7/31/11 Wallace Island to DeCourcy Island

This morning began with a little bit of water play as I had to dive on the propeller to remove our swim ladder line from it being wrapped around the shaft! Turns out that in our motoring last night to reset the anchor someone, one of the kids, had let loose the non-floating line that is normally kept wrapped neatly out of the way, and it had managed to get sucked down and bound around the shaft. It had been cut or town clean off and my big worry was that we had bent the shaft or ruined the transmission.

It came from the deep!

I heard from some Friday Harbor friends that their round Vancouver Island trip this summer had to be cancelled because near Campbell River they had wrapped a mooring line around their shaft and managed to bend their shaft and destroy their transmission. Of course, their boat is a fin keel with that long expanse of shaft exposed.



To check Aeolus I first got down under the floorboards and turned the shaft by hand. I found it tight, and yet it did move, and there was no obvious damage to the transmission flange or nearby things. By figuring out the rotation direction of the shaft, I was able to figure out which way the line would be wrapped. So next I donned my farmer john wetsuit and a pair of goggles and dove in the water to free the line. It turned out to be wedged pretty tight, but I was able to start pulling on an end and that was enough to get purchase on the line enough to pull the whole thing free in a few dives. Luckily, there was no damage to the shaft or transmission and we were soon on our way at 9am.

Elliott being Elliott, and reading his fourth book of the day

We motored north in calm seas and hot sun until we reached lovely DeCourcy. No sooner had we dropped the hook than little Owen caught the first fish of the whole trip! It was a small rockfish, about 14", so beautiful, and of course we put it right back in the water as they are seriously overfished.

The boys spent all day swimming and exploring

This day and the next were filled with all the good times to be had at DeCourcy. It is truly a lovely place, and the south beach and cove are not to be missed. We hiked all around, and swam all over in Pirates Cove. Perhaps the most fun was had by the boys by finding drift wood and using them as surfboards. Endless hours of good wet clean fun were had by them in this endeavor. It made Bill and I very happy to see them being all Huck Finn.

Me enjoying the magical shoreline and amazing views toward Galiano

The boys on their driftwood boards. They covered impressive distances on these things.