And then, there is always more . . . .

So the winter comes and goes with the grinding deep maintenance that occurs in the cold, dark, winter days in the boat shed. Then the energy starts to build in March and the ship heads out for the ship yard haul-out followed by the Spring burst of energy from the crews sanding and painting . . . Finally the ship comes out of the shed and the kayaks are prepped and we run our usual battery of inspections for radio, fire suppression system etc etc.

Finally the big day arrives for Transport Canada to give the COLUMBIA III her dockside inspection. I thought she was looking pretty grand!

and after THAT! Well then, really, we’re all ready for the season, Right?

Oops, there can be little last minute details Captain Murphy likes to participate in . . . . . . .like . . . .

. . . I decided to be extra good and ordered in 3 new propane tanks to ensure they were in perfect shape. But of course the “style” of construction had changed since the propane cabinet was built and the new tanks were too tall. . . . REALLY??? TOO TALL!!??!!! So my wonderfully clean and freshly painted back-deck was buried in dust and grindings as I routed out new indentations to accept the alternate dimensions of the replacement tanks . . . and I thought they would just slip them into place!

and a week before departure, the galley range decided to malfunction and an intense flurry of activity ensued to get it operational again.

AND… we bring the crew together for a full day of recurrent training with fire pumps and first aid kits and the skiff etc etc. . . . (3 days for me with individual one on one individual instruction )

We even had “galley training”. Savanna was new to the ship so she arrived a day early and got to prepare a few meals off the Mothership menu to give her time to orient herself in the galley . . . now, where are the measuring spoons hidden . . .

Steering the vessel with the emergency tiller . . .

Here Skipper Steve takes a few crew at a time to review the operations with the inflatable tender. Steve draws on his experience training crews in the Antarctic.

Spill boom deployment . . .

Oh,oh, skipper story-time . . . . When I was a kid working on a small salmon troller off the BC coast, a skipper on another boat was lost at sea. The only other crew member was a kid like myself. He had seen his boss fall over-board but the deckhand had never been told how to turn off the auto pilot, nor operate the engine controls . . . so by the time the lad figured out how to stop the vessel and get turned around he was never able to find the skipper. The seas were too choppy, the ocean too huge . . . . It was a formative moment for me, hearing a young voice on the VHF radio asking, “Hey, has anyone seen my skipper?”

So for the last 50 years (do the math! I’ve been on the water 68 years (Im 69 now) all my life but not in a position to oversee training) of mucking about on boats I have ensured that every crew knows how to start, stop, maneuver and neutralize the electronic controls on the boats I operate. . . .cooks and kayak guides and deckhands.

SO! . . . .all Mothership staff training needs to get past ME, the creator of procedures, and checklists, and information hand-outs . . .

Every crew member receives the same recurrent training checklist which we work through together, It usually take about 4 hours and I do 1-3 crew at a time. The ship is quite complex and the crews need to be familiar with her. We cover every part of the ship and all her systems. New crew get the basics, experienced crews dig deeper into the systems.

. . . “I don’t want someone to die because you don’t know how to turn this tub around!”

Here is a dandy ship’s tale of woe . . . . Some time in April I nipped into the engine room to grab a tool of some sort . . (I get into the engine room most days of the year!) and something really didn’t smell right. Not a lot of bad smell, just a little teeny weeny bit of the WRONG smell. Black-water odours are pernicious and vicious even in very tiny amounts. And I walked over to the black-water tank under the workbench and there was a pin-prick of moisture on the side of the stainless steel tank . . .I forget the tank’s age but I had those custom built about 7 years ago and THEY SHOULD NOT BE LEAKING RIGHT THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE TANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (enter salty-dog colourful maritime turns-of-phrase that conjure up vexation . . . like really, really VEXED!)

So I acted fast! The two black-water tanks I had installed a few years back (I’m too lazy to look) were removed the next day and one was transported to town for a welding company to copy and one I sketched out for them to fabricate.

removal of said vexacious tank 1.

and ya gotta love the accumulated scale built up in the lines . . .

After a bunch of sleuthing we determined that the “old” tanks were made out of the wrong kind of stainless that was not resistant to the corrosive black water solution . . . So we did it again in the the right kind of stainless . .(316 not 304 for anyone that really cares) And here is one of the new, new tanks installed . . .

Here’s another boaty line item. Last year I installed a fancy new search light on the COLUMBIA III. And this spring we ran our usual electrical test for Transport Canada, called a Megger Test. Unfortunately the bulb in the new search light was damaged by the test voltage . . . So I needed a replacement. List price from the search light manufacturer was $250 each and 6-8 weeks for delivery . . ..

I found the identical bulb/part number on-line, 2 bulbs for $29.00 shipped the next day . . . .

But we were getting close! The beds were getting made!

Besides being a small business owner I have a life too! Here is a picture of Dennis Mattson. He is 90 years old and was my first skipper back when I was 16 years old. Dennis ran and lived aboard a salmon troller his whole life. As he has no effective family, he and I have maintained a loose friendship for the last 50+ years. He has been living here on Sonora Island for over 20 years and I help him with shopping and medical appointments. Thrifty’s Foods certainly love it when we show up! Dennis loves so shop! Go Skipper go!!!

. . . . and a wee event in May. Tavish and Deirdre were married here on Sonora with 250 guests for dinner and many overnight . . . . That didn’t impact my spring ship preparations at all!!!