The Adventure Never Stops

What's a day without adventure or challenge, you ask?

Well, don't ask us.

We have not had one day without some sort of incident or challenge for 38 days now. I know because I'm keeping track!

We woke up happy and energized, ready to explore the islands of Mahone Bay.

But tonight we are deflated, frustrated and spinning in circles.

After schoolwork, some fishing and researching about Mahone Bay, we decided to take the dinghy out to one of the recommended islands, Bella Island, and swim there. There is a heat wave in the area right now and a bit of swimming would be just the thing to cool us off!

We made a project of it and had the kids write out a list of items to pack for our 'field trip', and then pack it.

Then off we went!

Just as we were approaching Bella Island, the engine died completely. We tried several times to restart it, with variations of tweaking things in between, but nothing. It seemed like there was something blocked in the carburetor.

Luckily we were close enough so we could row to shore and as luck would have it, two motorboats were there on a mooring ball, enjoying the afternoon.

We swam up to them and asked for some help. Unfortunately with zero tools between all of us, it was hard to diagnose the problem.

In the end we called the coastguard to ask for a tow.

Luckily, one of the items on the kids' packing list was the handheld VHF!

They arrived in ten minutes, all very cheery and helpful. Turns out we saw them yesterday at the grocery store!

The coastguard lady remembered Tai especially as he was in the middle of comparing two packs of Swiss cheese and seeing which was the cheapest option in terms of $ per weight. And Aila was reading off the sugar and sodium content in one of the cracker boxes, deciding if it was nutritious enough to eat.

Who knew they would be the ones rescuing us the very next day?!

When we got back to our boat, we got busy troubleshooting our challenge-of-the-day, which has now shot to the top of our job list. Funny how things can turn so quickly.

Then suddenly I get this message from Darlene George-Rhyno, someone I have never met but we connected through WWS (Women Who Sail), a fantasic Facebook group for female sailors. She and her husband John Rhyno have a boat on a mooring in Mahone Bay and did we need some help?

Ummmm, yes please!

So help arrived and although the elusive problem of this outboard engine remains, more brains were better than just ours.

Tonight, Matt and I sat around the salon table eating chips, drinking beer (him), eating cereal (me) and discussing our plan of action.

The hard part is not knowing what the problem is. We will go visit a local marine shop tomorrow to see if they can offer any insight or solution.

Our outboard engine is a Chinese brand called APS. Yup, you've probably never heard of it.

And this, unfortunately, is the issue at heart. Are we willing to fix an outboard that we depend on to get us around that is not a reliable brand? What if it gets fixed but will only die again in a few months' time? Or worse, when we are in real need of a working outboard engine to get out of a sticky situation and it doesn't work?

Many cruisers say your dinghy and outboard are essential to cruising happiness because it is your 'car' when you're living on a boat.

Yes, we did bring the outboard here all the way from Ottawa in a U-Haul. Yes, we had to rent a larger U-Haul just so we could transport it. Yes, Matt had to construct a special stand for transporting the outboard all that way. And yes, it was cheap.

But is it reliable? We hadn't used it much in Ottawa before bringing it here. We've done two dinghy trips so far now, one which ended us needing a tow back.

My gut is to just bite the bullet and get a new, reliable one. But that costs money and maybe, just maybe, we can get this one fixed with minimal hassle.

Still, we'll sleep on it and see what fresh brain cells bring in the morning.

That's enough excitement for another day.

Researching Mahone Bay.

Aila had researched the Mahone Bay swimming pool this morning on the laptop.
Then she wrote this out on her projects book. Maybe we should've followed
her suggestion and just walked to the pool for a swim instead of going to
some secluded sandy beach 7 miles away!

Swimming off the sandy cove at Bella Island.

Trying to start the engine again and again.
At least the kids had a good cool swim.

Captain Not Impressed

We like fast dinghy rides, whether it's on our own
dinghy or on a bright orange one!

There's our dinghy being towed behind
the Mahone Bay Inshore Resuce Service.

Aila holding on tight as she was told to do.

Not impressed. Although I have to admit riding in one of these was cool.

Goodbye and thank you!

Look at that thing being nudged by the tug. Amazing!

We did accomplish one thing today and that was to scrub the decks clean.

Rinse off time on deck. So hot today.

Bella Island. We will remember it always
as the island where we got rescued.

Our route there and back from Bella Island.