With no real agenda or plan of action, we chose to linger in Tod Inlet which turned out to be a good decision. Over the past few days, the central heating system on the boat has gone out but, fortunately, we're in the right place at the right time. Lance, our installer, lives only a few miles away in nearby Sidney.
Tuesday evening, David turned the heater on to take the chill off of the boat only to discover it wasn't working at full-strength. So Wednesday morning he took a look at the boiler unit, cleaned it out and started it up again for the day – once again, at a diminished capacity –which meant a morning spent on the phone with ITR troubleshooting.
By Thursday the heater was completely gone and it was apparent that the compressor head has to be replaced. Lance will pick up a new one in Victoria and switch it out for us which is excellent news because, although the weather has been nice, it's cold – the temperature aboard the boat barely able to reach 60º F without the help from the sun.
But, on boats as in life, you have to take the good with the bad. Lance made the trip down to Victoria this morning only to learn that ITR hadn't shipped the replacement compressor head but, rather, decided to manufacture a new one specifically for our unit. It turns out that shortly after we purchased ours in 2008, ITR redesigned the Hurricane H-2 to lower specifications changing the design for the compressor head in the process. The part will be ready and in Victoria Monday morning which means three more days without heat. On the bright side, the forecast is good, so we're going to move over to Sidney Spit Marine Park tomorrow for a couple of days before meeting Lance in Sidney proper on Monday.
Unfortunately this is happening during a cold snap and we could really use the heater in the morning and evenings to keep things warm and dry. But,at the end of the day, we're just happy to be on the water and aren't prepared to turn our backs on this beautiful autumn weather by going to a marina to plug-in and warm up until the heater is fixed. So,until then, we'll just pile on the layers and continue to enjoy ourselves as we explore the Southern Gulf Islands.
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