September 20, 2009 Inside to Bellingham

My apologies to all for the extended interval between updates. Very little of the time since my last report has been spent cruising.


As I left off, on August 22nd, we had just transited the Queen Charlotte strait, with our non stop transit from Alaska to Washington nearly completed.

Early on the 23rd, we entered Discovery Passage, which separates Quadra Island from the NE side of Vancouver Island. The tidal flows in this region are truly impressive. Just before daylight, I heard Ron Fawcett give a loud “eehah” as Arcadia 1 reached 18 knots speed over ground, far surpassing my earlier record of a measly 12.5 knots. Our speed through the water was still only 7.5 knots, the rest was due to tidal flow. Earlier that night, I actually got turned back at the Race Passage in Johnstone Strait. The current was too high, and the flows too turbulent for me to make any controlled headway. We waited an hour or so upstream, then went through without incident. Remember, all of this took place in the dark! Exciting! While I never felt in any real danger, I don’t think I’ll plan another trip that takes me through Campbell River or Bella Bella in the dark, again.

About 1800, we crossed into U.S. waters just below Vancouver. It was nearly midnight by the time we made our way to a guest slip in Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham Bay. At that point, we’d covered 593 “plan” miles on 84 engine hours. Early on, we ran at 1800 rpm, later we got a bit more impatient and started running at ~1900 rpm. According to our chartplotter, our average speed over ground was 7.05 kts. When I refilled the tanks, later, I think I got back to where we were when we started with 260 gallons. Fuel consumption and speed/rpm values are slightly better than the published curves for the Nordhavn 46. Not bad for an old gal with ~7000 hours of sailing under her keel.

Monday the 24th, I went around the harbor to make arrangements to have the transmission seal repaired and the boat hauled.

Tuesday the 25th, was pretty well lost to the logistics of recovering the Land Cruiser from the parking lot at SeaTac. Phyl and Will went to visit family. 

Wednesday the 26th, Arcadia 1 went on the hard. Except for a broken plastic fairing around one of the transducers, there were no surprises. The hull was remarkably clean with most of the top coat of anti-foul paint still there. The zinc anodes had, of course, reached the end of life, (moored next to aluminum boats for a 1 ½ year period), but were still there and working.

26 August to 8 September, Arcadia 1 remained on the hard stand. I won’t bore everyone with all the details and frustrations living on “marina time” while trying to get work done on the boat. The transmission seal replacement was supposed to be the critical path item, and it was. There was a three day weekend in the period, during which nothing was done. The work done during the yard period included:

Removing transmission for seal and bearing replacement, inspecting and reinstalling.

Repairing the transducer fairing.

Replacing all the zinc anodes.

Pulling the propeller and shaft, checking shaft for true, (It was), and truing and polishing the propeller.

Replacing the propeller shaft cutless bearing and installing new shaft packing.

Replacing all three bearings on the rudder shaft.

Changing the hailing port to Juneau.

Topcoat of antifouling bottom paint.
Touchup of various dings, rubs and scratches on the rest of the hull paint.

I thought I’d found a good electronics guru, that could clean up the several issues we’d found to date. I also wanted to install AIS (Automatic Identification System), that will let us see the name, course and speed of ships we encounter. Jerry proved to be a will of the wisp, easily distracted and solving none of the long-standing electronic problems. However, he did get the AIS installed and it works great. Unfortunately, even with a new computer, the Nobeltec chartplotter still locks up periodically and the Northstar chartplotter still loses track of the detailed charts regularly. That’s not life threatening at 7 knots, especially since Jerry couldn’t get the chartplotter to talk to the autopilot, anyway.

Phyl bought 3 adult and 1 child immersion suits. Zach and I found another never-used adult immersion suit in a marine salvage store. I also got the life raft re-packed and re-certified. We’re now ready to abandon ship in cold water, if the need arises.

On the 8th of September, we were scheduled to be in the water again by 1000 because a technician was coming up from Seattle to re-commission the water maker. The last thing was to install the rudder, and I noticed that it was really hard to swing. At that point, we noticed that the lower shaft extension is not in exactly the same plane as the upper one, and thought we had a major problem. We put the boat back in the water next to the boat yard, with a wooden dowel in the packing gland, knowing we’d have to haul her out again the next day.

One of the bright spots of the whole experience has been the watermaker. The first owner had reportedly followed all the procedures for extended layup of the system, about 3 years ago. Dean had not needed it, so nothing had been done with it since. The technician, (large but remarkably limber man that got in and out of the forward port corner of the engine room with surprising ease), fixed a handful of leaks, sent me to the hardware store for some stuff, then powered up the system. It was making good water within 10 minutes. We’ve been using it on the trip south. Just turn it on and good water goes into the tank.

On the 9th of September we hauled the boat again, staying on the slings while we re-installed the rudder. This time, I noticed a triangular tear in the cutless bearing that supports the rudder shaft as it enters the hull. We trimmed the errant piece and, behold! The rudder went full stroke, both ways, with one finger pressure! The two shafts may not be aligned, but it’s been that way forever and seems to be of no operational significance. We were back in the water by 2 pm.

On the 10th Zach rejoined ship’s company. We spent that day and the next cleaning up the accumulated grime and disorder from the trip down and the yard work. We also cleaned the bilge, now that we can expect to be oil-free.

On the 12th, Ray Hofmann and Tom Burns joined ships company and Jerry, (the electronics guru), spent the day putting in the AIS and trying to solve the data collision that causes the computer to lock up. In fairness, he thought he had when he left. It was hours later before it locked up again. At 2330, he left the boat and we got underway to go south. However, we hadn’t gotten more than a few hundred yards outside the harbor before it was apparent that the transmission clutches were not fully locking up. It had maneuvered around the harbor well enough, but as soon as the oil warmed up it wouldn’t even turn the shaft. We returned to the harbor on the wing engine.

On Sunday, the 13th, I contacted the owner of Tri County Marine and told them what had happened. He was on the boat all that afternoon trying to get the actuating oil pressure from 30 psi up to its normal 300 psi. No joy!

Monday the 14th, it was apparent that the transmission had to come out. It was gone by 10 am and back by 5 pm. The technician that had assembled it , (last thing on Friday before the three day weekend), had left an O-ring out. We did a sea trial and that issue was down the “done hole”. Unfortunately, by then we’d lost our weather window. We decided to move out to Neah Bay, at the seaward end of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, to wait for the right opening. We left Bellingham at 1730. By midnight we were transiting the strait. The AIS worked really well. In this really busy shipping area we could see literally dozens of ships coming and going. It was really nice to have a little triangle and predictor arrow in the screen for each of them and to be able to simply click on them to see what the closest point of approach would be and when it would happen.

On Tuesday, the 15th we entered Neah Bay. We anchored within sight of Hale Kai a Nordhavn 40 that we talked with on the radio for the next few days, until they crossed the Columbia River Bar and we went on.

The weather report wasn’t wonderful as we arrived in Neah Bay. Our weather router said it wasn’t likely to get much better before Saturday. Even then, we’d probably have to pull in somewhere along the Oregon coast. We took a slip in the harbor to avoid cabin fever while we waited. Tom toured the town, such as it is, and found a great pizza place for dinner.

On Wednesday the 16th, we remained in Neah Bay all day. We did finally work our way through the SIM unlocking issues on the Iridium satellite phone, however, so the day wasn’t completely wasted. After another conference with the weather router, we decided we’d tough out some pretty rough seas and leave the next day.

On Thursday the 17th, we got underway at 0630, stopped in the outer harbor to rig out the paravanes and stuck our nose out into the Pacific. A bit lumpy, but not too bad. Ray had a nice Coho aboard by 0915. Our friends on Hale Kai and a couple on Eos, a Selene 47, followed a couple of hours behind us. We stayed in tenuous radio contact throughout the day as the sea conditions got progressively unsettled, (confused seas at 8-10’). We rode it in reasonable comfort, maintaining course and holding 1750 rpm. The other two boats changed course and reduced speed to try to improve their ride.

On Fridiay, we passed Grays Harbor, (Closed) and the Columbia River, (also closed to pleasure craft as we passed, but opened while we were still in radio range, about noon, when Hale Kai and Eos crossed over and went in to their home port, Astoria.. Shortly after that, a Coast Guard cutter placed himself in our path. He interrogated me by radio, but we weren’t boarded.

On Saturday, we passed Newport and Coos Bay. At 1230, on advice of our weather router, we shifted our course to run within 5 miles of the coast. As predicted, the wind freshened and shifted from southwest to north. By about 7 pm the seas, while not particularly high, (6-8 ft), were confused and sharply pyramid shaped. The ride was uncomfortable and the winds were forecast to reach gale force by midnight. We thought discretion was the better part of valor and pulled in to the nearest port without a river bar to cross. We’ve spent Sunday doing laundry and regaining land legs. As I write this, we’re thinking we’ll leave again tomorrow, (Monday), morning, but we’ll make that decision after we get another weather report.