June 17th, 2023
Not sure what to say today. My youngest son Matthias and his partner,Mel are fond of using the phrase, “So what was the high light of your day and what was the low light of your day?”
OK, the highlight of our day was last night dining at “Fukasaku of Prince Rupert.” It was truly the finest sushi I have ever had in my life. It blows away Nobu in London, and I told the chef exactly that. He is a really humble guy and simply responded, “Everything we serve is fresh today.” Below was my meal. Marlene has sushi rolls that were equally amazing. It’s a really small restaurant. Six tables. Hard to get in. But well worth it.
Low light—honestly the rest of the day. We were socked in with rain as Marlene and I went to the local hardware store to pick up a shop vac and other supplies to clean out the carbon in the front chamber of our boat. Our new friend Rob who has been to Alaska 16 times thinks that the problem could be related to all the carbon in the chamber causing the breakers to go off with all the carbon particles in the air. We thought it was worth a try. So you see me all Hasmated up for the journey. We cleaned out the chamber as best we could and then closed it up. We have a diver coming tomorrow to see if there is any blockage in the bow thruster chamber as well as checking for gunk on the transducer. We will be able to report more tomorrow.
Maybe another highlight. We are having fresh ling cod for dinner tonight fresh from the local fisherman’s market.
OK, another highlight worth mentioning. Sometimes part of the adventure in boating is participating, or at least being a spectator, in other boaters adventures. As I wrote in an earlier blog we ran into team Dacron and Denim in ShearWater, BC. They were in the hunt for a win of the R2K race to Alaska. For those of you who are not familiar with this race, it was started a number of years ago. The Race to Alaska (R2AK) is an annual 750-mile adventure race from Port Townsend, Washington up the Inside Passage to Ketchikan, Alaska. All entrants must be “non-motorized boats,” meaning anything but a motor, paddles, canoes, obviously sail boats, but even stand up paddle boards. I listened to a lecture from a guy who finished the race several years ago in a stand up paddle board (SUP). I can’t even imagine it. My fellow Guemian friend, John Strathman participated in the race a few years back but had to quit when winds and waves of Harrow Strait took him out. Undeterred he packed up his kayak, loaded with an outrigger and a sail, flew to Ketchikan and sailed back to Guemes Island. The picture below is of us at Echo Bay. He spent the night with us on our boat (T1 as we like to refer to her). If I recall correctly there were only two nights he slept inside, one was our boat, the second was a cabin. The rest of the time he was on the beach. Six weeks, he made it. I am humbled. But back to team Dacron and Denim.
If you follow the race you will see that they came in 4th. Pretty impressive considering when we met them at ShearWater, tied up behind us they were suffering from a sheared rudder. We left before the repair but I told the crew that if they made it we would buy them drinks in Ketchikan to celebrate their victory. Marlene felt so sorry for “the boys” that she gave them a large jar of my home made Blackberry jam. Last night I got a call.
“Hey Greg this is John from team Dacron and Denim, we are here in Ketchikan and available tonight to take you up on your offer of drinks for the team.”
“Wow, thanks for calling. We would love to buy you drinks. Unfortunately we are currently stuck in Prince Rupert waiting out a weather window to pass through Dickson Entrance. We aren’t scheduled to be there until Thursday. Will you still be there?”
“Unfortunately no. We are headed out on our return journey in the next two days.”
“So sorry but congratulations on completing the trip. Very impressive. Take a rain check on drinks. We will meet up at some point in the future to celebrate your accomplishment.”
BTW, in this race the first prize is 10K; the second prize is a set of steak knives. Clearly people are entering the race for more that the winning gifts.
Greg-
I surmise that the hazmat suit and vacuum efforts failed to resolve the issue for the thruster. There are a few options – debris in the thruster prop, your brushes are completely worn out (all that carbon came from somewhere) and have to be replaced, your thruster breaker has worn out and won’t sustain the current load any more.
WRT your depth sounder – hope that is just growth on the transducer or a loose cable. Don’t forget to try to follow that black and white cable to a connector (Tee) and make sure it is connected securely – give the B&W cable at tug at the Tee connector and see if it pops out.
Dave, on the thruster, we are hoping that it’s a sheer pin, or brushes, or a relatively easy repair. When it comes to the transducer, I know that there is no debris and all the cables are tight. It’s either I need to replace the transducer, even though it has a heartbeat or the P 70 Raymarine there is no longer showing depth but speed needs to be replaced.