Hartley Bay - the Boardwalk city, and an engine milestone

We moored in Hartley Bay - a fairly new native settlement at the entrance to Grenville Channel. The entire town is connected by wooden boardwalks, and there's not one car or truck in town. A few ATVs and electric golf carts serve all the transportation needs. We couldn't think of a better layout for a small town on the water with ample lumber. They had built a nice boardwalk up the river a few miles for access to the lake, and we enjoyed the excercise. Having a dog on a leash in town was a real novelty.

The kids were actual real kids, too. We loved that this guy had found himself a raft/large pallet and was paddling it around the marina with a shovel.

Psst... Don't tell these kids about television or XBoxes. Here they managed to fit three aboard. And only the girls were tough enough to swim in the 57F water.

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The morning's have been foggy, but the sun lifts it to reveal the world.

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One particularly nice hike we did the morning before Prince Rupert made us homesick for the open meadows and muskeg of Prince William Sound. Many of the flowers and plants were the same, but Blain was thrilled to find rough-skinned newt eggs (correction- these are likely not newt eggs, but northwestern salameader's)  in the little ponds. Mo, with here sharp eye for slimy things spotted a live adult, but it buried itself in the mud bottom before we could snap it's photo.

These are the egg masses, glowing like little fairy marbles.

Tiny bog laurel with big flowers.

And the view from on high felt great. Blain is hiking a bit more, and can enjoy the bushwacking again.

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The little engine that could, just keeps on doing it. We rolled over 4000 hours. A milestone and we hope it'll just keep chugging for another thousand or more before a rebuilt or replacement.

Unfortunately, other parts are also getting older. We noticed a mast shroud was loose after a good day's sailing, and saw that the chainplate had lifted the deck. Not so good. We dug in and found that water had entered the deck and the chainplate was actually only deck mounted, not bolted to a bulkhead. This allowed water in and it has rotted out some of the surrounding balsa wood coring. We will have to cut it out and fill it with epoxy, not to mention back up the other deck chainplates with backing plates. Prince Rupert to the rescue, we hope. It's frustrating to not be able to sail. This photo shows one good chainplate mounted correctly, but there should be another in the picture that's missing.

Sometime shortly after this discovery, Blain invented a new cocktail.

He calls it a Tequila Restorer. One part reposado tequila, two parts water, squeeze of lemon, a tablespoon of agave nectar (available in stores), and one chilipepper. Serve on a nice day in the sun with a waterfall for background music.