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