Rock Lake
Many years ago (the early 2000s?), we headed off for a vacation. I had done a bunch of research and found a place called Rock Lake that was just outside of the Willmore Wilderness Area, north and a bit east of Jasper.
There was a backcountry lodge there with 4 small wooden cabins for rent. The cabins had no power but hot water and refrigeration were provided by natural gas tanks and they had indoor plumbing. It’s a beautiful place to visit with lots of hiking and meadows full of elk in the evenings as you sat on the veranda.
But the best part of the trip was actually the outfitters just down the road. They mainly did guided hunting trips on horseback during the seasons, but lucky for us, did day rides in the off season as well. These were great, back-country horses with none of the passivity commonly associated with trail ride horses and the trails themselves were exhilarating and magnificent. We scrambled up 60° inclines and crossed ridgelines and explored valleys. I think we went back three days in a row, just meandering around the mountains and ridges and up to the top of a few of them.
But many of you will have heard my story of the one trip we did where the leader asked us repeatedly if we were scared of heights before he would take us up. From the picture below it doesn’t look all that terrifying, but if you are 8 feet up on the back of a horse and you can touch the side of the hill with one hand, looking down the side of the mountain was enough to make anyone close their eyes and pray to whatever horse gods there are.
But the view was oh, so worth it.
Unfortunately I have never been able to find out if these cabins are still there. The original listing is long gone and the long meandering drive in a bit too lengthy to make just to find out.
The art of waiting
Boat ownership has, so far, been an exercise in patience. Actually from what ‘little’ I know of it, boating should always be such an exercise. There is apparently a cruiser’s saying that goes “The most dangerous thing in cruising is a schedule.” This refers to the fact that heading out on a day with iffy conditions or leaving dock with a boat that is ill-prepared just because you have to “be somewhere” is likely the worst decision you will ever make on a boat. So I guess the last couple of weeks have been good practice.
The issue is basically the time of year. I have a fairly hefty bit of work to do on the boat—most of it to be paid for by the PO (previous owner) and a bunch of it necessitating hauling the boat. Now since the PO is paying for the lift and storage (upwards of $700) it makes sense to schedule the work I am paying for at the same time in order to save a few dollars. And therein lies the rub. It’s springtime on the west coast and every dog and his brother wants his work done and his boat in the water. Now, if not sooner.
And since we have our Vancouver Island circumnavigation booked for mid-May, it makes sense to wait to have the work done since we can’t use the boat anyway. It all makes sense. The only downside is we might be paying two moorage fees since moving the boat away from Granville not only costs money, but may delay the work if they have to move it back, and we have already reserved a spot in Mosquito Creek to keep the boat until we are ready to go.
But all that means I have to wait.
In case you are wondering what kind of things need to be done to boat that I just bought, here is a list of what was decided should be done and approximate costs. As far as I can tell they are in no way unusual or extraordinary:
- lift & store 5 days—$700
- repitch prop—$450
- rebed (replace) strut bolts—$200
- repair chainplate crack—$475
- keel hull joint crack—$475
- hull damage—$1300 (up to $9000 if there is core damage)
- replace/repair galvanic isolator—$650
- Webasto heater repair—$1100
- rigging repair (misc)—$1500
- engine repairs (misc)—$2000
- *engine service & upgrades (misc)—$2000
- winch service—$500
- hot water tank repair/replace—$1300
- *repaint hull—$700
- *polish hull—$800
- items marked with an asterisk are not paid for by the PO
The galvanic isolator is the panel on the bottom. Actually that’s just its (non-functioning) panel but I have no idea what the isolator itself looks like.
The hull damage on the port side that needs to be repaired (hopefully not to the tune of $9000)
I also want to investigate the cost of tying in the water heater to the Webasto and upgrading the alternator to 100 amps. The first will give us hot water without having to fire up the main engine while away from dock since the Webasto hydronic heating system is basically a mini boiler. The second just reduces the amount of time it will take to recharge the batteries using the engine; important if we intend to stay in one place for more than a day and cheaper than installing solar panels or buying a generator.
Hopefully I will have a schedule in the next day or two for all this work. Right about now, all I really know is Lawrence wants us to go to Specialty Yacht’s Hunter Rendezvous on Thetis Island in late June so the boat has to be ready for then. We aren’t scheduled to take off on our grand adventure until July so I guess that’s ok. Even if it means waiting…
—Captain? #Posts