All Aboard for Chaos and Calamity
- Isobella Wiggins
- Jul 26, 2025
- 4 min read
With our main halyard out of commission we weren’t too upset when the morning winds were nearly zero as we left Harmony Islands for Van Anda on Texada Island. It was a cool, rainy morning and after a week of intense sun we weren’t too upset to pull on pants and don a jacket as we pulled anchor. The day went by quickly, all things considered. I stayed on the helm and enjoyed some gal time with Jordyn (featuring books and music) while Brad and Frank bounced from one project to the next down below. They got our shower sumps working (fixed the electrical and the pumps), got the check valve working, tinkered with our knot meter (to no avail) and did a deep dive on all of the innards that make Splash function as our floating home. We arrived in Texada with a few things off the list, and because conditions wouldn’t allow for another trip up the mast to execute Plan B, we headed into the single pub in town for drinks and dinner. Later that night we cozied up down below for the must-see hit and our all time favourite sailing flick, Captain Ron!
Little did we know, our smooth sailing would be interrupted before bed that night. Take a moment and travel back in time with me to picture this… it is 10pm, the night is cool, and Brad is wrangling the dogs into the dinghy at 10pm to get them out for their bedtime bathroom break. Lhotse begrudgingly leaves her cozy spot under the table and Cinna stands bleary eyed on deck, none too eager for a pee break either. We finally persuade the dogs to the dinghy, but before Lhotse can hop in she looks at us like, “I can save you the hassle?” and immediately pops a squat over the back deck. Our gut reaction is, “Lhotse, no!” but after a moment’s hesitation we realize that peeing on deck isn’t a bad thing… afterall, if we want to go offshore and do some passage making next year, both Cinna and Lhotse will have to learn to do their business on a pee pad on deck. With that in mind we praised Lhotse, but Cinna was having none of it and insisted on a dinghy ride to land to do her business. As Brad shuttled them off I reached for a bucket to wash down the deck. It was then that I realized our cabin windows were open… Lhotse’s bathroom break had spilled overboard and in the process, trickled into our cabin and directly onto Brad’s side of the bed. Ugh! After getting our bed sorted with fresh sheets and ensuring nothing soaked through to the mattress (thankfully the pee leak was very minor) we called it a night.
Just when you might’ve been starting to think sailing life was glamorous, I’m here to remind you to think again. The next morning we tossed our sheets into our onboard washing machine (glamorous) only to realize an hour later that it had depleted our entire supply of fresh water (not glamorous). Thankfully we have 20L of fresh water jugs on board for just this reason so it wasn’t a crisis (but definitely an inconvenience) and we continued on with our plans to sail to Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. The weather cleared and we enjoyed a slow motor sail with our main sail jury-rigged halfway up the mast, and were treated with a visit from a pod of Minke whales along the way.
After anchoring in Tribune Bay the skies clouded over again and winds picked up, and I assured Frank and Jordyn that I didn’t oversell this place and promised, “it’s the best ever, you’ll love it when it’s sunny!” We took the dinghy for a wild ride to shore and left the dinghy on the beach so we could do a quick walk into town to stretch our legs. When we got back to the beach we scanned the long stretch of sand for Patch, our dinghy, and when I spotted it I asked, “what is that neon green thing sticking out? Did someone leave something on our dinghy?” As we got closer it dawned on me… one of our lifejackets had auto-inflated! At this moment, I looked directly at Brad and glared with all my might before saying, “I TOLD YOU SO!” Because not a week earlier I had suggested we swap it out with a standard PFD to avoid deploying our low-profile, auto-inflating lifejackets. Brad said, “Noooo Bella don’t be silly, that would never happen!” …and here we are. We had a good laugh and my ego inflated to match the lifejacket, but when we reached Patch, we realized that inflated or not, that lifejacket had indeed been submerged. During our short walk on shore, the waves had pushed Patch sideways and had been crashing into and over the sides and into the boat. To make matters worse, these weren’t the crystal clear waters of Tribune Bay we were accustomed to — these were sandy, rocky, and seaweed filled waters sloshing around inside our dinghy. Frank and Brad immediately got to work bailing Patch out while Jordyn and I rinsed off everything that had been inside (water pump, air pump, paddles, emergency gear). With tears in our eyes from laughter, we watched as the boys bailed as quickly as they could only to have another wave crash into Patch and re-fill it with any water they might have previously bailed. Eventually they did make enough headway for us to get the dinghy turned around and finish bailing it, and by this point the guys were covered in seaweed and soaked to their waists in water. No worse for wear, we got Patch cleaned up and made it back to Splash in time for dinner!
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