Sat July 11 On the hards at Port Hardy

July 10 2009 Port Hardy

We have been off the air since June 27 sitting on wooden blocks at Port Hardy Quarterdeck Marina ship yard.

On June 27 while leaving Wawatle Bay we hit some rocks while idling blissfully along at 7 knots and did major Damage to Sea Jay. I screwed up and was not paying attention to the charts.

The horrible grinding sound was beyond description.

At only 7 knots we did the following:

Tore off the starboard side Stabilizer fin
Mangled both propellers
Bent the port side propellers shaft strut...A huge 130 pound blivit that holds the prop shat to the hull.

Bent both propeller shafts…. one of them beyond repair

Put an 18 in gash in the keel but it was only skin deep and not a serious gouge.

After the grounding we limped at 4 knots on the starboard engine to Charlette Bay and rafted to the Colliers boat.

Both engines were stopped by the impact of the propellers on the rocks.

After impact I started each engine to see if we had any control and the port side shaft made a loud wobbling noise so I shut it down and tried the starboard side. It was better with an ability to make 4 knots before the vibration was beyond operational limits.

The port side strut was bent so far it locked the shaft so it would not turn.

I saw the piece of the stabilizer fin that was sheared off floating in the water behind us so I went below to check both stabilizers to see if we were taking on water and we were not thankfully.

Then I went down to the engine room and looked for water coming in and there was none.

We retrieved the stabilizer piece and proceeded to follow Reflections to Charlette Bay. On the way I called a diver I met in Port McNeal on the Sat phone and asked him if he could get us a tow boat to take us in to Port Hardy. He said he would and later that afternoon Doug Stewart who was on his way to our location from Port McNeal helped me talk via radio to a towing company to arrange a tow through the Nakwakto Rapids down Schooner Channel and across Queen Charlette Straights to Port Hardy. Then I received a radio call ( HE HAS A VERY POWWERFUL RADIO) direct from Don Wilson who has a 60 foot landing craft and agreed to come that evening to tow us the next morning. The agreed fee for the tow was truly breathtaking but when you have no choice the decision is easy.

The next morning they arrived at 7:30 am and we were connected to a giant tow line to this really ugly 60 foot landing craft and began our 7 hour trip across Queen Charlette straights at a blazing 5 knots.

I kept the starboard engine running under power so if we needed control we would have some. The port engine was also kept running at idle in neutral just in case.

When w reached open water the wind kicked up and the trip was very bumpy and our shore boat broke the attachment fittings twice as it was jerked back and forth by the 5 foot wind wave action.

The trip was tedious as I had to run the starboard engine at 700 rpm in gear to help control our beloved Sea Jay. The tow company brought along a very large Zodiac with 2 150 Yamahas on it to connect the bridle to our bow cleats and help control Sea Jay as necessary to navigate the narrow and treacherous Schooner Channel.

By the time we reached Port Hardy the wind was a steady 30 knots gusting to 40 and I am supposed to get Sea Jay into the sling haul out slip??? Which required navigating a very narrow fairway then making a hard left turn and immediately a hard right into the sling slip? All on one engine and the bow thruster.

This would require concentration on a calm day with both engines operating.

When we approached the entrance of the harbor we unhooked the tow line and stared to idle in under our own power.

When I heard the Tow Captain (who was now beside us in the Zodiac) tell me what I had to do and then I saw the narrow path we must take as we entered the marina I said to him this will be very interesting on one engine and he agreed adding “you have no choice but to get Sea Jay into this slip”. On the way in he hailed a Canadian Coast Guard inflatable that was leaving the harbor and they reluctantly agreed to help guide us in.

As we approached the hard left turn we had a 57 foot Yacht close on our left (port) side. The wind was really pushing us now in the wrong direction but some how I got her into the slip and there were 5 guys on the dock yelling 5 different instructions to me and this is when the most horrible thing happened.

The wind pushed the stern down wind away from the dock as the dock hand missed the line that Cheryl skillfully through to him.

We then backed into the 57 foot custom Italian yacht ( BANG) punching a 3 inch diameter hole in her bow.

Now my week is complete. Are you laughing by now? Isn’t this an impossible story to tell.?

I looked at Cheryl and she was white in shock and disbelief at what had just happened. Not only am I suddenly a leading candidate for the coveted Golden Shovel award I am now a sure bet for the screw up award as well.

I know I have a strong heart because I wanted to go into Cardiac arrest.

We slowly moved Sea Jay forward and secured her to the slip.

The next morning at high tide the haul out was completed.

It seemed impossible because of our 70 foot length so we had to nudge close the rocks on shore at high tide so the lift could reach the lift points on her hull.


We have now been in Port Hardy almost two weeks and are getting to know all the nice people all to well.

It is Sat night July 11 and we finally have all the new parts at the boat.

Two new propeller shaft, one overhauled propeller shaft
Two overhauled propellers

One new propeller strut that was manufactured in Redmond Washington on a rush basis and air freighted on Kenmore air to a near by town.

And the starboard stabilizer fin has been installed and both Stabilizers had new seals installed and have been certified good to go.

Gary and Lenore arrived Thursday evening and it is so good to have our friends with us to share this wonderful adventure.

The parts will be installed Monday and we hope to splash Tuesday morning at a 5:30 am high tide . We must then sit in the water 24 hours to let the hull settle out and then have a final engine / shaft alignment made of both engines and shafts and if all goes well we will be on our way Wed afternoon.

We will have the carpets cleaned Monday Morning because of all of the dust from the gravel yard floor and bottom paint grinding dust our home is very dirty inside and out.

This afternoon we went out to test our fishing skills and we caught one small Coho and through him back for a bigger and better day.

I have down loaded many photos of the collision with mother earth, the tow home and the haul out.

It turns out that the damage to the yacht that I backed into was minor. The repair cost will be about only one boat unit.

I will update as we begin repairs on Monday.

Friday June 25

June 26 4 AM

Listening to the weather report to see if we can cross the Queen Charlotte Straights.

Doesn’t sound good

We have decided not to attempt the crossing today and will get more sleep and decide where to go today. We will just have to wait until he weather clears. Oh well we are not on a schedule so it does not matter when we make the crossing.

Thursday June 25

Thursday June 25 2009

Today was a day of fixing stuff. While the gang took a ferry to Sointula a Finnish Communist settlement started 100 years ago. It was a draft dodgers dream during the Vietnam war.

While the gang did their visit I was busy working with Graham MacDonald to take the fuel filters apart from stem to stern. We found no contamination and determined that the zero boost mode in the starboard engine was caused by fletus beams from the moon.

I also got the radio fixed in the dinghy and had a diver inspect the hull propellers, Niad Stabilizers, shafts and rudders finding no damage. Phew!!

In addition I got the KVH Sat TV to work, bought a new 5 gallon bucket and got a small step ladder for my crew member. What a wonderful exciting successful day.

Tomorrow if the weather and sea condition are good we will leave at 5 AM to cross the dreaded Cape Caution & Queen Charlotte Straights with the goal of anchoring in Fish something somewhere.

Wed June 23rd

Wednesday June 23

We left the dock at Campbell River at 5:45 so we would hit Seymour Narrows at slack current.
We hit slack on the nose and quickly ran up to 25 knots with a 4 knot push from the outgoing tide. Then as forecast we had a 35 knot wind at our back which produced 6 foot breaking rollers and a following sea. The boat handled it beautifully and the F 16 rode very well in our wake.

It was still a comfortable dry ride but the rain and wind increased making visibility poor. At 2 ½ hours we hit a big log broad side …Bang Bang and pulled the power back to all stop.

Cautiously we increase power to ascertain the damage and as luck would have only a minor vibration was noticed and we were not sinking. Some how the log did not wipe out the propellers. However as I increased power we again had no boost on the left engine again the same as last Sat when we pulled the power back quickly to avoid a log… so go figure, we had to run at 13 knots for an hour or so then I tried to run it up and the right engine did produce boost and came up on line with full power.

Soooooo the mystery continues. When we got to Port McNeill the wind was gusting to 40 kts and it was a very difficult docking because we had the F16 dragging behind and because of the high waves we could not bring it along side for docking.

Once we had secured the dock I went below and removed and checked the starboard engine primary fuel filters. They were clean so one must imagine that there must be a movable clog in the supply side of the fuel line to the starboard engine. Late in the afternoon I made contact with a local diesel repairman and he came out about 5 PM. he will be here in the morning t continue the search for the problem.

We had a nice lunch with the Colliers and Stewarts at a local Pub and now at 11 PM the wind has calmed.

Tueswday June 23rd

Arrived in Campbell River at 2:30 with good sea conditions all the way... Called ahead to arrange for an oil and filter change on the generator sets, a decal on the F 16 for registration number and Tender to Sea Jay and I had an electronics shop come by to see if they could make the sat phone work for incoming calls.

The sat phone guy was a big mistake!

He did something to the KVH sat TV and it went bizerk! Now it does not work at all and he did nothing to help the sat phone issue.

He did bring a chip so the new Garmin 440S will work in the dinghy because I could not find the Garmin 555S card that I already had.

Now we must stay over on Monday to hopefully get the KVH reprogrammed on Monday morning.

I will demo the F 16 today to the Dave Gosnell who is in charge of Painters fishing lodge guide boats. They have 40 Boston Whalers at this location and he said the have 300 boats in their fishing fleet empire which includes 16 and 18 foot Boston Whaler guide boats. I talked to him a year ago about this project and he seemed interested. The demonstration to Painters Lodge went much better than expected. The manager of the fishing fleet Dave Gosnell (250-203-3430) was very impressed. The first thing he wanted to see is how the F16 handles in whirl pools and strong currents so he heard straight for Seymour Narrows. When we got there the large whirlpools were forming and the currant was beginning t run. He headed along the edge of them at first and was really amazed at how well F 16 held it heading with hardly any movement due to the strong current as he operated the boat he became excited and bolder with his maneuvers. The we headed back to Painters Lodge and I showed him the DVD as we were leaving he excitedly invited another guide t join us and we went out in the channel and Dave quickly found a large wake from a larger boat and he boldly crossed the wake at considerable speed while the other guide keep saying this is amazing. With three of us in the boat he achieved 52 mph with a big grin on his face. (Wowee this is fun).We could never do this in a Boston Whaler.

Dave took me back to April Point where we met and I told him we would like to work with them to build a guide boat based on the F 16 platform. He agreed that that would be a good idea so I told him OZ AKSAN would be in contact with him to work out the details.

This after noon we will leave Campbell River join the Colliers on Quadra Island on Hyascinthe Bay (about 10 miles from here) to dig for Clams Mussels and prawns.

The Stewarts will stay in CR to visit relatives.

On the way over I ran the engines up to 2 knots and sea Jay liked it. Then I slowed to avoid some debris and when we resumed speed the starboard engine would not make power and showed no boost pressure on the turbocharger. More problems with the mighty Cat engines.

Arrived Hyascinthe Bay late afternoon and rafted to Nat & Linda Collier who were moored at a fabulous private 10 acre waterfront estate. We went for a tour of the property which included a very large house two guest houses, a care taker house plus a caboose house built for the grand children. All buildings face the water which is a beautiful private bay surrounded by small islands, rich with clams and oysters.

The main house is hard to describe but included a huge kitchen complete with commercial Viking appliances and 12 foot vaulted ceiling throughout. The most outstanding feature was a very large wine cellar room with a dinning table large enough to easily seat 18. This is truly a wonderful setting.

Sunday June 21 Father Day

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads and it is the longest day of the year.

We are up at the crack of 8 ready to dig clams and oysters.
We started digging at about 9:30 and it was awesome… all of the butter clams were restaurant size and there were mountains of oysters. We harvested a nice 2 gallon bucket of clams and the same in oysters.

We are now for sure not going to starve.

Then we went out and pulled the prawn pots bringing in a harvest of 4 large prawns. There is a commercial prawn boat working the area and he has picked it clean.

After the clam dig we went to Heriot Bay for Lunch and it was wonderful. It is just off of Rebecca Spit which is a wonderful anchorage and beautiful beach.

We cut loose and headed back to Campbell River and will stay the night hoping to get the Starboard engine turbo boost fixed tomorrow by the local Cat dealer Fining Canada.

Tuesday June 23rd update

Well this is the saga of our KVH Sat TV and no turbo boost on the starboard engine.

We started our Monday Morning with the local KVH “expert” coming on board to fix what he screwed up on Friday. Friday he came to see if he could make the Sat phone ring on all 5 handsets instead of ringing on the master KVH handset that is buried in the bowels of the helm of the pilot house. We can call out on the Sat phone but when some calls in it only rings on a master handset that is inaccessable. As is turns out while he was working on the Sat phone system he accidentally bumped a switch on a monster transformer (THE SIZE OF A CAR BATTERY) with a mirror that I loaned him so he could see the back of the KVH gismo.

When he turned the transformer back on the Dell Computer for our navigation system crashed along with the KVH Sat TV system. Then the KVH Sat dish started whirring and moaning like a cat in heat. It was an eerie sound that we had never heard before. He then gave me the deer in the head lights look and said hummmmmm? I have never heard that sound before. He then spent 3 hours taking the dish dome apart and punching buttons while I was dieing a thousand deaths wishing that he had never been invited to help with the phone system. It got late Friday afternoon so he said “I must go now and I will be back on Monday”. This totally screws up our plans to be where ever we planned to be on Monday. So we went to visit the Colliers on Quadra Island and on he way noticed that we had no steering rudder indicator, no TV and the starboard engine started showing no turbo boost.

Soooo back to Monday morning…. Dave the “KVH expert” was back with a laptop computer in hand. He called KVH and explained what happened and they told him that he wiped out the KVH Sat TV processor program by shutting off this humongous transformer and turning it on again causing a fatal low voltage condition that wiped every thing out but…. it could be restored.

Phew!!!

He also discovered that he had accidentally knocked of some wires to our rudder indicator and he reconnected that and voila it all worked again. Dave did download a new software program (a one hour down load) In addition he checked out our salon system with a smile and discovered why we could no longer see a picture.

Now back to the no Turbo charger boost issue.

Gord, The Finning Caterpillar technician came Monday afternoon to see why we had no boost in the starboard engine. He suspected that the boost sensor was dirty or bad, but for starters he worked for two hours trying to get his lap top computer to diagnose the engine problem, but it would not talk to the engine. He asked me to start the engine while conducting this diagnosis and the engine not only had no boost but it made an intermittent horrible noises like a sledge hammer hitting a 2 inch thick piece of steel and it was running very rough. He looked very worried and took the three valve covers off and checked the lifters and camshaft. Then he checked the boost sender gismo.

Meanwhile I slipped into a comatose state of depression imagining what all this was going to cost. He finally announced that it was quitting time and he would be back in the morning to continue. “Gord” is very nice a 59 year old man that normally works on tractors and he told me that he does not like to work on boats. He has worked for Finning for 32 years and will retire soon. He is working on boats because they have laid off ten of their normal staff of 13 employees.

He came back the next morning with a new lap top and began to try to connect to the engines brain but the ( “ET Cat brain ) No kidding, (that is what it is called ) 3406 would not let him in.

By now I am going nuts so I called the manager of the Campbell River Finning branch to tell him that Gord is struggling a bit and ask him “does he have someone that really knows this engine”. That is when he told me that they have laid off 10 of their 13 employees and Gord was all that was available. (I imagine that Gord had union seniority so he is still employed).

He gave me a phone number of another Finning employee that could help Gord figure out how to get the Lap top to talk to the 3406 Cat engine.

That I when I called my Friend Gordon who is a NC Machinery technician from Mount Vernon Washington and worked on our port engine recently and is very knowegable on the 3406.

I got Gordon on the phone with Gord and he walked Gord through the process and he made contact with the 3406 ET brain only to discover that there were no faults.

Soooo Gord started to look elsewhere for the problem.

That is when he looked at the fuel filter and they were very black with some kind of slime.

Gord said this he was sure that this is the problem and he began the process of changing all of the fuel filters.

I am too blame for this because; I was told that all fuel filters were changes in Florida when we bought the boat. Obviously this was not the case.

Gord changed all of the fuel filters (they were really plugged with black slime).

We took the boat out and we ran it up to 25 knots and we had great turbo boost and all was well. Gord also changed the starboard engine main oil filters and cut it open to check for metal and it was clean.

He also changed both generator set primary filters.

Soo what is the moral of this story.

It cost us $2,000 to change the fuel filters because I was too stupid to check them out before we left Everett.

Finning is $148 per hour for field work.

It is funny now and I can laugh at my self because I am an experienced boater.

We have fueled up this afternoon (700 gallons) and will leave tomorrow morning at 6AM to catch slack at Seymour Narrows and a good outgoing tide in our favor with a 20 knot wind at our back to go to Port McNeal which is about an 80 mile run.

Sea Jay Goes North

Spent two nice days in Nanaimo.

We found a great store for charts (Nanaimo Maps and news on Church street phone number 250 754 2513). Just a short walk from the marina this shop has been selling charts for 60 years and the very nice fellow running it was a Catholic priest helping out the owner. He really knows the charts and we purchased (the roll was like carrying a log over your shoulder) many new charts for our venture to Hartley Bay and Grenville Channel in the Queen Charlottes region. After the chart acquisitions we headed to the Harbor Chandler Marine supply store on Esplanade Street. Said to be a 5 minute walk, 30 minutes later we arrived and it was worth the walk. I bought some fabulous number 8 X 1.1/4” flat head square drive screws; a couple of stainless quick connects for the tow line and a key chain float. It was heaven I tell ya. This is a very well stocked marine supply store for future reference

Doug and Gail Stewart joined later that afternoon and we had a wonderful gourmet dinner at the Coast Hotel. Before dinner we took the F16 around Newcastle island in 3 foot slop and the boat did fine but we did get a little damp and Dougie while sitting in the bow did get his bum soaked when we hit a large breaking wave.

After dinner the wind had died down considerably so the four of us took the F16 for a high speed (up to 55mph) run to Dodd narrows. The boat handles superbly with 4 adults on board. We then watched a new sales DVD on the f 16 and afterward noticed that we possibly had pulled the anchor a bit too close to shore so Doug and Gail untied from Sea Jay and found a cozy moorage on the dock on New Castle Island.

Today June 19 we will head towards Campbell River possibly stopping half way for the night.

Doug got a call from Nat Collier last night from Salt Spring Island just south of us and they may catch up with the beginning of the Codvill Armada today.

We plan to leave Nanaimo at 09:00 depending on the weather.



Arrived in Campbell River at 2:30 with good sea conditions all the way... Called ahead to arrange for an oil and filter change on the generator sets, a decal on the F 16 for registration number and Tender to Sea Jay and I had an electronics shop come by to see if they could make the sat phone work for incoming calls.

The sat phone guy was a big mistake!

He did something to the KVH sat TV and it went bizerk! Now it does not work at all and he did nothing to help the sat phone issue.

He did bring me a chip so the new Garmin 440S will work in the dinghy because I could not find the Garmin 555S card that I already had.

Now we must stay over on Monday to hopefully get the KVH reprogrammed on Monday morning.

I will demo the F 16 today to the Dave Gosnell who is in charge of Painters fishing lodge guide boats. They have 40 Boston Whalers at this location and he said the have 300 boats in their fishing fleet empire which includes 16 and 18 foot Boston Whaler guide boats. I talked to him a year ago about this project and he seemed interested. The demonstration to Painters Lodge went much better than expected. The manager of the fishing fleet Dave Gosnell (250-203-3430) was very impressed. The first thing he wanted to see is how the F16 handles in whirl pools and strong currents so he heard straight for Seymour Narrows. When we got there the large whirlpools were forming and the currant was beginning t run. He headed along the edge of them at first and was really amazed at how well F 16 held it heading with hardly any movement due to the strong current as he operated the boat he became excited and bolder with his maneuvers. The we headed back to Painters Lodge and I showed him the DVD as we were leaving he excitedly invited another guide t join us and we went out in the channel and Dave quickly found a large wake from a larger boat and he boldly crossed the wake at considerable speed while the other guide keep saying this is amazing. With three of us in the boat he achieved 52 mph with a big grin on his face. (Wowee this is fun).We could never do this in a Boston Whaler.

Dave took me back to April Point where we met and I told him we would like to work with them to build a guide boat based on the F 16 platform. He agreed that that would be a good idea so I told him OZ AKSAN would be in contact with him to work out the details.

This after noon we will leave Campbell River join the Colliers on Quadra Island on Hyascinthe Bay (about 10 miles from here) to dig for Clams Mussels and prawns.

The Stewarts will stay in CR to visit relatives.

On the way over I ran the engines up to 2 knots and sea Jay liked it. Then I slowed to avoid some debris and when we resumed speed the starboard engine would not make power and showed no boost pressure on the turbocharger. More problems with the mighty Cat engines.

Arrived Hyascinthe Bay late afternoon and rafted to Nat & Linda Collier who were moored at a fabulous private 10 acre waterfront estate. We went for a tour of the property which included a very large house two guest houses, a care taker house plus a caboose house built for the grand children. All buildings face the water which is a beautiful private bay surrounded by small islands, rich with clams and oysters.

The main house is hard to describe but included a huge kitchen complete with commercial Viking appliances and 12 foot vaulted ceiling throughout. The most outstanding feature was a very large wine cellar room with a dinning table large enough to easily seat 18. This is truly a wonderful setting.

Sunday June 21 Father Day

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads and it is the longest day of the year.

We are up at the crack of 8 ready to dig clams and oysters.
We started digging at about 9:30 and it was awesome… all of the butter clams were restaurant size and there were mountains of oysters. We harvested a nice 2 gallon bucket of clams and the same in oysters.

We are now for sure not going to starve.

Then we went out and pulled the prawn pots bringing in a harvest of 4 large prawns. There is a commercial prawn boat working the area and he has picked it clean.

After the clam dig we went to Heriot Bay for Lunch and it was wonderful. It is just off of Rebecca Spit which is a wonderful anchorage and beautiful beach.

We cut loose and headed back to Campbell River and will stay the night hoping to get the Starboard engine turbo boost fixed tomorrow by the local Cat dealer Fining Canada.

Bad to the bone on his birthday