do you know about FUEL RETURNS? this story of the most expensive cinnamon buns on the planet will certainly help you remember - lessons can be expensive - these are on someone else's dime

ONCE upon a time, in a marina far, far away (powell river), there lived a boat with lots of valves in the engine room.

Our student ~ or 'VICTIM' ~ decided to change a few of the valves, not fully appreciating that diesel engines draw more fuel than they require & RETURN fuel back to the tanks. Being that 'a little knowledge is dangerous,' they inadvertently set up so that both engines drew fuel from the port tank & returned to the starboard tank.   Their journey took them to the top of TOBA inlet, at which point, their boat had a heavy list that wasn't noticed until both engines died & the boat came to a complete stop.  

Receiving the call (how they had phone coverage I may never know - at least something worked), it didn't take long to determine what had happened.  The adventure in the engine room had come to an end ~ they would not extend their 'tinkering' to bleeding out the entire fuel injection system, so we dispatched help.  

Friendly STU came to the rescue in his high speed vessel.  Knowing people would not be delighted about the whole experience, STU's craft made one emergency stop in LUND to take on 'mission critical' supplies.

When STU climbed aboard the listing, motionless craft at the head of TOBA, he said with his giant enthusiastic smile ~ "Hi, I'm here to get you running again - enjoy these fresh CINNAMON BUNS from NANCY'S BAKERY while I work".  Tinkering with something they didn't fully understand lead these people to enjoy the most expensive bakery items of their life - but they fully understood what happened & it never happened again.



In delivering our new addition "KITTIWAKE" to SIDNEY this week, being the recipient of that fateful call that lead to the infamous sticky bun delivery, I was quick to realize when one tank was gaining fuel and the other was losing fuel ~ something had to be amiss ~ enter that pesky "RETURN LINE" setup once again.  A couple trips to the engine room lead to a correction.  Be sure to familiarize yourself with all boat systems, monitor your gauges & only change settings you understand.



The cinnamon bun story allows this valuable lesson to be at someone else's expense.

Seems an odd topic to be our first tip / trick of the new year - 2010 - but food was clearly the highlight of  the first recon project this year - a whirlwind tour to Powell River, Lund, Comox, Victoria and Sidney before our return to Vancouver. 

Our first evening saw us visit the Beach Gardens where we were treated to a surprisingly wonderful meal at the Savoury Bight restaurant that overlooks the top of Malaspina Strait and out to the North end of Texada Island (and the summer home of the Powell River fleet).   Genny and I enjoyed a meal with the kids - a cross section of chicken, fish, pork and prime rib amongst the four of us - and have not had such great food and service in Powell River since our honeymoon in Powell River over a decade ago*.   Everything was delicious (I did my part to help test all the dishes that came - that's Dad's job of course) and the service was quick and friendly. 


(view not quite this nice in January!)

It is important to note that there is other delicious food in Powell River; our long term favourite La Casita is the best Mexican food north of Mexico as far as we can tell, but the authentic Mexican decor (complete with 70's furniture that is a little less than comfortable) made this the best overall experience north of Gibsons. 

We also had a brief meeting with our fabulous instructor Chris Coldham, who told us the interesting news that Tim Horton's is coming to Powell River.  Chris explained that the average home price in Powell River is down a bit from a year ago - perhaps the arrival of Roll up the Rim to Win will turn all of this around?  I did do my part to scan the town for the new site (and the Tim's website).  We'll have to file this bit of news as 'unconfirmed' at this point.

The next morning saw us wind our way up to the top of Highway 101 to visit Lund, where we met with the harbourmaster and got the lowdown on the moorage rates - after many years at $0.60/foot/night, we'll be seeing $0.66/foot/night for the next while (power extra) - still great value for overnight moorage a quick jump from Desolation Sound.  The store under the historic Lund Hotel is very well stocked and we were surprised to find a crowd at Nancy's Bakery on the second of January (and WiFi!).   I would have posted this from Nancy's but the family was anxious to move on.  That said, Nancy's is an absolute MUST DO - great coffee and snacks... especially the sticky buns!

Our trip back to the Island took us through some less than noteworthy culinary experiences (not the least of which on BC Ferries).  All the same, it was a great time up in Powell River / Lund and we hope that some of these tips

* honeymoon in Powell River was intended to get to Desolation Sound but weather prevented this plan from being played out