Stuck in Bobby Orr town

After completing the Trent-Severn Canal, we cruised into the heart of Georgian Bay to a town called Midland, and stayed for a few days at the Bay Port Yachting Centre.  BPYC was a beautiful marina with all the facilities you could ask for and it was only a short walk to the town of Midland for groceries and other provisions.  The only exception was their wifi.  It did not work but sporadically from the boat.  Brenda and I resolved this issue by packing the laptop and the Ipad into town where we found two lovely coffee shops which had free wifi.  This is how I was able to post the last blog.

Anyways, Brenda went home on July 1.  July 1 is Canada Day.  When you ask a Canadian what this means, they tell you it is like our July 4.  When I heard this I almost laughed out loud.  Yes, July 1 represents the day Canada purportedly became “independent”, however, gaining this so called independence involved sitting down and signing a document after mediated discussion.  There is absolutely no basis in fact or imagination to compare their Canada Day to our Independence Day.  And yet, they celebrate with fireworks.  How tawdry!  It’s not as if the signing of some confederacy document involved glorious battle against tyranny and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives to gain true freedom and a crack at democracy.  I guess you can tell I was a little put off by the comparison.  Here they still cheer, “God Save the Queen.”  We cheer “God Bless America!”  So, on our July 4 holiday, I am ever more proud to be an American.  Especially since I am stuck in Canada.

My friend Robert drove in from Virginia to cruise with me for the last leg of this trip, from Midland to Superior, Wisconsin.  Tuesday morning, Robert and I cast off the lines and headed out into Georgian Bay.  Somewhere along the line, we must have sucked up something that clogged the raw water pump on the main engine causing it to overheat.  We caught it very quickly and shut down the engine.  We were adrift several miles from land in more than 100 feet of water, so there was no use dropping an anchor.  So there we were, adrift in Georgian Bay, while we waited for the engine to cool enough to put the fluids back in and to check for water flow.  Unfortunately, when we started up the engine, the temperature rose quickly signifying that there was no water flow.  This could only mean one thing: the impeller was shot and had to be replaced.  Fortunately, I carry spares.  Between Robert in the engine room and me running around handing him tools and parts, and gooping up the ends of fittings, we got the impeller out and replaced in under an hour.  When we started up the engine, she ran nice and cool, so we started out again.

About an hour later, we did an engine room check and discovered a rather significant leak from what looked like the water pump.  A tad more disconcerting was the fact that there was a large amount of water that had accumulated in the engine bilge.  We are talking like 20 gallons of water.  So, we stopped again, and pumped all the water out of the engine bilge into the keel bilge where the bilge pumps would simply pump it overboard.  So we tightened a couple things and made sure all clamps were secure, and made off again.

A half hour later, we were still taking on a lot of water.  By this time, we were about half way between Midland and the next possible place where services were to be had; the town of Parry Sound, Ontario.  So, we pulled the pump hose from the keel bilge and put it in the engine bilge and kept going while running the bilge pump for several minutes every half hour to keep up with the water being pumped into the boat due to the now faulty raw water pump.  While we were tempted to continue this way for the next two days and make it to Drummond Island, discretion, being at all times the better part of valor, dictated that safety of vessel and crew was paramount, so we put in at Parry Sound at a place called Sound Boat Works, the only place around that has mechanics that work on diesel engines.

Sound Boat Works is rustic to say the least, but we are on a fairly new section of dock.  It is a long walk to town, but as I will explain, the town is very nice.  We got in at almost 5:00 pm so there was no mechanic around, but at 8:30 this morning, the owner of the marina showed up and pulled the water pump.  By 9:00 this morning, another “bench” mechanic had the pump disassembled and had identified that it was the seal behind the impeller and the back plate that had given up the ghost and were the cause of the big leak.  It is now the end of the day, and they have yet to find replacement parts.  We are hoping they will locate them tomorrow and get them in asap so we can be on our way again.

 

 

 

 I am a soft believer in coincidence and try to give faith a chance whenever possible, so it is was very interesting to learn what Parry Sound’s claim to fame is.  This is the home of Bobby Orr, perhaps the greatest hockey player to ever lace up skates.  He was also my hero growing up and playing hockey in LA.  I wore #4 just like Bobby Orr and was a defenseman just like him.  I idolized the man.  And to think we just happened to end up here.  I consider this a stroke of good luck in a swim meet of bad strokes.  So, once the pump was pulled, we geared up and walked to town to visit the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame Museum.  Now, let’s keep in mind, Bobby Orr is still alive and doing quite well.  His family is still a presence in this community and every year, Bobby Orr still hosts a big golf tournament in connection with ceremonies to induct new members into his hall of fame.  So, in spite of it all, it was extraordinary to visit the home town of a childhood hero of mine and to see his things proudly exhibited in the museum. 

This was Orr's first jersey as a Boston Bruin.

This was his last.

Some of you may realize that the recent Stanley Cup Championship was played between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks.  Some of you may not realize that Bobby Orr started his illustrious career with the Bruins and finished it with the Blackhawks.  It must have been tough to watch that series here in Parry Sound. 

That’s it for now.  All we can do is sit and wait for the parts to be found and shipped so we can again be on our way. 

Thanks, Brenda.