Prince Rupert

Today is an unplanned lay day so that the crew of Mother Goose can make critical repairs on the 42’ Grand Banks Change of Latitude.

Northwest Explorations is flying in parts that should arrive in the afternoon. Turns out that the bearings in the idler pulley on one of the engines seized up, causing the pulley to stop rotating. So as the engine continued to turn and the belt rode over the pulley, the heat caused the pulley to melt. No one wanted the charterers to continue across Hecate Strait on just one engine, so repairs were essential. Thus, our extra day in Prince Rupert – not a bad place to spend an extra day.

Happy crew from Deception take advantage of a shopping day in Prince Rupert

Kathy and Lance from Dream Catcher came over to visit in the morning, and we entertained them in our “jammies”. In fact, we stayed in our jammies until 10:30am, relaxing and watching the intermittent rain. You often get to know and see more about your “boat mates” on these trips then under normal circumstances. It is part of the charm of this kind of traveling.

We have been searching Alaskan Dream in hopes of finding the emergency handle for the windlass. It was nowhere to be found, and it is a critical safety component if the electrics on the windlass fail. Jordan came over and gave the boat a look, and agreed it was missing. He took the handle from Dream Catcher as a model, and went to the local machine shop to have a new one made. It would be ready tomorrow at 9am, and at $80 Canadian it was a done deal.

Jordan also worked on troubleshooting our oven burners, as only one was working. He managed to get two functioning, which is the minimum I need to cook. We had only two functioning burners on Alaskan Dream last year, albeit a different two.

Lunch was again at Dolly’s, so you know how we highly recommend it. Karen’s halibut sandwich with yam fries was really good, as was my Caesar salad with blackened halibut. I had made chili after Kathy and Lance left, so we let it simmer when we left the boat for lunch.

Karen takes advantage of the WIFI at the market

My USB hub was not working, so we took a walk into town to Data Boy to pick up a new one and visit the ATM machine. On the way back, I got a Slurpee at the 7-Eleven. This now seems to be a tradition any time we are in Prince Rupert. Unfortunately they use Pepsi instead of Coke as they do in the U.S., but I made do. Karen stopped at the Starbucks in the Safeway for her last chance at a Starbucks’s unsweetened iced tea and some free WIFI. We also found some amazing balsamic glaze with fig at a small shop called Home Work. All in all, a good day.

Dinner was at the Cow Bay Café. Recognized as the best place to eat in Prince Rupert, Karen enjoyed her freshly caught Spring Salmon with mushrooms, and my ribs were good too. I had ice cream for dessert and Karen devoured a peach, blueberry and almond fruit tart. We noticed that many of our “boat mates” also enjoyed the culinary delights at the café that evening.