Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Les Gulf Islands

Hey y'all,

We recently went on our first shake-down trip to work out some of the kinkis in the boat.  We've been working so hard on prepping the boat and finishing our regular people jobs that we've neglected to learn how to sail Ustupu.

In point form and in pig latin, here's how the trip went:
-Ots-le of un-se
-O-ne ind-we

So we had a fantastic trip making our way through the Gulf Islands but with hardly a puff of wind.  We got to know the diesel guzzler thoroughly.   As a matter of fact, we used the engine so much that on our return crossing of the Straight of Georgia (55 miles between where we were and Vancouver) we managed to run out of diesel, no less while in the main shipping lane to the Port of Vancouver.  Here's my recollection of the incident:

Engine:  "putt putt, clunk ker clunk clunk, death"
Dan: "Uhhhh, Sylvie, I need to go below for a brief moment to have a word with our brand new engine"
Sylvie:  "Should we call the Coast Guard?"
Dan: "Negative"
Engine: "Last rites.... give 'em here"
Dan tries to start engine with horrible dying sounds.  
Dan contemplates a quick scuttle to solve the problem.  
Dan then understands that he has been motoring for 50 hrs without refuelling and is an idiot.
Ustupu: "You stupid you"
Dan says to a passing sailboat: "Hello gents, we seem to have run out of fuel, can I trouble you for a drop of diesel?"
Gentlemen in passing boat give us 5 gallons and save the day. 
Wind then picks up and we sail most of the way home.  

Otherwise, the trip was lovely and the weather fantastic.  We took some baby steps with Ustupu and she rewarded us in spades. Life is good on the boat.

Here are some pics for your ogling eyes. 














Old sailor Dan

Young fisher Dan

My casting form is less than masculine

The vegetarian takes a crack at it.  No bites.

Still nothing

Dan's Rock Cod

Portland Island



Winter Cove

Dog Fish.  Yuck.  I ate it anyway.

Home

2 comments: