May 13, 2016
Success. We left Joe
Cove about 9am and headed to Shearwater with me steering with just engine
RPM’s. We rigged the rudder a little
better so I had better control of the direction with out such large adjustments
of the engine RPM’s to keep us strait. I
managed to maintain 9 plus knots all the way.
While underway Michelle called Teleflex in Florida, the steering
manufacturer and asked them to trouble shoot the problem over the phone. Steve relayed over the radio for a three way
conversation, me on the radio to Steve, Michelle on the sat phone to Teleflex
technical expert. He had me spin the
wheel as hard as I could and as fast as I could to the right after Michelle
explained the situation. I did and then
I had movement both directions of the wheel until I locked it hard over to port
again. It appeared that I was at least
now moving the rudder cylinder back and forth.
Still freewheeling to the right. His diagnosis was there was a short in
the Auto Pilot pump no allowing the check valve to close. A short?
There is electrical power to the pump?
After the call the guys, Glen, Pete and Willard all were
confused and could not figure out how a short in the pump would take away the
manual steering. When asked about the
fact that we turned off the auto pilot and still had a problem the technician
said the auto pilot pump would cause a problem even if turned off.
Michelle had also called ahead to Shearwater and a mechanic,
Mark, would be expecting us.
We arrived at Shearwater about 2 pm and I ran up and found
Mark. He came down and spent about 10
minutes on the boat and said, My guess
is the Auto Pilot pump has no power to it and there is a check valve that is
open which does not allow the fluid to properly flow through the cylinder. He said he did not have time to work on it
today but would be back in the morning about 9 and trouble shoot the problem
I thought back to what the technician at Teleflex said about
a short and what Mark said and realized that the Rat from two years ago had
chewed through some wites on the auto pilot computer but only the outer
layers. I had never fixed those since
the auto pilot worked. I looked at that
again and saw a bunch of fine wires from the shielding had crossed over several
electrical contacts and thought maybe that was the source of the short. I cleaned up those wires and rewired the
computer getting rid of the chewed parts.
As I did that I noticed a fuse in the computer that was not mentioned
anywhere in the user manual. I pulled it out and tested it as it looked
good but it was an open circuit when tested.
I put in a new fuse and heard a click in the computer. Checking the system showed we now had power
the pump and the function of the steering system was restored completely. Wow, all of that and it was just a stupid
fuse. No-where in the books does it
mention this fuse or what might happen if it blows.
I put the boat back together and tomorrow were off to Ocean
Falls-
May 12, 2016
Oh what a day. Houston,
We have a problem! We left Blunden Harbor
at 0800 and headed north on calm seas with virtually no wind and beautiful blue
sky. At 1000 as we were just a few miles
from Cape Caution we lost all steering.
Suddenly, the boat veered to the left and started turning in
circles. I tried to correct it by
turning off the auto pilot and steering but the wheel just freewheeled to the
right and no amount of turning could stop the left hand circle. There we were, driving in circles in Queen
Charlotte Straits with 3 foot ocean swells which were no problem when driving
into them but when circling became somewhat problematic,. Thank god it happened today and not two days
ago in Johnstone Strait in 5foot breaking waves and 30 mph winds. I radioed the others who were a couple miles
ahead of me and advised them that I had lost all steering control. Of
course the suggestions started pouring in.
Turn off the Auto Pilot, yep no good.
Try the other helm station, yep no good.
Steer with the engines, nope, not with the rudder hard over. Check for fuses, what fuses, I know only of a
breaker switch.
Thinking I had lost a linkage I jumped down on the back
deck, pulled up the lazarette hatch cover, pulled out all the power cords
stored there and pulled up the shelving floor I had built over the steering
mechanism. It all looked just fine. It just did not work.
I jumped in No Debt and ran over to Pete who was closest and
picked him up while Linda continued to motor Spirit Bear north at slow
speed. Glen headed back to help as well,
he was several miles ahead of us.
Pete and I got the linkage un-hooked and got the rudders
strait so we could at least tow in a strait line.
We rigged a towing bridal and Glen pulled up close and we
passed him a tow-line made up of two fifty foot 9000 lb rescue ropes. He put us under-.tow while Pete and I tried
to figure out the problem. We were
making about 6 knots under tow. We tried
bleeding the system thinking there was air in the system. I checked all the fittings I could see and
saw no leaks so could not figure out how air would have got in the system. We could get the ram to move in and out but
with any resistance on it at all the ram would not move.
We decided to try motoring on our own and try using the
engine RPM’s to steer. We cast off the
tow line and our initial efforts were a total failure. The rudders would not stay centered and
after just a few minutes we were turning to the right with no way to correct
it. Pete jury rigged a couple ropes to
secure the rudder in place and after several adjustments we were able to cruise
in a relatively strait manner using just engine speed. My GPS track shows a very wobbly course over
ground but we missed all the rocks and managed to round Cape Caution under our
own power but with useless steering system.
We got to Joe’s Cove in Fishegg Inlet, one of my favorite
spots on the whole coast. I had no
trouble getting in and side tying to the raft up using just engine
controls. Just like docking.
We took a break from trying to figure out the steering
problem and took the dinghy’s into Elizabeth Lagoon. You can only enter at or near high water
slack and it is a shallow entry. I led
the way in No Debt and promptly found a rock killing the engine. No prop damage and the engine restarted. Elizabeth Lagoon is just amazing, a large brackish
lake that empty s into the salt water at low tide and the salt water rushes in
at high tide creating a brackish
lagoon.
We spent about 40 minutes inside racing around in the
dinghy’s exploring and enjoying the remote wild place where there is no signs
of any human habitation. No logging no encampments nothing. Again one of my favorite places on the whole
trip.
We returned before getting trapped inside by falling waters
and faster moving rapids. Pete was using
our dinghy, Rubber Check and found the rock about three times trying to get out
of the Lagoon, I now have half a prop on
Rubber Check
After returning from exploring the Lagoon I quickly put down
a shrimp pot before getting back to the job of sorting out the steering. Unfortunately we found nothing. Between Pete, a hydraulic engineer and Glen,
who knows everything and me and my manuals on the system we were stumped. Bleeding the system eventually ended up
locking the system hard over to port. No
amount of turning the wheel to the right did anything, it spun freely but going
left it locked up completely. There are
three hydraulic lines leading from the upper helm to a T joint with one side
leading to the auto pilot pump and the other leading to the lower helm
station. From there the lines run down
into the engine room where they disappear behind the fuel tank. At the back of the boat there are only two
lines. What happened to the third and
what does it do, it’s a mystery. We
suspect there is some sort of manifold and check valve that is stuck that is
not allowing the free flow of fluid back and forth. But if we cannot find the junction box we are
screwed. The boat is a mess, I had to
tear apart the back closet and move everything from the back lazerett into the
front bedroom. Were stumped and will have to work our way to
Shearwater tomorrow and make some calls to the steering manufacturer and see if
someone can solve the problem for us.
Stay tuned.
May 11, 2016
We had a pleasant stay in Blunden Harbor today. Lots of crab, limits each day!!
Crab feed tonight!
Glen and Liz joined us this morning.
It was windy all day so a good day to hunker down. Not as bad as it has been but enough to have
made the crossing interesting. Went
dinghy exploring and ran the rapids into the lagoon and cruised around inside
for about 30 minutes before Glens deflating dink and the increasing current in
the entrance forced us to leave.
What a gorgeous place.
Low hills, scrub trees, blue sky and water.
Should be heading north tomorrow around Cape Caution.
10, 2016
We crossed the straits to Blunden Harbor today from Port
McNeil. What a great stop, Steve and
Jessica, the owners of North Harbor Marina are just great people. They have installed extra long fuel lines so
they can fuel you at your berth. They
are friendly and willing to do most anything for you. Definitely a spot to stop going and coming.
The crossing was on calm seas for the first half then slowly
the wind built as predicted till there were 2 foot waves and 20 mph winds. Entered Blunden harbor and found it
deserted. Windy inside, not all that
protected but I found a spot with some protection and a clear view of the
straits through a cap in the islands. We
dropped three anchors and stern tied A
beautiful spot, we sat on the back decks and enjoyed the sun till the wind
picked up in the evening and chased us inside.
We dropped several crab pots and caught bunches of crab on
the first pull. Dropped them right back
for more.
The wind really picked up again this afternoon just as
predicted blowing up to 25 in the anchorage creating white caps in the
middle. A sailboat came in late in the
afternoon, said it was blowing 25 outside.
Good thing we crossed when we did.
My anchor is set well tonight, holding 4 boats total on mine
for a while the other two were slack, you could play music on mine.
No Debt seems to be working ok, concerned after towing Glen
in that I did something to the engine as it was running rough at idle, but we
got up to plane with four big adults aboard. It runs great at higher speeds. Hopefully it will be good the whole
trip.
It has been windy, far more wind than the other two trips
up. But lots of sun and virtually no
rain. I
would take some rain if the winds would quit.
May 8
