Pelican!

Rain and snow, 33, wind out of the south at ten knots.

No fun to be outside. We are on the outside of the tee on the end of C dock in Pelican. It snowed all morning, a wet slush almost 2 inches deep and treacherous. Even Jazz with four-paw-drive was slipping and sliding.

Had a rather interesting morning. Got up to the sound of wet clumps of snow falling from the stays, shrouds, and spreaders. Of course, these sudden sounds absolutely terrify Jazz so he was doing his shaking fearful dog thing right at my feet. Looked outside and quickly concluded we’d spend another night in Pelican. Even though Elfin Cove is only 20 miles away there’s no point in going if the visibility sucks and it’s miserable outside.

But it was warm and cozy in Blue Note. Seemed like a good morning for waffles. I was just about to put the first of the batter in the waffler when I noticed the cabin heater had gone out. A quick check revealed a hot to the touch fuel pump. After breakfast I swapped in the spare pump and the heat was back on. As the tools were being stowed the battery low voltage warning light came on.

This light indicates that the house battery, the big battery that powers everything except the engine starter, had dropped below 11.0 volts. It popped back up and the light turned green after the refrigerator compressor shut off, but it was indicative that a charge had to be applied to the battery. Without a charge the battery will continue to supply power until it reaches 10.5 volts at which point the low-voltage-disconnect will operate and nothing works, VHF radio, depth sounder, lights, and most importantly, the heater fuel pump. When we are cruising every day it takes about 2½ hours of the engine running at 2000 rpm to resupply a full charge after using the battery for over night. With no charging, the battery will last about 48 hours from full charge to low voltage disconnect.

The current situation :-) was that yesterday’s run had not supplied a full charge and 24 hours of no charging later we were almost out of juice. A trip to City Hall to pay moorage fees and request an AC connection and we are plugged in.

Pelican is laid out similarly to Tenakee Springs in that both are on the north shore of their respective inlets facing south. The Pelican main “street” is actually a wooden dock roughly 20 feet wide extending about a 1/3 of a mile from Pelican Seafoods on the west to a strip of land on the east. All of the buildings front on the “street” or have extended walkways that reach it and almost all of them are on pilings. There is a restaurant, a hotel, several B & Bs, 2 float plane services, all closed this time of year. Rosie’s Bar is the only open business I’ve found. There is probably a grocery store but not needing it I haven’t really looked for it. Maybe tomorrow.

The pics were taken last night on our evening constitutional. One is of the harbor from the main street. The other is of the street in the background with the railing in the foreground. The image is a screen shot of the nav computer showing the chart of Pelican and Blue Note as a green icon roughly in the center.

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ADDENDUM: Just added a couple of shots, one of City Hall and of the boardwalk.