Women’s gossip:

 

So? We’ve been in civilisation with much excitement about new supplies of food goodies. One of our on going shortages has been the amount of gas we have on board and biscuits. Now you might think that these two items are unrelated but we have plenty ingredients to make a wide selection of biscuits and cakes – but of course this means lighting the oven which is heavy on gas usage. Until we arrived at Arctic Bay we have been rationing ourselves to one day in five for baking.

 

But in the supermarket a large gas bottle was sighted by Pete. Those of you who have already been cruising around the world in yachts will know the rest of this story – a familiar hassle for live-a-boards. (I have resorted to stealing gas on a previous trip, avoiding a night watchman and big dog, when our gas bottles did not match the country’s requirements – but that’s another story).

 

Back to things in the Arctic – great we have gas. Now what about the connection. Of course it is not the same as our UK bottles. But

the lady in the shop can sell us a fitting and pipe to attach onto their local appliances. This means we have a fitting to go onto the bottle but no regulator. Back to the boat and a lengthy rummage through the gas bits on board revealed a pipe nozzle the right size to take the diameter of the local pipe. So I cut off the very well sealed machined end and jubilee clipped the nozzle on, (not best practice I know). This then screwed into our adjustable regulator (thank you Ron if you’re reading this for explaining this system before I left). The next puzzle was where to sight the new bottle – much bigger than the old ones and no chance of it fitting in the gas locker. So in a not-so-ship-shape manner – we have tied the bottle to the side deck. We now have a relatively hassle free workable system and therefore as much gas as we wanted – we thought.

 

The next day whilst the men were ashore going for a walk – actually turned out to be an amble around a heritage centre because they didn’t like the rain – I set to to top up supplies of flapjack, apple pie etc. But then the smell of gas began to pervade the aft deck (or the porch as Dave likes to call it). So out comes the washing up liquid to detect the leak and an obvious bubble reveals the weak spot. Easily sorted I think and tighten up the bolt some more until no more bubbles are detected. Feeling pleased with myself I finish off the baking spree. Once done I do a final check of the gas – just to be sure. It would be a shame with all the other obvious dangers up here to lose the boat and crew to a gas explosion. Rather annoyingly the leak has reappeared. So its off with the fitting again, clean up the “gas seal” paste and start again. The gas seal paste tin tells me its not suitable for the high pressure side of the system – which is where the leak is. Having nothing better – I try again and we have no more leaks so far. I’m not feeling particularly confident with this. Fortunately the bottle is on the deck so any gas leaking should spill out onto the sea and not into the bilges. However we are taking the precaution of turning the gas off at the bottle every time we use it, in addition to the original solenoid switch we have used previously. This is an activity which causes some hilarity in itself as the bottle is tantalisingly close to being reached though a window meaning that a trip out onto the cold deck can be avoided. (You have to remember that we are sitting around in our slippers most of the time). So this afternoon had Dave hanging out of the window, feet dangling in the air, being thrown about as we are sailing to windward. Those of the crew with long arms are at an advantage – not much good for me.

 

For those of you who have sailed on Tumbler and despise my paraffin stove – all the above saga is the main reason I avoid a gas stove on my boat.

 

As I type this we are headed back to the Southern shores of Devon Island – this time further west towards Graham Harbour (again not a harbour but an inlet) and Beechey Island. We are the “supply ship” for 2 other yachts we have come across – Drina and Meloda and we are carrying their supplies of fresh fruit/veg/eggs etc. No point in everyone heading off for the shops when they are 150NM away!

 

I’m looking forward to seeing Beechey Island if the ice allows this. Currently conditions look favourable for this and as ice conditions are still quite solid further on the line we should have time to do the tourist thing for a few days.

 

Catherine