So that happened...

I had a good whale report today - placed them about an hour south.

Driving out of Roche Harbor on the 4th of July is a zoo.  Party Central.  It seems out of place for this area - the "go fast" boats with guys with no shirts and girls in skimpy bikinis populate the place, instead of trawlers and sailboats.  Inebriated people in dinghies, kayaks, and stand-up paddleboards... all with no place to go and wandering aimlessly.  Boats anchored out so thick that you can nearly walk across the harbor on 'em.

Not a fun weekend for a working boat.  When I came to work this morning, there were 3 dinghies tied to our boat.  Yes, really.  One of them was full of empty beer cans and booze bottles.

If you look beyond the white tent (Party Central), our boat is tied to that floating dock.  As the boss says, "It's one day out of the year."

We loaded our guests, and snaked our way out of the marina, around the wandering dinghies, then weaved our way through all the anchored boats.  Getting to Mosquito Pass was a relief.  Coming out of Mosquito Pass was a delight - whales!  WAY closer than the report I had.  And we had them to ourselves.  I called it in.

After a few minutes with the whales, the delight was replaced by... Oh, shit!  I could smell hot coolant.  My engine temp was spiking upwards; I looked back and had yellow smoke coming out of the dorade vents!  Yeah, that's not a good thing.  I shut down the engine as my first mate was heading to the helm to tell me about the smoke.

"Move the guests to the bow 'till I can see what's going on."  I let the guests know that we were not in immediate danger (no fire), but I was going to have Mike hand out PFDs, as standard procedure.  I opened the engine compartment and the yellow smoke rolled out... yep, that is some really hot coolant.  No fire, but I was going to need to get towed in... no way am I starting this engine again without knowing why I am loosing coolant.  When things cooled enough (and after calling for Vessel Assist) I looked around the engine compartment... coolant in the bilge, some spray.  No obvious source of a leak.  Nope, I'm not starting this back up.

Good fortune: SoundWatch, on their small boat, was nearby.  I waved them over and asked if they could hip tie to us, to hold us in place until Vessel Assist showed up - we were drifting at about 3 knots.  They immediately agreed, but hadn't hip tied before; when they came close, we lashed up to them.  We explained to the guests what SoundWatch normally does, and assisting boats that are having mechanical problems isn't normally what they do.  We were glad to have them there.

We kept the guests informed.  I called Joan and arranged for some of them (who had the time) to get on one of our other boats for an evening trip.  They all handled the situation with good spirits.

When Vessel Assist arrived, we thanked SoundWatch, untied from them, and started our tow north in Haro Strait...

They were only able to make about 2 knots against the current, pulled our weight.  Yeah, this was going to be a "three hour tour," but not what I had planned.  Along the way, we pointed out a bald eagle that flew over, harbor porpoise, and some of the eddies in the water from the upwelling.  In between, I was coordinating with Joan to have the other crew ready for an evening trip, and with our boss to have some hands on the dock at Roche for our arrival.

It was even more of a zoo as we came in... now, hip-tied to the small Vessel Assist boat.  Andrew, the captain of the Vessel Assist boat, couldn't see to port because of our size - I was at our helm, on the radio, letting him know what was happening on that side.  He did a great job of navigating through the anchored boats, and all the wandering dinghies and kayaks.  The last tough maneuver was fitting between the big yacht at the slip next to ours and another big yacht at the fuel dock... it required trust on both of our parts, as I guided from our side and he maneuvered.  Close to the dock, we handed off lines to our boss and a couple others... and we tied off.  We're back.

We thanked our guests for their understanding and cooperation, got them off the boat, then put on some coveralls and started checking the engine more thoroughly.  The boss had called a mechanic friend of his, who came to the boat.  He pressurized the cooling system, no sign of a leak.  We put water in, re-pressurized and got a spray from one of the hose connections... a broken clamp.

With the clamp replaced, we took the boat out to shake it down - all seems good.  It is frustrating to have an issue (we stay up on the maintenance and thoroughly check all the systems each day), but this is the best outcome for the situation.  Back to the dock at Roche, and the party on the dock is in full swing.  More dinghy-dodging.

We tied off and shut down.  Time to put the boat to bed and call it a day for this one.  Some of the crowd, right next to our boat...

This doesn't include the throngs on the docks; I couldn't get that with my telephoto lens.  The roar from the log roll competition and "blind-folded dinghy race" made my head throb.

The scooter ride home was relaxing.  We will be spending a quite evening at home, away from the noise and the fireworks.