At long last – a change in scenery! From the bowels of the engine room, to the open spaces off Surge Bay! The cuticles of my nails are slowly turning from a grimy black that even Goop! handcleaner will not remedy, to a lighter shade of salt-cured, hardened, shininess that only constant immersion in sea water brings. We are fishing! And catching!
After what seemed to be a string of endless setbacks, we finally reached bottom. With the bottom of the bank account only visible from below, the credit cards maxed, and a list of things to do that seemed to be self-perpetuating, we came to that “one last” point – I told Lovie that we would give things one last shot – if we had anything go wrong that cost more money or time, we were done. I wasn’t sure how we would even get back to Montana, but we would have to hang up the raingear, chalk the experience up to bad judgment, and go home to try to eke out a living while we licked our wounds.
After the last post, the parts for the engine arrived, thanks to the efforts of Larry and Kathy at Stewart’s Marine in Seattle. Kirk and I flushed every visible inch of the crankcase, pulled and replaced the main bearings, installed the new balancer unit and oil pump, put the oil pan back on, lowered the engine back into place, re-assembled all the peripheral equipment, realigned the engine/shaft unit, and filled everything up with fresh oil and antifreeze. Careful bleeding of the fuel lines and priming of oil pump and filter enabled us to start the engine easily, with no incidents.
To break in the new bearings and seat the rings, we spent 8 hours in gear, pushing against the dock(tough docks here!), running the engine at different rpms to vary the load. We began to get some temperature buildup after 6 hours, and paranoia set in. We decided to go back on the grid (3rd time this year!) and pull the prop, have it re-worked if needed to meet the exact specs for best performance, and try again. I pulled it at low tide at 5 in the morning, and had it at the prop shop by 7:30; his measurements showed that the prop was actually a little less aggressive than the optimal spec, so we made no change. I went back to the boat for low tide to put it back on – unfortunately, the evening low was 4 feet higher than the morning low, so I had to wade in to chest height, carrying an 80 pound, 24 inch diameter bronze prop, prop nut, pipe wrench, and a couple of small wrenches, all without dropping any of them into the 51 degree seawater! I carefully put the pieces together, and began to tighten the prop nut. Oops – had to undo, get the prop puller ( a whole different apparatus), re-position it, and re-tighten things. The tide began to turn about the time I needed to use the puller, and I kept a nervous eye on the water level as it inched slowly higher. By the time I got finished, it had risen to mid-chest, and I was beginning to chill down nicely! I crawled back aboard, got out of the wet clothes, and toweled off by the hot stove. Lovie got me a cup of hot tea, and I still shook for about an hour as we awaited the rising tide to float the boat.
That night we drove out to Halibut Point to see the 375 foot Russian sailing square-rigger that had just sailed in on a goodwill tour to the US. The Pallaida is a very impressive, very seaworthy, very beautiful ship. I took lots of pictures; unfortunately, I accidentally erased the whole bunch. Google it.
At last, on Friday the 30th of July, we embarked on our voyage north to Cross Sound. Nervous as could be, we were ever so grateful to be traveling with Kirk and Jason on the Jager. We chose to go the long way around, just in case we had more trouble. Inside, the waters are calmer for towing, and there are a few more places to get help if needed. With an anxious eye on the temperature and oil pressure gauges, a paranoid ear for odd sounds, and elevated blood pressure from worrying about all the things that could go wrong, we traveled. By the second day into the trip, we began to relax a tad – things were running very smoothly. When we docked in Hoonah for the night, we were feeling a lot more comfortable with the way things were working. I did discover that we were losing about a cup of diesel from leaks on the injector pump, so tried to tighten them up. Finally got the last of them today, a week later.
We were traveling in one of the biggest tide change phases in a couple of months – 21 feet of water moving through Icy Strait out into Cross Sound via the notorious Inian Passes. We carefully timed our departure to try to reach South Inian at that magic moment when tidal flow is minimal, and the cauldron that occurs at the junction is at its lowest. Kirk so helpfully pointed out that they only have documented 58 fatal sinkings on the South Pass in the last years…..
Something worked out – after some squirrely passages due to the enormous tidal flow, calm water and no wind worked together to give the smoothes possible passage through the dreaded point. We marked it down in our books as quite possibly the calmest passage of that place that we will ever have! The last 20 minutes into Elfin Cove, we began to breathe easier – it was sweet to motor up the Gut to the picturesque little village. Now – to fish.
Sunday night, the gang all assembled to welcome us back. Connley, bless his heart, plied us with fishing gear of all sorts, groceries, and lots of good advice on where to fish. Scotty gave us a good book to read; Troy gave us some gear, and we all shared tales of the latest adventures. Do you still wonder why we love these guys? I can’t say enough about what friendship we have enjoyed, undeservedly. What an awesome bunch.
Monday morning early, out to the Sound to fish. And fish we did, all the way down to Surge Bay, back to Soapstone for the night. Again the next day, overnight at Hocktaheen. Wednesday, back to the Cove for a blustery night; laundry, mail, and odd and end repairs that surfaced in the break-in period – out again in the morning. We hope to stay out until the 10th, when there will be a general closure for 3 or 4 days.
200 cohos and 100 pinks in 2 and a half days; not bad for a start. The upgrades to rigging and gurdies, as well as the engine, are proving well worthwhile. The little boat is awesome. Got lots to do yet, but we’re getting there!
Fish on! and stay tuned….
HURRAY!!!! HURRAAYYYYYY!
ReplyDelete