Ship Yard Tour

[dkirsop]

One of our ship yards held an open house today for the public and prospective job seekers to attend. Point Hope Shipyards allowed members of public to wander throughout the yard and provided tours of their machine shop. They also provided free refreshments which pretty much amounted to a free lunch. So, I hopped on my bike and pedalled into town.

The machine shop has many older tools which they lovingly maintain so they can repair and machine new tools for ship building. Most impressive was the lathe with a 40 foot bed and a 10 foot extension if required, used for turning shafts up to about 36" in diameter. More impressive was the $90,000 per year starting salary for a 1st year machinist - to be 19 years old again!

Here are some pictures:

IMG_3330.jpeg

The Round Table used to move ships to 1 of 5 work spaces. Canadian warship 702 in the background.

IMG_3329.jpeg

Some people have waaaay to much money!

IMG_3328.jpeg

Just about ready to launch

IMG_3327.jpeg

Coastal Defence vessel in for annual refit

IMG_3325.jpeg

An unimpressed bystander alongside the cycle path

Round trip I cycled 107km. Not bad for a 71 year old engine. We often see both of the Naval vessels passing by when sitting at our dining table.

[DesertAlbin736]

107km = 57.8 NM. Not bad! That's down in Victoria? That's a nice run from N. Pender. Sidney Spit would be a nice stop off on the way down or back. Good walking trail along the length of the island.

20190708_100012.jpg

20190708_100008.jpg

20190708_095957.jpg

One of my favourite photos was taken when we got fogged in at the Sidney Spit anchorage. I could handle living aboard full time anchored at Sidney Spit on a ketch like this with a fast RIB dinghy to run into town. Especially if said ketch had in-mast roller furling like this one. Sure miss being up there this summer. But with $6US/gallon ($2.06CAD/Ltr) truck fuel + other things going on at home seemed prudent to take a pass on PNW this year.

DSCN4839.JPG

[dkirsop]

The price of diesel at the fuel dock at Thetis Island was $2.99.9/L. So 40L later I shelled out $120. Most expensive fill on an Albin ever! Noticing that my last fill-up was in 2019 took some of the sting out. Glad I don't have a go-fast twin engine behemoth.

[DesertAlbin736]

Yikes! That translates to $8.71 US per gallon at current 77c exchange rate! That means a typical 9 gallon fill up would cost $78 US. Last time I bought boat fuel at a dock in BC was at Poet's Cove on July 18, 2019. Yes, I log every drop of fuel I've ever put in La Dolce Vita's tank dating bact to 2014. That was 19.4 litres, equal to 5.12 gallons. Price per litre then in $ CAD was $1.69 . That translated to 5.12 US gallons at $4.85 US per gallon. So what cost us $24.50 US for 5.12 gallons then would cost $44.60 US today. The last time I filled up the boat tank at a regular gas station near home on April 8th of this year was $4.99 US per gallon, $20.52 for 4.1 gallons. Today diesel here at a terrestrial gas station is $5.95 US. That's $7.73 CAD per gallon or $2.04 CAD per litre. Not much different up there than down here considering fuel dock price is always higher than a land based gas station. Yes I hate think what even an equivalent 25 foot single screw planing cabin cruiser with a 5.7L V8 gas engine that got 1 or 2 NM per gallon mileage would cost to fill up. Heck, next time my RAM diesel pickup gets down to 1/4 tank the 25 gallons (95 L) needed to do a fill up will cost $148.75 US, whereas it used to be in the $50 to $75 range to fill. That's if the prices don't go up any higher. When not towing I try to limit use of the truck & run errands with our Ford Fusion hybrid that averages 40 MPG. Our boat is laid up on the trailer for the summer & likely won't go back in the water until late October.

[dkirsop]

My other vehicle is a Nissan Leaf - $0.10 / kwh. I don't drive my diesel very often either. Land based diesel is around $2.60 Can./L.