Tofino or bust...

Another day of rainy weather and light winds from the south. This weather is HIGHLY unusual and not what we planned for. Too much motoring caught up with us today. We had been watching our fuel closely and Jeff has been making calculations and spreadsheets as you can imagine on our fuel consumption. There are not many places to buy diesel out here!

Only 4 miles from Tofino, Jeff looked INTO the fuel tank and realized we were going to run out! Rocks to our port, the lee shore, and there was little to no wind. Add in swells that slosh the limited fuel from side to side. He quickly mcguyvered sponging diesel into a cup and held it under the fuel intake tube. This bought us about a half hour. Tom drove while I put up sails, readied the anchor and also got a tow line ready if needed. We quickly made multiple plans for what to do. We got a light puff of wind, just enough to give us steerage and shut the motor down to consider options. Fortunately, we had cell service and I called a water taxi service in Tofino and they jumped right on getting us a jerrican of diesel and bringing it out to us. A service fee was paid but they were great!

After refueling in Tofino and getting moorage, Jeff began to look at the numbers. Out tank hold 44 gallons of diesel, but it seems you can only use 38 of them! The way its built wont allow the tube to get the rest of the fuel. Because we never let it get low at home, we never encountered this before.
What a way to learn about this issue!

We are now safely tucked in our dock after provisioning, laundry and dinner. Tofino is a small town built on tourism. Maybe its weather or the economy but still have not encountered crowds. Its about the most populated town on the west coast of the island with 900 residents. A gorgeous sunset tonight will hopefully bring fair winds tomorrow.

Tomorrow we head to Bamfield!



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Location:Tofino, BC