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1930 Friday, August 4, 2023
It has been a day of ups and downs. We left the Punchbowl at 0700. The air was as still as a painting. So, we continued under power, weaving out the beautiful channels amongst the islands. Rounding one bend, we saw before us an enormous tabular iceberg. It was 350 to 400 feet across and 15 or 20 feet high; an immense wall of ice that at first appeared to block our passage out! Thankfully, there was room to slide between some ledges and one side of the berg, allowing us to get through. A photo of the berg is below.
With the wind still non-existent, we decided to take a jog inland through "Squasho Run," a labyrinth of narrow fjords. It proved to be a delightful passage with myriad hues rock and green groundcover with dots of orange, ripening cloudberry, or bakeapple as locals call the tasty berries. It is a treat and lasted a few hours until we emerged back into the Labrador Sea. A photo in Squasho Run is below.
With light wind, we motored on. I decided to again tackle our autopilot dilemma. The day before I spent time contorted in the sail locker checking all the connections there. Today I squirmed my way into the lazarette under the port helmsman seat. The main drive is down there that attaches to the rudder quadrant. After redoing the connections, we tried the autopilot again. It worked! We now have a working autopilot which feels like having an extra hand aboard, particularly for setting, reefing and furling sails. That made me happy!
No sooner than the autopilot was functional the engine alarm sounded. Drat! The engine had again overheated suddenly after running fine for close to 7 hours. We immediately stopped the engine and set sail. Thankfully, the breeze quickly began building. Before long we were beating directly to weather in 25 knots of breeze with reefs in the main and in the roller furling jib.
We tried refilling the engine coolant and checked for leaks. When we neared our destination around 1700, we tried the engine again. In a matter of five minutes, it overheated again. We would need to sail onward. We rounded Cape St. Francis and lowered the main, making for St. Francis Harbour under jib alone. As we approached the narrow entrance between an islet and ledges, we rolled up more of the jib to slow our speed. I readied the anchor while JJ took the helm. We rounded up, furled the rest of the jib and dropped anchor as neat and sweet as could be.
Over dinner we discussed the engine. I felt we might be dealing with a bad engine thermostat. After I dug out a spare thermostat and tools, JJ set to work replacing the thermostat. The photo above shows JJ with the new thermostat. I thank him for his tireless, skillful work. We just ran the engine for a while, and it behaved properly. Fingers crossed...
In the morning, we will start engine and haul anchor and make out the narrow channel to open water as quickly as we can. Should the engine fail, we hope to at least get out to a comfortable spot to set sail. Better yet, the engine will work, and our troubles will be over. Oh please...
Tomorrow, we plan to be in Battle Harbour where we may take a lay day and stay for two nights for a breather after several long and hectic days making tracks down the coast of Labrador.
Bill
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