Pulled up anchor, then windlass stopped working. Pulled up Las 10,ft by hand, second time this trip (last time it was 50 ft)
Motor works but gears stripped or some pin came out (wishful thinking).

Got on mooring after less than a mile, started taking apart windlass, got out 3 hex bolts, the last one stripped out. It looks like we are going back to the dock. Can't be out pulling up chain by hand. Maybe take another look this afternoon.

Spent the day reading rocket men, about the appollo 11 moon landing, the space race, the cold War, the diverse capacity of humanity, a good book, not the best written, but the content more than makes up for it.

A very quiet day, actually remarkable
Like being back in 1998, no boats, no noise except birds and fish jumping, saw three boats all day, only one very mild wake... time-travel

Maybe we will check out more moorings, tomorrow, etc

Sport fish owned by Ean who owns house on shore.

Sailed then motorsailed with just reefed main, right into the wind (of course) threading through the islands.
Anchored in usual spot, met Ian and friend who owns the sport fisher (that he bought in Long Island NY and drove up here). Steady winds around 12 most of the day, gust upto 16 , 17, then settled completely to nothing overnight. The anchor is probably pretty buried. But VERY peaceful night after the zippies quit for the day around 8:30

15 degrees Sunday morning, not cold yet, but getting there.

Picture is schooner that came in a little before sunset, looked like a crew of two for a pretty big boat with lots of sails. They left just after 8 in the AM, not lazy loungers like us.
Brand new moorings by Mahone Island conservation association. Great work!
But winds gusting over 18 knots I still didn't sleep well.
I guess I have "trust issues".
But beautiful spot particularly great to have moorings here as overnight anchoring was always iffy to me, VERY steep depth contour, needed to be close to shore and any wind shift would put one on the shore. Now 6, 2000 pound moorings.
Explored the moorings and beach in the morning

You can't trust the weather forecast.
So the plan was behind McNab Friday to let the seas settle, but the option to go out. So Sara put on a patch. Good thing.

But first...
After a very rolly night at the mooring, we
started the engine again, let it run as we did yesterday, seemed fine, but then it would stall when going from higher revs back to neutral, not good.
So we hooked up the portable tank and spent some uncertain time bleeding air and getting gas to come through. Then the engine would start but kept dying.

Figured it HAD to be some kind air-in-the-line issue. It turns out it must have been, as after many restarts it finally started running smoothly.

Wind was coming out of the arm so we motored up the arm, in case it quit, we could "sail" / drift back to the mooring . We checked if the RNSYS would retrieve us with their launch if needed.

Everything seemed to be fine running on the portable tank so we went out into the harbor where the swell was supposed to be 5 ft, but they were less than a foot. The big overnight storm was not as forecast either.

We rounded chebucto head, then
went behind the island at the entrance to sambro harbor, topped up the portable tank and checked our route plan. We had hoped to get to Dover west, but the wind shift that was not supposed to happen until around 3:00 PM took place around 11:15 AM. One minute it was northerly then the next it was south west.

However we DID see 4 ft seas briefly going around pennant point😱 and very confused and lumpy.

Between the baffling engine problems in the AM, big seas around pennant point and now beating into wind and waves, we went up into grover cove in Terrance Bay. A Beautiful Anchorage.

Forecast again for sw and 4 ft waves tomorrow, so we will probably just sit here till Sunday, (a lot less expensive than the RNSYS), when there is again supposed to be some northerly wind, then with any luck we will be back in deep cove Sunday night 🤞.

The picture is a few days ago, back at borgals island. No optis, no 80 hp 12ft RIBS, no nothing except what has been there for about 10 million years (longer for the things like the sun and the ocean)

We are feeling pretty good about our engine fix, or more accurately the racor filter housing cleaning.
Thanks to Cindy and Chris we also have a spare plug-in mercury fuel tank. So if the racor clogs again we can just swap tanks. Once we get back home I will power-wash both internal tanks. Sheesh!

Thanks to Marguerite we got to stop by the binnicle, and have a sit-down breakfast at the armview restaurant (since 1951) where we watched a bottle of ketchup commit suicide. You know things are bad when ketchup is jumping off the shelf 🤔.

Supposed to be a bit lively tonight so we will stay here one more night, then go over behind McNab Island and wait for the seas to settle a bit, then head for sambro harbor or even Terrance Bay, Saturday or Sunday, then make a break for our home port the following day. Going behind McNab will also give us a change to test our repairs before going back into the ocean.

Lots and lots of those little boats, optis and such, some of the kids driving them look like they are about 5 or 6 years old.

Yesterday things looked bleak with the engine issue.
This morning we spent time on the phone calling mechanics the insurance company, towing companies and others.

We experienced tremendous kindness from many people with offers to help, referrals and even a mooring. Thanks everyone
We think, 97% that we found the problem. 


Apparently pretty unusual,  but the racor filter housing was plugged.  Not the filter, but there is a little ball that prevents fuel from flowing back into the tank when the engine is off. The ball is BEFORE the filter. There was a ball of gunk totally blocking the inflow of fuel to the filter housing. 


I tried to blow into the filter port and it was totally blocked. Finally we took the housing entirely apart and found the ball completely blocked by the gunk and also blocking many of the "centrifical" ports. Must be very unusual as it never showed up after extensive internet search. 


One of those problems that one is almost certain the cause was found. This is the same filter housing that we did over 1200 mile on the intercoastal. So it could have been building up for a long time.

The shiny ball is part of a oneway valve the clump is part of the crud we removed, probably half of it. It had the passage way totally blocked. Seems like a bit of a design flaw from racor

After feeling like we found and solved the problem we went swimming and took showers! Dinner tonight.

Thanks again for everyone who offered help and suggestions

We were headed for sambro with 3 hours to go and 5 miles offshore when the wind picked up and we started slowing down from over 5, to 4.8, to 4.2 to 3.8. We had just decided to divert to Halifax where the wind was not on the nose and we could sail instead of motor. Just as we pulled out the jib and changed course the motor quit. Just plain died. We put up the main and headed for the north west arm. Now we were doing six knots.

We replaced the racor filter and tried the engine again, even though we had a good course to the arm, we thought we would need to maneuver when we got in.
So it started and ran for at least a 1/2 hour, then started acting funny, losing power, then quit again.

So we called a few places about a mooring and or towing. We were able to get a mooring at the royal yacht squadron, but sailing up to it among all the boats and close to shore was not going to work. So we did sail to within about 300 feet and dropped the anchor in 50ft of water about 50 feet from shore!
The club launch came out and towed us the last few hundred feet.

We really don't know what the next steps are, but enough for today,, tomorrow is another day.

We be back at borgals Island,  plan to hop over the great harbor entrance and stay at sambro Tuesday night,  quite possibly be back at deep cove for a few days by Wednesday night. Get some new batteries,  reprovision a bit then out for another couple of weeks, probably

Amazing what a little sun and humidity below 90% can do. It feels like summer, wow!

A passage 42 stopped by for a couple hours for swimming and lunch

4 boat at shelter cove.
Nice spot, came in in fog. But close to 1/2 mile visibility. Under an hour travel, but we wanted to see shelter cove I why we stopped, maybe go exploring the land, if it is not all washed away.
Probably make one more stop, the jump back to the 21st century and all its wonders.

We did not get high winds, but we did get a ton of rain. We filled a bucket We left out and the dingy had a good six inches in it maybe 7 or 8.

In anticipation of the high winds we put out a second anchor. Partially for the winds, partially just as a test. Put out a 35 lb rocna on 150ft of line. Then we got lots of rain, but really not much wind, so little that we just wandered, enough to twist the two anchor rodes, but only one twist. Thankfully not much lighting just a few distant rumblings.

A very nice spot but the depths are not at all as charted. Supposed to be 6 to 7 feet for the whole inside but more like 15 to 20 at low tide.

We did have one small leak that does not normally show up, but it was really coming down.

Sara made cornbread, we read a lot. I did refill the generator tank, and we have also come to the conclusion that our house batteries need to be replaced. Flooded or AGM?

Heading to shelter cove tomorrow then either borgels or owls head and probably cross the harbor and sambro on Wednesday, then back to deep cove for water, batteries and other stuff we forgot and probably back out for a couple of weeks.

Came around Taylor's Head in about 3 ft seas at 7-8 seconds period, in fog, less than 1/4 mi viability, comfortable, chilly but not cold.

Anchored in back bay behind long Island in 10 ft of water, expected some winds into the 30s, later, but so far much lighter than forecast and not coming from forecast direction. 😳

Beautiful spot, a few houses but not close. Sunny and warm, light winds right now WAY lighter than forecast. We can hear some trucks on the highway, rt 7, but otherwise no traffic noise.

Still at Malagash cove. as was planned to wait for reasonable sea state to round Taylor's head. Pumped out dingy from heavy rain yesterday. I think today would work fine, and I don't really believe there are 4 foot seas out there today, but without spending an hour to get out of our snung cove we have to depend on electronics, conflicting weather models and cell coverage. But I am becoming more and more confident in ecmwf, with gfs as the backup/cross-check. Maybe we can check in the dingy.

Nice place, VERY few boats, jetskis or jerks. Actually none, this visit. A couple of paddleboarders.

In a previous year we did leave the cove to check the sea state, as soon as we got around the FIRST headland it was clear there WERE 4 or 5 foot seas out there, we turned around and went the next day.

If the sun comes out we may take a dingy ride.

Getten old Joe, Getten old.

Having a good trip, but no cape Bretton,  I should update the log today,


https://www.sailblogs.com/member/winchells/#top


But between "doen nothen " and doing too much. 


We did probably 99٪ find our engine "problem". I hate to say it, but probably the shifter was not totally in neutral,  so the kill switch  was engaged. Checked everything else, but not that.

Now in Malagash cove waiting to go back around Taylor's head. Came around in 4 foot seas, and don't want to do that again.  Supposed to be 2 to 3 on Friday. 
Just gunk hole ing


Sent from my Galaxy

We will sit here today and tonight, maybe even tomorrow night. Hardware store is closed on Sundays, WOW we are time traveling. Does this mean some things are more important than money? I will have to Google that..

Topped up battery water, and fuel tanks, tweaked a few minor things. Main engine now starting fine again. WTF ???
But nice to know it will hand start, it didn't when it was band new.
Maybe go to town, maybe not, clouds but no fog.