We had the perfect "weather window:" four to five days where the forecast was for light winds pretty much everywhere and especially on The Monster, Georgia Strait. We just needed three days to get to Nanaimo.

Day One was no problem. We left Port Harvey in the pouring rain and emerged into Johnstone Strait in pea-soup fog. We were on instruments for maybe half an hour, then the fog dissipated and left us with overcast skies and calm seas. We got to Whirlpool Rapids, punched through against what was left of the ebb, and made it to Greene Point Rapids right at slack water. Ducked around the corner into Blind Channel Resort. Easy peasy.

Day Two. Left Blind Channel at 0730 and got to Dent Rapids about an hour before slack. On the spring tides, you'd wait for slack, but we are into the neaps so we went ahead. What was left of the ebb was flowing with us and, other than some whirlpools and eddies here and there, we had an uneventful transit of the last of the tidal rapids. On to the south,a long and monotonous run down Lewis Channel, across Desolation Sound, past Lund. Our destination was Powell River/Westview. We were about five miles out when it happened.

A slight whiff of "overheating." (Anyone who has spent any time around engines knows that smell.) Huh? Everything had been fine a couple of minutes earlier. Check the gauges. Shit. Starboard engine temperature gauge pegged. Throttle back, tear up the floorboards. Too late. Up out of the engine room came a roaring cloud of superheated steam and antifreeze. It filled the cabin. We shut down both engines, opened the doors and bailed out. There was nothing we could do but let it vent, which process went on for what seemed like hours. When the noise and steam finally subsided, everything in the cabin was covered with a thin coating of slimy, stinking engine coolant. Later, it took hours to clean up the unimaginable mess.

Our first thought was that we'd broken the water pump drive belt. Occam's Razor--the simplest explanation first. But no, the belt was fine. Something more complicated, which meant it wasn't going to get fixed "in the field." The port engine (yes, that's the one that had the problem earlier) was still functional, so we continued on using it. Forty-five minutes later, we limped into the government marina at Powell River, using the inflatable to help get the boat into a mooring.

That was Wednesday. Subsequent investigation revealed the problem to be the sea water pump--there was no cooling water coming out of the exhaust pipe on the stern. Occam's Razor again. Probably the impeller had disintegrated. Fairly easy fix. But again, no. Impeller looked to be intact. And now we were into something too complicated for our limited mechanical expertise. Open checkbook and call mechanic.

Final verdict: worn out shaft on the internal mechanism that drives the pump. Next problem: entire mechanism now obsolete so no replacement available. Next problem: nearest place where any kind of parts might be available would be Vancouver, 50 miles away.

Work the problem. Phone call to our faithful "home team" mechanic, Hugo. First of about a zillion calls on Thursday. Hugo calls back. A new kit is available to deal with the problem. Tacoma Diesel has one in stock--a bargain at $550. But it's in Tacoma and we are in Powell River, BC. Canada. Ship the part to us and it will get intercepted by Customs which, in addition to causing delay, will probably cost several hundred dollars in duty, bribes, whatever. (Isn't it sad that the U.S. and Canada are at war and have to aggressively protect themselves against each other's evil citizenry?) Time to marshall the support of the one organization you can always rely on--your family.

Brother John picked up the part at Tacoma Diesel. Son Justin gave up attending a kids' birthday party (not his own kid's) and, instead, spent the day driving all the way to Canada and back. We rented a car (easier said than done in Powell River) and many, many phone calls went back and forth setting up a rendezvous. The Final Plan: Justin headed north, picking up the part from John on the way. Meanwhile, we drove south in the rental, a trip involving two different ferry rides, eventually arriving at Horseshoe Bay, just north of Vancouver. Justin was waiting with the part. We grabbed the box, gave our son a hug, got right back on the same ferry, and did the whole thing in reverse. We arrived back in Powell River and Justin got back home all at about 7:30 p.m.

We spent Sunday pretty much sitting on our thumbs doing nothing. On Monday, the mechanic returned about 10:30. There were a couple of minor complications, but nothing serious, and the engine was restarted about 11:45. We were underway fifteen minutes later. The forecast was for the winds on The Monster to remain relatively light for the rest of the day so it seemed wise to get going and go as far as possible.