with not so great visability. I couldn’t find any available divers in Port McNeill so I had to don the ol’ skinny wetsuit, weight belt, fins, mask and SpareAir and get it myself. Mission a success. On Sunday we buy a couple of pounds of fresh prawns off a fishboat unloading it’s catch at the nearby dock ($40. cash) Several other sail boaters had left on early Saturday morning early to make the voyage across Queen Charlotte Strait to a nice secure anchorage in Fury Cove. They expected that crossing to be accomplished in about 10 hours. A long day for those experienced boaters. Wind conditions had eased and we decided to leave on Monday May 27 but do the trip in two days, stopping at another recommended anchorage at Clam Cove.
