The End of the Beginning of the Voyage

Ketchikan heritage sculpture at the cruise ship docks


June 13 - 14, 2015

John and Derek arrive at the boat in the early evening, and after introductions, we review the symptoms. Is the propeller OK?, Derek asked.  I assure him it has to be... my images are ambiguous*, but the evidence is unequivocal: no THUNK! no vibration!

We run the engine so Derek can hear it for himself, and engage the gearbox... forward, reverse, no bad noises, no untoward vibration. Diminished thrust is the primary symptom.

The prospect of pulling the engine out, removing the gearbox, rebuilding it at his shop, and re-installing it is straightforward to Derek. It is the smallest diesel that Derek has ever worked on (because it is basically the smallest diesel engine... period). The big unknown is whether parts will be available for an engine out of production for more than a decade. For myself, I am simply grateful to be in the hands of a good mechanic who is as comfortable at rebuilding the diesel engines of 56 foot purse seiners as working on my little lawn-tractor engine.

Truth be known, a problem as small as mine would not normally surface in his domain, except that John wants my problem to be fixed, and because they work together closely, Derek wants what John wants. They both inspire confidence.  As I learn over the coming week, these folks work very hard at challenging, difficult problems that are time sensitive. Breakdowns in the canning plant or on the boats that feed their stock to the cannery mean lost revenue for everyone. Lots of revenue. They make sure that interruptions in that flow are as few and short as possible.

This means that during the peak fishing months, they work 12 hours a day.  So, whatever Derek will do in the way of mechanicing for me is on top of a long work day.  I'm not only small potatoes, I'm a nuisance to these folks.  I'm cutting into their small slice of discretionary time after a hard day of work. In spite of this, both are solicitous and generous with their time.

Derek's plan is to talk to his supplier down in Everett, WA, first thing monday morning.  If they have the parts he'll have them shipped up by express air.  He'll pull the engine Monday when we know the parts are on the way, and disconnect the gearbox and take it to the shop. With any luck, Derek can rebuild the gearbox the following day or so. We could be running by Wednesday or Thursday.  In the meantime... nothing to do but take a deep breath and explore Ketchikan.

It is Saturday evening, we have a plan, expertise, and a schedule. Sunday, Mathias and I will relax, do a few errands, re-provision, and go out to dinner to close out our 5 week sojourn together.

I've enjoyed one of the greatest privileges a parent can have - 35 uninterrupted days of close cooperation and mutual learning with an adult son.  There are many lessons yet to learn on this trip, but I'm convinced the trip would have been stillborn had Mathias not been my first crew member. Both of us learned a great deal.  I know what to expect from myself, from the waters of the Inside Passage, and from Ripple.  We have checklists in place, our logging is sound and useful, my skills are stronger, and I am confident of myself and my boat, problems notwithstanding.

Whatever happens for the rest of the voyage, we have had an epic adventure an enduring memory for us both.

----------

* of course, my images are not ambiguous at all, but (1) the lcd screen on the little camera is small and dim, and (2) the openness of my diagnostic brain is small and dim.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Re-powering s/v Ripple

Image
My Summer, 2017 Adventure An irregular sound, a vibration untuned to the sum of your experience: this one was a momentary drop in RPM... 25, maybe 50 rpm. I bumped the throttle, right? Then it happened again, and denial shades into anxiety. The opening hours of a 6 week cruise: Seattle, up the inside passage, over the top of Vancouver Island and a leisurely meandering through the inlets that indent the west side. But this journey ended just as it began. A series of intricate diagnostic rationalizations, fuel filter and impeller changes availed us not at all. Lots of oil gone missing! Limping into Kingston Harbor, Ripple’s Yanmar 1GM10 turned the last of some 300,000,000 revolutions in my service. Broken-hearted 1GM10 Only slowly did I surrender the hope of rebuilding my faithful one-lunger.  As it happens, Yanmar does not make an oversized piston for the engine, as they enlarged the size of the cylinder when the 1GM transitioned to the 1GM10, and given that...
Read more

Connecting a Chart Plotter, VHF, AIS Receiver and Tiller Pilot using the NMEA 0183 protocol

Image
NOTE: An updated version of this posting that includes an AIS transceiver is now available here. Ripple's complement of communication and navigational electronics now includes: Standard Horizon CP390i chart plotter  Digital Yacht AIS receiver   Raymarine ST2000  tiller pilot  Standard Horizon VHF/DSC radio These devices can all be networked, so installing them includes making decisions about whether and how to connect them.  As with most everything on a boat, there are tradeoffs.  The benefits of additional functionality are always at war with the unanticipated dangers of creeping elegance and the instability that arises from proliferating connections (natural failure points). My four devices, like most modern electronics, can talk to one another using the well-established NMEA 0183 protocol.  NMEA 0183 falls short of a full-blown network, but it meets the need for point-to-point connections such as are appropriate to my configuration.. ...
Read more

Installing and Networking a Class B AIS Transceiver with a Chart Plotter and VHF Radio using NMEA 0183

Image
In 2015 I purchased an AIS receiver for a trip up the Inside Passage.  This posting is largely an upgrade of the  posting for that installation . I suspected at the time I might look back on purchasing only a receiver as a false economy, and that turned out to be the case. I want to be SEEN as well as to see others. This year  I purchased a Vesper XB 8000 AIS transceiver to replace the perfectly functional Digital Yacht AIS receiver that I had benefitted from over the previous three seasons.   My decision to go with Vesper was based on the reputation of their product and their customer service,  and also because the device makes the data on my network visible via a WiFi gateway.  This should make it easier to pull off tracking and route data, and to display AIS targets on tablet or phone as well as the chart plotter. The XB-8000 also provides an easily managed anchor alarm, accessible by tablet or smart phone.  I won't have to sit in the cockpit ...
Read more