Days 338 and 339 - Smoke Signals — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 52 miles, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $75, daily high temperature 78°f

We spent two nights at the Queen’s Cove Marina. Not another Looper in sight. The swimming pool at the Queen’s Cove Marina was a little chilly. It was only 82°f. The last few nights have been cool so the water temperature dropped. The lake is warmer than the swimming pool.

Andy found her new favorite boat drink in Queen’s Cove – Cosmo.

As Priscilla and I walked back from the pool we saw black smoke billowing from the port side of CL. I ran to the boat and unplugged the power chord in case it was an electrical fire. Then I climbed onboard and saw Dale in the bilge searching for the fuel shut off for the generator. Since we had a problem with the AC water pump losing suction, Dale thought we should also check the generator. It was the right thing to do. And yes, the generator had problems. The generator raced at a high rate of speed and would not stop with normal stopping procedures. Dale shut off the fuel line and the generator finally shut down. We will have the mechanic look at the generator on Wednesday morning and figure out what we need to do. At a minimum we need to replace the water pump impeller. Fortunately we have a spare impeller onboard.

The mechanic came over bright and early on Wednesday morning. He replaced the impeller and started the generator. It raced and blew black smoke again. He determined the problem was a broken spring in the fuel injector pump. The problem was not related to an airlock from our lift over the Big Chute. It was just a coincidence. We had run the generator just a few days before with no issues.

Fixing the generator will be a bit of a challenge. The Onan generator sales staff wants to send techs to our boat from Orillia to remove the fuel injector pump and take it back to their shop and rebuild it. That will take one week. No deal. We will get the generator fixed when we return to Waukegan. That means will need to plug in each night at a marina. No worries because that is what we have done for almost our entire trip anyway. However, Georgian Bay is one of the best cruising grounds in the world so we will miss out on some nice anchorages.

As we cruised around in our dingy we saw a huge ship through through the trees. It looked very out of place in this little bay.

SS Keewatin is a passenger liner that once sailed between Port Arthur / Fort William (now Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior and Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) in Ontario, Canada. She carried passengers between these ports for the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Great Lakes steamship service. Keewatin also carried packaged freight goods for the railway at these ports. She was launched on July 6, 1907 and is 336′ long. Now it is a floating steamship museum. (The side of the ship facing shore is nicely painted.)

On Thursday we cast off at 9:30 am and headed NW to Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada. On the way we stopped at Henry’s Fish Restaurant for lunch. Henry’s is big tourist attraction for boaters and float planes alike. Priscilla had the pike, I had the whitefish and Dale and Andy had fishcakes.

Henry’s is a float plane base.

Flying to lunch at Henry’s.

We had one surprise on the last mile of our trip. The swing bridge only opened on the hour. We have been used to all bridges on the Trent Waterway opening on demand. We are not on the Trent. This bridge only opened on the hour. It was 2.30 pm so we dropped anchor and I wet a fishing line. At 2:50 pm we hauled anchor, transited the bridge and tied up at the Big Sound Marina in Parry Sound.

It is always a good idea to stay inside the channel.

CL framed by the trees at Henry’s.

Bonus photo – Carl (Chef) Wooden – the man behind the quotes of the day with his wife Mariko. Thank thank you Carl-san for over 11 months of inspirational quotes of the day. Carl-san and Mariko-san live in Tokyo, Japan.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.
“In rough seas, sometimes it’s too dangerous to boil water. But as I’m a girl, my nutritionist acknowledges that I have to eat chocolate each day!”

Samantha Davies

Samantha Davies came into the limelight with her 2008-2009 single-handed circumnavigation in the Vendée Globe race, where she placed fourth. She was the third to cross the finish line, but owed a time allowance of 50 Hr to competitor Marc Guillemot, who crossed the line 48:40′ after her. The time allowance was applied following both competitors’ diversion to assist injured skipper Yann Eliès, but Marc Guillemot benefited from a larger handicap because of his forward position in the race. Her abundant and lively video footage during the race caused a media and audience frenzy that dubbed her “la petite anglaise”.