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Had kind of a scary day today

4K views 24 replies 21 participants last post by  SailNet Archive 
#1 · (Edited)
We had a bad day today. Left Spencer Spit around 11:00 and headed north towards Doe Island. There was no wind so we motored. Just south of Doe Island a ways, in Rosario Strait, the engine sounded different and I noticed no water shooting out the exhaust. Temperature gauge was okay, so I caught it in time. I shut down the motor then went down below to check the water intake strainer. When I pulled off the engine cover, I found a fan belt completely off. What the heck. Next I found the pulley on the raw water pump broken, with the pulley completely missing.

Rosario was ebbing. It runs at 5 knots in places. We put up the sails and drifted south down Rosario like a log, doing 5 and 6 knots over the ground but only a knot or two through the water, barely able to steer at times. Rosario doesn’t ebb straight down the middle of the channel. It sets to the west a bit against Blakely Island where it looks like river rapids. Even though I was trying to sail away from Blakely Island, we were being set towards it. My wife was getting scared. I’ve spent enough time running the Skagit River that I knew currents will push you towards an obstruction and then usually around it at the last minute. We zipped along the east shore of Blakely Island sideways and cleared a point I was worried about. The next obstruction was Black Rock and we were heading straight for it.

I put the 3 H.P. on the dinghy and hooked a tow line to the boat because there was no wind to sail and therefore no steerage. I started pulling the boat and could only get 1 knot. We just barely cleared Black Rock. I was starting to get worried now. The next obstruction we were getting pushed into was Bird Rock. I decided to see if I could patch the engine to get some control of the boat again.

I took our garden hose that we use to fill the water tanks and cut and end off. I screwed the other end into the anchor wash down hose. I took the cut end down below and bypassed the raw water pump and hooked the garden hose directly up to the hose to the heat exchanger. I started the engine and turned on the anchor wash down pump. Water was coming out of the exhaust again, but at a reduced rate. I put the boat in gear and started idling. We were making almost three knots and the exhaust elbow hose was staying cool. It looked like we were going to make it. We motored over to Deception Pass where it was flooding at 6 knots. We headed through. Unfortunately, a big power boat was coming through the other way against the current and taking his share out of the middle. I didn’t have much steerage and aimed for the middle too. It’s my understanding a down current boat has the right away due to reduced steerage. We cleared the boat right under the bridge and headed over to Hope Island and anchored. We can relax again. I think we’ll sit here until Monday and then go in with the current. It could have been a lot worse. I have a new found respect for Capt. Vancouver who explored this area 200 years ago without an auxilary engine.
 
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#5 ·
That's my strength and my curse. I can usually patch just about anything up, but I"m not a perfectionist, so I usually don't fix it until it's broke. Of course that means I end up patching stuff up more often. I need a money tree for a brand new engine. Anyone have an extra money tree?
 
#7 ·
Great story! must have been a heart-stopping moment or two.. or three!

Glad it all worked out OK, good going with the "McGyver"ization!!

...Saw a money tree the other day but for some reason it hasn't "leafed out" this year - branches were bare :(
 
#9 ·
Sure makes one wonder how the early explorers got around, not knowing where the rocks are and not having an auxilary engine.

I brought my dive gear along this weekend, figuring I would change the zincs and give the bottom a scrub. After anchoring at Hope Island and changing the zincs I went down to check the anchor. I found our chain was wrapped around an old crab pot. It was full of crab but it's closed season right now, so I let 'em loose and tied a line to it to recover it and then offered it to some campers on the Island. They had been going back and forth all evening checking their shrimp gear. So after dark we were sitting in the cockpit, eating popcorn and having a drink and the campers came by with a bucket of shrimp for us. Looks like fresh shrimp for dinner tomorrow when the kids come out and raft up to us. Guess that would be the silver lining. We'll limp on home on Monday. Hope the rest of you have a nice weekend.
Cheers.
 
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#10 ·
Ray:
I will be in Tucwilla all weekend ( Soccer tournament ) if you need a tow boat have LaConner launch my Sea Ray...Its full of fuel ready to go...Yours if you need it..
 
#12 ·
Man, see, thats what i love about this lil corner of the 'net.
A guy makes a slk purse out of a sows ear, gets offers of help, gets fed, and lo & behold, all is right with the world.

I must be on some of thecubans meds. :)
 
#16 ·
Good read...you salvaged a bad situation through ingenuity and saved the boat.

I lost a belt while motoring last year. Luckily, I was inside the basin just going to and from the wall, but that 240F coolant temperature when I finally noticed the engine "note" was changing and looked at the instruments (who looks at the instruments going two knots?) did no apparent harm. Basically, the belt had gone while we were idling at dock during a pump-out. Had it gone while we were motoring at 2,200 RPM in a current like you, I can't say how things would've got.

A suggestion: I had my engine conk out on my previous boat, and on a "no-wind" day, I lashed my Zodiac with a 9.9 HP engine to the starboard quarter. I was able to lock off the outboard to compensate for the offset of the prop, and I found I could make a good 4 knots with this "hybrid vehicle". Getting through the opening in the seawall and into the dock itself was a little hairy, but it worked.

I would imagine that even a 3 HP, when mounted on a tender that is in turn secured to a boat, might be more efficient than trying for a conventional towline arrangement.
 
#17 ·
Ray- sorry to hear about your engine troubles. Great save, good thinking. I'm heading over to Anacortes in the Comet both today and tomorrow (working on boat) and could swing down that way and give you a tow in, or at least an escort. I'll PM you my cell #.

John
 
#18 ·
Holly cow!. Thanks for the offers of assistance John and Scott. The kids are coming up in their boat today (Sunday) to raft up and spend the night. They'll give us an escort in tomorrow. Part of the fun of sailing is overcoming adversity (although not so fun at the time).
 
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#20 ·
Glad to be able to make the offer my friend.
 
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