Mast UP !

Notice of intense heat has finished ... phew!  (for now)

Allan did not sleep well worried he was by the noise and vibrations of yesterday. 

7H30: After speaking with a Flexo-Fold technical support in Danmark, they stay the problem is probably the transmission.  If the propeller is operating smoothly in static, it should open with the engine.

Allan empties port locker to climbs in to check the transmission and chats with Norm via Facetime. We decided to extend the throttle linkage so that the throttle pushes the transmission fully or more into forward.

Daniele empty the sump under motor, almost 2 full bottles.  Daniele has taken the job and responsibility to watch this.  It gives her some responsibility and helps keeps her occupied.  

We still have 10 miles to get to Gosselin.   

9:00 am: Departure no suspicious noise.  

Half an hour later, Bellum got bogged down in the mud near St. Eugene while trying to pass a fishing boat on the wrong side. Allan, too worried about the transmission is not as attentive as usual and I (Daniele) did not tell him my concerns. We asked for help from fishermen and they got us out. 

11:05: Arrival at Gosselin. Again this noise. We are preparing the mast and the rigging. 

1:03 pm: Beginning of the re-matting
2:00 pm: Bellum is again a sailboat. 

The mechanic at Gosselin is not working on Friday pm. There would be nobody to check the transmission. 

We took a walk through St Paul Ile aux Noix.

6:45 pm: Winds are blowing too much, so we hung around at the fuel dock until 19:15 approximately. 

7:30 pm: We cast the mooring lines. No transmission noise. We motored across the river. Allan wanted to take a shortcut to go behind Walnut Island.  According to Navionics SonarCharts, there was plenty of depth which turned out to be wrong.  We grounded in soft mud.

Aground!

<Daniele> Well, I need a break, I enter the boat, I resign. Twice in the same day, it's too much. As Allan would say, "How are you doing? ". Then, much to my relief, he managed to get rid of us. Luckily, the bottom of the river here is very muddy, the kind of mud that goes between your toes when you swim in some lakes. Pushing the engine all the way Bellum cleared the shallows to make its way back to the channel.

<Danele> The height of happiness. my captain and me. are comfortably anchored to the east of Île aux Noix, a glass of Scotch in hand - foolproof remedy to recover from such emotions. 

Everything is quiet now. A calm more than welcome.

Small yellow clouds lines the horizon. The pale blue sky is tinged with orange, the sun sets behind the trees. A festive rumor comes from the village of St. Paul. 




22:15: Pleasant surprise, fireworks!