….of OTG’ers. Yesterday morning, we got a neighbour’s report of a pipe-break in the water-line that feeds the system from the creek. The one that starts at the collecting pool with the pick-up way up deep in the forest that Sal has to climb and clean all the time. But summertime work on the length of the line that is attached to the cliff is controlled by the tides. The tides are deeply low in the day time and, of course, rise when it is dark. And the line is fastened higher up. A smidge inconvenient to say the least because the line is set about 5 feet above high tide. At low tide, you’d need a very long ladder. So, we went about our other chores and waited until dinnertime. Dinnertime is still not HIGH tide but it is higher and so off we went. I drive the boat. Sal stands on the bow and, by reaching as high as she can, she accesses the mile long poly pipe that is our waterline.

Sounds simple enough………………..but nothing is simple. Nothing is ever simple.

We got to the leak (an inexplicable hole in the pipe that is jammed in a rock crevice) and I floated the bow up against the face of the cliff. Once properly positioned, I add a bit of forward thrust to keep the bow in place and to give Sal a firm footing against which she can push and wrestle plastic poly pipe. Her working platform is a moving bow of about 3 square feet. It’s slippery.

We had earlier gone into the bay and halfways back to shut off the flow using an inline valve. And, on the other side, we shut the second in-line valve of the pipeline to ensure the water in that half didn’t flow back out. Sal took her saw and cut the pipe. Water everywhere. She was instantly soaked. And then she went about inserting a new two-foot section into the now-cut mainline. That requires pipe clamps, soap (to get the fittings to slip into the pipe) and then a big screw-driver to tighten the four clamps once the insert has been set.

Then, when all is in place, Sal gets a ride back into the bay to open the feeder valve and we go back home to open the other half’s now feeding-valve. Time planned for: one hour. Total elapsed time: 2.5 hours. Why the difference? Plans of mice and men oft go a’gly.

1. When Sal grabbed her pipe clamps, she inadvertently grabbed one too small. Discovered at the cliff-face. We had to go back
2. We did NOT close the first valve when we first went. Discovered as she first cut the line. We had to go back.
3. We did not close the feeder valve the first time. Discovered at the time of the first cut. We had to go forward-back.
4. Sal did not bring a jacket, it was blowing, the seas were rocking and the temperature had dropped. She got pretty cold. Her hands stopped working. Hard to do that stuff with inoperative hands.
5. Sal likes the dogs to come with us and so they did. But we did NOT hit the shore except to put the bow in at a few places. Daisy took exception to such inconvenience and jumped in after Sally and so getting Daisy back in the boat became a new challenge. Gus was content to ride with me.
6. In case we needed it, we had taken a short aluminum ladder. But the tide was high enough. We did not need it but it got in the way occupying part of Sal’s miniscule work surface
7. As soon as we hit the dock, Sal had to go home and get in a hot shower.

I mention all that because normal urban-type septuagenarians do not have to ‘rock climb’ wrestling pipes and hose clamps from the bow of a boat in a bit of a tipsy sea at dinnertime. Not usually. Unless………...ya live off the grid.