2009 Week 35 in Review

This week’s cruise aboard the MV Catalyst was from Juneau to Petersburg, stopping at Wood Spit, North Dawes, Fords Terror, Sheldon Cove, West Brother, and Scenery Cove along the way.

We got underway on Sunday and it was just a little bumpy, so we pulled in to Snettisham bay for dinner, then continued on our way toward Endicott Arm. Night running is so fun – the boat sounds and feels different. No one was awake and luckily the wind calmed way down.

Bill and I were enjoying the beautiful night and remarking on every calm night running memory from working boat years – then almost at the same time we both realized that we were in iceberg country. We started staring at the radar and flashing the spotlight around; it seemed like they were all around us. Our depth perception was really screwy because we would spot one with the light and it would seem to be right on us, yet it would take a long time to reach us. It was nerve-wracking, but we made it through just fine.

We also overheard an amusing exchange on channel 16: one of those damn cruise ships hailed “the fishing vessel in Stevens Passage with the bright fishing lights: please extinguish while we pass.” A few minutes later, this groggy old fisherman’s voice came back really slow “Okay, so you’re drivin’ a whole city past me and you want me to put out my two 500-watt bulbs? Go [expletive] yourself.” Ha ha.

The next day, we changed our plan a little and went to North Dawes, which was great because we got to spend more time at the glacier. Then we took a short paddle, mostly for instructional purposes. Debby would only paddle every once in a while, and I held firm my orders to follow the pace of the front paddler, even if they don’t paddle. We just meandered around for a while, and it was really nice.

Our last stop before Petersburg was Scenery Cove, a very scenic cove near Baird Glacier. Every week, we anchor here and skiff to the tide flats below the glacier to hike up to the ice (and sometimes onto the ice). The tide flats and glacier make an amazing sight: it’s like a moonscape. The few trees that sprout and the rock piles left by the glacier get wiped out regularly by giant floods when ice dams break – or so I’ve been told. Well, after this week I am a firm believer of the ice dam theory.

On the way into a huge bay called Thomas Bay, the captain noticed the sea water temperature drop from 44˚ to 29˚. He figured that the gauge was busted and didn’t think much about it. At the same time, I was in the engine room checking gauges and watched the product gauge on the watermaker spike past the upper limit of our element’s capacity, so I turned down the pressure. I’m always adjusting the pressure so I don’t really think about it, and I always want to make more water with less pressure so I’m thinking this is just fine. These were just hints that something had changed.

So, we dropped the anchor, used the skiff to run everyone out for the glacier hike. The captain noticed more current than normal – another hint, but it still didn’t register as anything really unusual.

We have a carefully plotted course on the skiff’s GPS for getting into Baird Glacier, a course with little margin for deviation. The tide flats have many sandbars and big rocks and the drop-off point is about a mile up the fast moving right-side river. The skiff operator needs to run fairly quick to overcome the current and follow the GPS course exactly to make the landing.

This trip, we followed the procedure like usual – until we came to an awful halt on a sandbar. The guests all grabbed onto each other and the boat, and I really worried that we removed the lower end of our outboard motor (we didn’t).

Only then did all the hints add up: the cold water, the current, even the high product flow from the watermaker.

The captain and I exchanged a look that we have never had to use before. It was the “oh my god, is the outboard okay, are we the right spot, holy crap, would the chef be able to save us, can you believe something let go up on beard glacier, I knew something was different” look.

This is all we talked about while we were in Petersburg, and we learned that three-and-a-half days before we got there, there was a huge flood, which created a ten-foot standing wave as the contents of a lake formed somewhere up on Baird Glacier spilled out into Thomas bay. It was enough water to make the entire tidal seawater bay completely fresh and cold.

I wish I could have seen it when it let go, but I’m really glad I wasn’t there when it did.

Engineer’s Log

Here’s the numbers for trip #17:

hours underway: 39
hours on main: 40.8
hours on the generator: 34
hours on the water maker: 27
miles traveled: 208
gallons of fuel used: 211
gallons of water made: 810
gallons of gas used: 8
gallons of propane: 7
gallons of lube oil: 6

And here’s a fun recipe from the Catalyst’s galley:

Mini Pecan Pies

Base
1 1/2 stick butter
2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Mix together and press into a 9″ x 13″ baking pan

Top
2 cups pecans
1 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
2 tbsp cream
Mix together and spread over the base. Bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes; cool and cut into squares.

2009 Week 34 in Review

This week’s cruise aboard the MV Catalyst was from Petersburg to Juneau, stopping at Scenery Cove, Sandborn Canal, West Brother, Twin Meadows, Fords Terror, and Taku Harbor along the way.

We headed out of Petersburg into some nasty weather, but it wasn’t bad enough to keep us from hiking up to Baird Glacier. We fought the weather Monday, too, and hid in Sandborn Canal instead of going into Donkey Bay. Sandborn was exciting for me because it’s been a while since I was there last.

I took Dan and Lou fishing while the others went for a hike and we all caught a few salmon, but Dan also caught a starry flounder. The funny part with the flounder is that it ran and actually freed itself right in front of Lou and ended up crawling right up his leg. This caused a lot of screaming that quickly turned to laughter.

The weather laid down that night and our visit to the Brothers Islands was great. We had a bonfire on the beach and Dan passed around a few nice cigars.

Then we headed up near the glacier and got to watch a huge piece fall off. We were able to take the Catalyst up to a quarter mile from the glacier, closer than we normally go. The ice in the water wasn’t too bad, but we were all amazed to see the ice move in around us as we watched the glacier. This made getting out slow going, but what a show!

Next on the schedule was Fords Terror. I talked it up for a few days and got everyone excited or nervous about the crazy current. Little did I know that this week was in fact one of the most extreme tides ever. We couldn’t even get in with the kayaks, but we did have a nice tour of the bay and took the skiff in through the Terror.

Engineer’s Log

Friday on our way out of Fords, a loud thump got everyone’s attention. Bill and I ran around trying to find out what happened. When I noticed water running out from underneath the air compressor, my first thought was that we hit something but the watermaker is right above the air compressor sits. It had a blown pressure vessel and was leaking. I secured every thing and by-passed the broken filter and started it up again. Now I’m wondering if the blown pressure vessel is re-buildable.

On Saturday morning, I started things up and then thought I smelled a burning belt, but it was really faint. Now, I always wash the deck after pulling the anchor in, but on this day I decided to check the Engine Room first and oh crap, it was full of smoke! I tracked it down quickly and found that the belts for the seawater pump had burned up. I went through this a few years ago, so I advised the captain to drop the hook again so I could replace the sea water pump. He agreed, and I got down to work.

Under the deck plate right next to the pump is another one, all ready to go: pipes at the right angles and everything. I did have to install the pulley from old one, but we were underway again within an hour. I took the pump that burned up and gathered up the spare parts and the rebuild kit, and put ite back together with new bearings. After it was all done, I put it under the deck plate; it’s now the spare for next time we burn the pump out.

And here’s the numbers for trip #16:

Hours underway: 41
Hours on main: 43.6
Hours on the generator: 36.3
Hours on the water maker: 14.3
Miles traveled: 219
Gallons of fuel used: 177
Gallons of water made: 820
Gallons of gas used: 8
Gallons of propane: 5
Gallons of lube oil: 6

And finally, another great recipe from the Catalyst’s galley:

Spicy Limestone Inlet Starry Flounder Inari

Ingredients
starry flounder from Limestone Inlet
½ cup tahini
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce
2 tbsp Tapatio hot sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
Cooked sushi rice, seasoned with rice vinegar
Inari (deep-fried tofu pockets)

instructions
Combine tahini, sesame oil, Sriracha sauce, Tapatio, and soy sauce in small bowl. Lightly poach the flounder in water, then mash it up and add the spicy sauce mixture.

Fill Inari pocket half-full with flounder and top with rice. Yuuuuuum!

2009 Week 33 in Review

This week’s cruise aboard the MV Catalyst was from Juneau to Petersburg, stopping at Wood Spit, Fords Terror, Last Chance Harbor, Sheldon Cove, West Brother, and Scenery Cove along the way.

In Juneau, we had another mad scramble to connect with the world during our limited wifi coverage: I spent my phone time taking care of bills and emails and making progress on the Lightship management proposal (more on that later).

Once we got underway again, we had another great Alaska trip. We had an amazing glacier show many giant pieces fell off the face of the glacier with a splash.

Then in the middle of Frederick Sound, we had a whale come up and rub on the boat. It was crazy! – I have never seen a humpback whale hang out near the boat like this, ever! The whale went back and forth, turning around and circling us for almost an hour. Everyone on the boat ran side to side fore and aft to watch as it went round and round. Unbelievable.

We also had some young people on this trip, which means prank time! This trip called for the bear poo prank. We mix up some tasty goo that looks like bear poo, then while we’re out hiking, I piled it up on the trail without anyone knowing. On the way back, the naturalist stopped everyone and says “Look – fresh bear poo. That means they’re really close.” Then the naturalist got a stick and sifted through the goop and goes “Let’s see what they’re eating. Looks like berries…”

She kept the show going and smelled the poo and kept talking: “Wow this is really fresh. Hmm… it might even be a brown bear.” Then she took a bite of the poo on the stick and said “Yup – its a brown bear.” At this point, everyone was doubled over ether laughing or being sick. The bear poo stick got passed around and some had a taste and everyone had another good laugh.

The rest of the trip went fine, but when we got to Petersburg, we had to fuel up and fix the skiff – on top of our usual turnaround chores. Argh!

Horsepower isn’t horsepower any more

The other day, my girlfriend asked (rhetorically) “If I wear a size four, than what do all the little Japanese girls wear? A triple zero?” This is just another example of how the commercial world is constantly redefining numbers to make another sale.

I think a similar thing is going on in the engine world. When I hear that a Cat 3406 will put out 800 horsepower, my first thought is “How long is that going to last towing logs?”

De-rating is the only way to get more life out of your little engine. De-rating means taking the 800 horsepower engine the salesman just sold you and only pulling 500 horsepower out of it so that it might last more than half an hour. De-rating is a great way to preserve your engine, but on the other hand, it’s sort of emasculating

Here’s a better solution: think about running a heavy duty-diesel instead! They’ve got more torque, a longer life, no wasted power (new “high horsepower” engines use another emasculating device, the “the reduction gear”). Think about it – if you want the prop to turn at 300 revolutions per minute, than run the engine at 300 rpm. Once you hear the thud thud thud of real power, you won’t ever want to run more than 500 rpm again.

So in conclusion, if you need power, don’t get 800 horsepower in a size four; call OTM Inc and install a heavy-duty.

Engineer’s Log

Here’s the numbers for the 15th trip of the 2009 season:

hours underway: 40
hours on main: 42
hours on the generator: 43:25
hours on the water maker: 17:25
miles traveled:  235
gallons of fuel used: 179
gallons of water made: 1045
gallons of gas used: 4
gallons of propane: about 4 gallons
gallons of lube oil: 2

And here’s a fun recipe – for the kids especially:

Bear Poo

Ingredients
½ cup granola
¼ cup dried cranberry
¼ cup raisins
1/8 cup peanuts
1/8 cup sliced almonds
½ cup Alaskan blueberries crushed
½ cup Alaskan salmon berries crushed
½ cup Alaskan thimble berries crushed
1 cup chunked chocolate
1 cup melted chocolate
12 mint leaves

Combine above ingredients
Barely fold in 2/3 cup peanut butter (leaving streaks)
Spoon in to bag , cut out corner and pipe onto serving area or skunk cabbage

Lightship #83 Meeting

On Thursday, OTM Inc’s Seattle representatives met with Northwest Seaport to discuss the firm’s project management proposal for the Lightship No. 83 Rehabilitation Project. I checked in via phone before and after, and it sounds like the meeting went well. We’re going to revise our proposal and hopefully have it all submitted by the end of the week. This project is going to be great once it finally gets rolling.

2009 Week 32 in Review

This week’s cruise aboard the MV Catalyst was from Petersburg to Taku Harbor, stopping at Scenery Cove, Sheldon Cove, West Brother, Sanford Cove, and Fords Terror along the way.

We picked up our people in Petersburg and got back in to Frederic Sound. Finally! Two weeks away and I’d missed it. Captain Bill was on the boat again as well as new chef Tracy. We went to Scenery Cove, then the Brothers.

The weather was hot and dry, but it wasn’t sunny; there was a strange haze all around us and a faint smell of smoke. It turns out that there’s a lot of Canada and the Yukon on fire right now, and it’s turning the coast hazy. We kinda felt cheated of our potential sun, but no one really complains as long as it’s dry and calm.

We pulled the old rubber fish iceberg trick again. Whenever we go to see the glacier at Fords Terror, we’ll have an iceberg centerpiece on the dinner table that night. Once in a while, I’ll freeze a rubber chicken or a fish in a bucket, and then switch it with the real centerpiece. The fish, as always, was a hit.

Soon enough, another week had gone by and we were in Juneau again. We had a nice dinner at the Hangar and drinks with Anthony, who I sailed with on the Mist Cove years ago.

Engineer’s Log

Here’s the numbers for the 14th trip of the 2009 season:

hours underway 42
hours on main: 44
hours on the generator: 31:25
hours on the water maker: 6:45
miles traveled: 237
gallons of fuel used: 181
gallons of water made: 405
gallons of gas used: 13.9
gallons of propane about: 4.5 gallons
gallons of lube oil: 4

And a fun recipe that’s part of my Eat Alaska campaign:
Fords Terror Sushi

Ingredients
bull kelp, peeled and cut into thin strips
limpets (10), baked for 3 minutes at 350, shelled and minced
rice, cooked, stir in rice vinegar and cool
nori sheets
red pepper strips
avocado
wasabi
soy sauce

To assemble:
Lay out nori sheets, spread out thin layer rice covering two-thirds of the sheet. Spread a small amount of wasabi on the rice, arrange red pepper strips, avocado, limpet, and bull kelp on rice. Roll, cut, serve with soy sauce.

2009 Week 31 in Review

This week’s cruise aboard the MV Catalyst was from Craig to Petersburg, stopping at Port Mayoral, Squam, Whale Cove, Dry Pass, Labouchere Bay, and Kah Sheets Bay along the way.

In Craig, we took our one last chance for a wifi signal and a greasy breakfast, then went to pick up our cargo. The document of lading listed an extended family, including three boys excited to catch fish.

On the second day, we spent a few hours outside of Noise Island and watched an amazing sight: it was a very sunny day and the fog was rolling down the hills at 30 knots to then dissipate at the bottom. Watching this and a variety of coastal birds holing up in caves and holes in the jagged rock walls, while riding a long mellow NE swell, made my day.

By Day Three, it was getting to be just like Groundhog Day: have coffee, start the main, and pull chain; but once we sped up, the engine room filled with smoke!! A quick look around showed that the throw-out bearing was hot hot hot. So I called the captain to request a slowdown, and then adjusted the shifting cylinder to center the throw-out bearing. The Catalyst’s throw-out bearing is solid brass, rather than poured babbitt within a big iron collar, so it can take getting heated up occasionally.

We also went back to The Hole In the Ground by El Capitan Pass, and this time got a great tour.

Then that afternoon, when we were waiting for our kayakers to come back, we decided it was finally time to fix the radar. This is a practical joke I’ve been playing since I was fifteen, and you have to build up to it by mentioning how the radar’s acting wonky for a few days. This one kid on the trip was really interested and kept saying he’d help, so when we were waiting for the kayakers, I told him it was time to fix it. I put together an aluminum foil suit for him, complete with a salad bowl hat and an aluminum foil flag.

He got more and more skeptical, but I kept reassuring him that this was what we had to do to fix the radar. After he was all suited up, we put him ashore with a radio and his flag and had him run back and forth along the beach, and wave the flag, and climb up onto driftwood, and really tested the radar a lot. Of course, we didn’t actually have the radar on for the test, but he did a great job anyway, and we made sure to tell him so.

Sure enough, the next day when we turned the radar back on, it worked just fine.

Engineer’s Log

Here’s the numbers for the 13th trip of the 2009 season:

hours underway: 41
hours on main: 36.5
hours on the generator: 41:15
hours on the water maker: 21:10
miles traveled: 226
gallons of fuel used: 174
gallons of water made: 1270
gallons of gas used: 10.6
gallons of propane about: 7
gallons of lube oil: 3

And finally, here’s a tasty recipe from the Catalyst’s galley:
Lemon Mousse

Combine:
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 Tbs lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup butter

Heat while stirring
Remove from heat
Whisk 5 eggs into the warm mixture
Chill
Whip 1 cup cream, fold into the curd with Alaskan blueberries, salmon berries, and thimble berries. Top with toasted coconut.
Yum.

2009 Week 30 in Review

This week’s cruise aboard the MV Catalyst was from Petersburg to Craig, stopping at Labouchere Bay, Devilfish Bay, Spanberg Island, Anguilla Island, Port Real Marina, and Trocadero Bay.

On Sunday I hung onto the cell phone reception until the very last minute while leaving Petersburg. I have a much harder time leaving Seattle these days: I try to get a lot of projects going simultaneously, but shipping out mean that I more or less drop everything except what I manage by phone.

We headed south through the Wrangell Narrows and then toward the Pacific. This is a Craig trip, heading down the outside of Prince of Wales Island we should see lots of coastal animals and forests that have been tortured by the relentless wind and rain.

We stopped in Labouchere Bay, then on the way to Devilfish Bay we took the skiff in to Hole in the Wall. It’s a narrow entrance from Clarence Strait that goes to a small round bay on the chart. It really looks odd and like a hole in the wall. Kinda like Mats Mats Bay in Washington.

Then, we pulled into El Capitan Pass and visited what the captain called the “Hole in The Ground.” It’s a cave with an opening about 300 feet above the water – we had to climb 366 steps almost straight up to get there from the beach. The Forest Service maintains the trail, and they also installed a gate about 200 feet in. You can only go further back with a guide from the Forest Service. We’ll make a reservation for a guide next week on our way back. The cave was really neat; I can’t wait to take the tour.

We continued on to Spanberg Island, and then on the way to Anguilla Island, we stopped at Eagle Island for some great tide-pooling. Millions of tiny critters were running around in the tide pools:

Then we stayed a night at Port Real Marina and then at Trocadero Bay, and finally on to Craig.

Engineer’s Log

The Catalyst, like any boat that is actually required to perform regularly, has many little work-arounds to fix common problems. Here’s a few accessories we’ve picked up. First, the tennis ball.

The engine causes the boat to vibrate in different places and at varying rates, all depending on the number of revolutions per minute the engine is running. Even though heavy-duties vibrate much less than modern high-speed diesels, they still have areas that rattle around. At 365 rpm, the wheelhouse doors become the position of the boat vibration wave anti-node; when the door is latched a few inches in the open position, it rattles on the hook. This calls for what we call Catalyst ingenuity: a tennis ball on a lanyard. The ball gets wedged between the door and the jam to stop the rattle. Also, when the door is opened from inside the wheelhouse by an unsuspecting visitor the ball bonks them on the head, an endless source of entertainment.

Another accessory is the playing cards in the fuel system. The engine has many parts that make up the fuel delivery system: the cam on the cam shaft, the cam follower roller, the adjusting screw, the bell-crank, the adjustable push-rod, the rocker, the button, the fuel valve rocking lever, the stem and seat, the injector holes, and four pins. Washington Iron Works had a difficult time making all the parts the same and it’s even more difficult to make them all wear exactly the same, so there’s a lot of little tiny differences to each part. We’re still able to set all the fuel adjustments to get very even exhaust temperatures between the cylinders, but any time the engine is sped up or slowed down, the temperatures are uneven again.

To compensate for this, we set the adjusting screws to full speed, and then when the engine is slowed the engineer inserts playing cards under the adjusting screw temporally to even out the cylinder’s load on each. The Catalyst’s engine at low idle (190 RPM) with the air-compressor unloaded gets cards as follows: #1 cylinder takes three cards , #2 doesn’t need any, #3 takes two, #4 takes three cards, #5 takes four cards, and #6 takes five cards.

There’s a ton of other accessories on the Catalyst that I’ll try to mention as the summer wears on.

Anyway, here’s the numbers for the 12th trip of the 2009 season:

hours underway: 41:05
hours on main: 43
hours on the generator: 44:35
hours on the water maker: 10:20
miles traveled: 231
gallons of fuel used: 169
gallons of water made: 620
gallons of gas used: 8.8
gallons of propane: 4.5
gallons of lube oil: 5

And finally, here’s a tasty recipe from the Catalyst’s galley:
Twice-Baked Goat Cheese Soufflés

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 ¼ cups hot milk
pinch cayenne pepper
squeeze of lemon juice
salt and ground black pepper
3 ½ oz semi-hard goat cheese crumbles
2 eggs, separated
melted butter for brushing
3 table spoons dried bread crumbs
3 table spoons ground hazelnuts
2 egg whites
spinach leaves
halved cherry tomatoes
toasted walnuts
dressing

Instructions
1. Melt two tablespoons of butter and stir in three tablespoons of flour. Cook to a roux for a minute then gradually whisk in one and a quarter cups hot milk to make a thick white sauce.
2. Simmer for a minute, then season with a pinch of cayenne pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a little salt and pepper. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in three and a half ounces of semi-hard crumbled goat cheese until it melts. Cool slightly, then beat in two egg yolks.
3. Brush the inside of six ramekins with melted butter and coat them with bread crumbs and minced hazelnuts. Shake out any excess.
4. Heat oven to 375 degrees and prepare a bain marie (roasting pan half-filled with boiling water.
5. Whisk four egg whites to the soft peak stage and carefully fold them into the main mixture.
6. Fill each ramekin and place in the bain marie and bake for 12-15 minutes until risen and golden brown. Serve
or
7. to serve twice baked, allow to cool, then chill. Run a knife round the inside of each ramekin and turn out each soufflé onto a baking tray.
8. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes
9. serve on a dressed salad.

2009 Week 29 in Review

News from Alaska

I’m onboard the Catalyst again and I’m meeting boat friends everywhere: the crew from the Liseron, former crewmates Chuck and Nissa from the Mist Cove, and the crew from the Catalyst, who are all being relieved today by a whole new crew. Captain Steve, chef Lisa, deckhand Lia, and I will be running the boat together for the next few weeks.

Lia and I flew in on Saturday and after some last-minute chores and drinks at the Alaskan hotel, we picked up our passengers on Sunday and headed out to Endicott Arm.

This week’s cruise was from Juneau to Petersburg, stopping at Sanford Cove, Fords Terror, West Brother, Sheldon Cove, West Brother, and Scenery Cove along the way

We kayaked through Fords Terror, picked up a bunch of Dungeness crabs at Wood Spit, made a campfire on West Brother in Frederic Sound, and watched some bears in Sheldon cove.

We got to Sheldon cove early, so I pulled four valves to clean and swap. I exchange intake for exhaust valves every so often so that they wear evenly and we get more life out of them. Washingtons are hard on their valves for some reason.

We liked West Brother so much that we stopped there again and this time we had Norio Matsumoto over for dinner. He’s a great wilderness photographer and he showed a slide show of his work. On the way to Thomas Bay we watched some whales, then anchored in Scenery Cove and went for a walk to Baird Glacier.

Once we got to Petersburg, the whole crew was anxious to connect with the world we all had a cell phone attached to one ear while cleaning the boat, provisioning, and doing other chores.

This week was so nice. Getting aboard Catalyst was like coming home and I ran into each room to revisit great memories and see that everything is still where I left it. Frederick Sound is also some of the best cruising in the world – especially with the great weather we’re having. I have never seen so much sun up here. It made the glacier a beautiful sparkling blue, and it was so warm I could wear shorts and a t-shirt while on our hike there.

Engineer’s Log

Valves from 1 and 2 pulled, cleaned, and swapped in for out
Ex-valve for #3 reinstalled after Eric pulled it
Wiggled cord for the shaft tachometer; no improvement, still reading really low or not at all
Re-soldered wire to stateroom five port forward reading light
Cleaned and flushed bilge

We also did the numbers for this trip, the 11th of the 2009 season:

hours underway: 52:45
hours on main: 53.8
hours on the generator: 35:.6
hours on the water maker: 17:45
miles traveled: 231
gallons of fuel used: 179
gallons of water made: 1,035
gallons of gas used: 8.8
gallons of propane: 4.5
gallons of lube oil: 4
qts of half and half: used 6 (unusually high)

And finally, here’s a tasty recipe from the Catalyst’s galley:

Crab
drop crab pots in 40 feet of water in top secret location with herring bait caught from just off the Taku fishery pier.
soak for one to two days, pull
return small ones and females
pull all legs of each crab, bracing the center of the body on the boat rail; legs and body meat should come right out of shell
scrape off gills
boil for 11 minutes
shell and eat

Kitchen notes: Crab-eaters of the world are divided into two groups: pilers and gobblers. Gobblers eat each piece of crab as they pull it out of the shell, while pilers pile up their pieces on their plate. Pilers beware, for the gobblers are happy to steal your pile.

Finally, crab-crackers are for newbies.

Waving to the Heavy-Duties

On the way into Petersburg, I saw the Katahdin, the Barron Islands, and the Cape Cross, each powered by a heavy-duty. It’s great to see the old workboat yachts out there.

More scraping at Indian Graves

In news beyond Alaska, I heard that the Indian Grave engine #3 ran for an hour and then the #2 main bearing got hot, so they scraped it down some more. This isn’t unusual – even with a good pattern on the bearing and the engine turning by hand really smooth, more scraping is often required after actually running the engine the first few times. Sounds like it’s going well.

Sexy sailor women

Diana the OTM Inc museologist had pictures taken for the 2010 Sexy Women of Maritime Calendar produced by Jack Tar Magazine this week. Apparently, the photos turned out great, but you’ll have to buy the calendar to see them because she isn’t sharing.

Social Networking

Old Tacoma Marine Inc. joined TheBoaters.com, which is like Facebook for boat trash. Check us out!

New owner for the Sound

I heard that Anthony bought the Sound. Poor sucker – he already owns the Chief. I love Enterprises, but there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

2009 Week 28 in Review

Early Sunday morning, I picked up all the remaining tools from the Arthur Foss, put the yacht back in the driveway, cleaned up my desk, and got back on a plane to Quincy, Illinois.

Back to Quincy

I went back to the Indian Grave Pumpouse despite the bad news that only two sets of piston rings had arrived, so I spent the week setting up the remaining rod bearings as close as I could without the pistons. I used a spare rod dangled from above to allow me to tighten the rod bearing bolts and get a more accurate bearing running clearance. Then, I used an old technique Dan told me from a while back: how to set bearing clearances without using dials.

I adjust the shims until they’re really close, then continue to adjust them one thousandth by one thousandth until the bearing just starts to drag on the journal when I move it side to side. When it starts to drag, that means it’s basically at 0, so I add shims one by one until I get about .004 worth of clearance.

I really needed this method because without the piston to center the bearing, it was too squirrelly to bump without a dial. Once the pistons are installed all the clearances will be set precisely, but I did this initial setup to make the final bump faster.

I also made some special tools to fit in place of rod bearing shims, allowing the piston height to be easily set, since I accidentally destroyed some valuable shims using a big stack of them to set piston height earlier. I only got to use the tool two times this trip, but I also got to show it off to the Fabius River Drainage District commissioners and the operator.

All the roustabouts and pump guys have been working four ten-hour days, so they all get Friday off. I chose this day to invite the Fabius guys to the Indian Graves Pumphouse to discuss maintaining their Fairbanks-Morse (6)32E14s. The meeting went great! I had all the tools and Nathan’s help to show how easy it is to repair and maintain big heavy-duties like Fairbanks. As a demonstration, we pulled a rod bearing, looked at it, and then put it back and checked the piston height. All of them were impressed and Nathan and I felt like we may have saved two amazing engines from the scrapper.

Road Trippin’

Right after the meeting, I wrapped everything at Indian Graves up to go back to the airport, so that I could get to Seattle and immediately turn around and fly to Alaska to ship out on Catalyst.

Well, things just got ridiculous. I got a flat tire on the rented Prius. Damn. Oh, well. I put on the spare tire, then made one more trip down to the levy to drop off an engine manual, and then I’ll be damned – I got another flat and picked up a nail in a different tire.

With the flight leaving in 3 ½ hours, I was able to look up the closest tire repair shop on my phone. “Ron’s Tire Shop” sent a truck right away. I reported the incident to the rental company over the phone, and arranged to have someone drop me off immediately once I got to the rental office in the off chance that I got there in time. Then, I arranged new flights in case I missed this one, and reserved a hotel room across the highway from the airport, and began re-scheduling the flight to Alaska (currently set for 10:30 AM pacific time).

While on the phone, the tire repair guy was carrying on with the mechanic. He had to drive back to the shop and get two new tires. I’ll take the time to file a claim later. Finally, the tires were installed and the one with the nail patched, then I hit the road. The drive from Quincy to St. Louis (which I’m getting really familiar with) usually takes two hours; this time, I made it in one and a half and made the flight with seconds to spare. Wow! Once I got my boarding pass and went through the security check-in, I heard the elevator music movie scene from the Blues Brothers where they are in the elevator after the best car chase ever.

The Ready hauled-out

We heard that the tug Ready was hauled out and looks great. Sounds like the new owners are making progress – I hope they get the engine running again soon!

A new Portolan is out!

I just got a newsletter from Nortwest Seaport with all the non-engine news from the organization. They included a feature article on the YMTA Engineer for a Day field trip that I ran for them last February. They’ve put up a .pdf version on their website if you haven’t gotten yours by mail, so go check it out.

It looks like they’re doing really good things these days. I might even renew my membership.

Hand-fitting versus precision parts

Whenever I’m scraping bearings in, I get a lot of grief from spectators who see all my fuss over each engine part and how I seem “overly concerned” about fit and how the method is slow. Fitting bearings does take a long time, but it’s not a process that you can take shortcuts on. I rarely use power tools on parts that must fit precisely, because the margin for error is just too great. Scraping in a bearing is a time-consuming process that requires patience and seems to be seen as a dying art.

New engines use all precision parts that you can just bolt on and go. This is desirable because labor rates are higher than the cost of parts and parts can now be machined with fairly close tolerances. The same holds true for a lot of things these days: engines, furniture, trains, buildings, jewelry, or martinis. Houses can be assembled without using a saw, trains are delivered in a box, and I even drank a mixed drink from a can while I was on the airplane. However, I know I’m not alone in my belief that finding a mechanic who can hand-fit bearings is like finding a bartender who can make that perfect cocktail the old-fashioned way: it may take longer and it may be more expensive, but it’s totally worth it at the end of the day.

I do regret that the fitting take so much time and believe me when I say there is progress – though it may be hard to see behind the ever-mounding pile of emery bits. Most of all, be patient!

Off to Alaska

On Saturday, OTM Inc’s lead mechanic took off to Alaska again to work on the Catalyst until September 1.

2009 Week 27 in Review

This week, we put the Arthur Foss all back together. All the parts are cleaned and many painted, the head is down, the piston is in, and the rod bearing is in, and I tightened everything down and painted the cylinder and deck plates just in time for class on Saturday.  But first:

More Enterprises

Doug reminded us via email to include the Alaska Ferries Malaspina and Columbia to the list of Enterprise-powered boats. Will do, Doug – does anyone know what model they are? The Golden Bear is powered by two big R5-V16 diesels – do the ferries have that same model?

New owners for the Kaluah Maru?

I’ve heard a rumor that the Kaluah Maru, a boat in Hawaii with two Superiors, has new owners. Anyone hear anything concrete? OTM Inc is investigating.

The Dunlin moves to Seattle

I got an email from Keith in which he said that the Dunlin has moved to Seattle. I can’t wait to meet the new owner and see the boat!

Diesel Engine Theory Session Five!

With all the parts ready and all the tools laid out, the class attacked the engine early Saturday morning. We wanted to get a good start on the work left – bumping the bearings, timing the valves and injectors, and getting it ready to run –since Saturday also started the 34th Annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival! Since 2005, OTM Inc has been a part of the show by running the Arthur’s engine throughout the festival as a demonstration. The public loves it, and this year the students were going to help us keep it going.

While the engineers were in the engine room, chef Kim was in the smoking hot galley. She baked bread all morning, turning the galley into a roasting pit of despair, but the bread was very tasty. Here’s the instructions and recipe, tailored for baking on the Arthur Foss:

At 7 or 8 am, turn on the stove; first, remove the firebox cover and vacuum or scrape the bits of carbon out of the firebox and the diesel cup. Next, open the valve from the day tank, open the valve to the meter, open the valve on the meter, and turn the meter up to full. Look down into the firebox; when you see a little diesel trickle out of the hole, light it with the blow torch that’s kept in the galley drawer. You’ll probably have to fire it for a while with the torch to get it alight.

Once it’s on, let it get hot and smoky and fiery, then turn on the fan. Open the fan damper until it doesn’t smoke any more – but not too much, or the fire will start to flicker like a strobe. Adjust it until you find the happy medium between strobe and smoke, and continue to check it for the next several hours.

Have some coffee, run the generator, clean the counter, have some more coffee. At 10 or 11, when stove is nearing 300°, dissolve 2tsp yeast in 2 cups warm water, then add:

5 ½ cups flour
¼ cup sugar
1 to 2 tsp salt

Mix, not knead, all this together and fold dough into a rounded lump. Cover lightly with cloth and put in a warm, not hot, place. The dish rack over the sink is perfect, and keeps it out of the way. Let rise to double its size.

Divide dough in half, form into two lumps, and place in the big glass pan. Cover lightly and let rise to double its size and the oven is between 350° and 400°.

Place in center of oven and bake 10-15 min, or until top is VERY golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven, wait no more and no less than five minutes before removing from pan. Eat it hot with butter.

The original recipe is featured in Lin Pardey’s awesome seacook’s book: The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew. Kim sliced most of this loaf and left it out on the counter with butter, and it was gone within an hour.

Back to the engine. We had everything buttoned up by one and we all held our breaths as we blew down the engine, then started it up. It started right up – but the new head gasket didn’t fully seat and a little air hissed out between the head and the cylinder on every compression stroke. We shut it down quick because it was making sounds like a dying goose.

After we cleaned up, the students had the next two hours to check out the Wooden Boat Festival and all the great old boats at South Lake Union for the weekend. Sadly, no other boats with heavy-duty diesels came, but it was still a great show. Meanwhile, tons of kids mobbed the boat for Pirate Story Hour:

At four, we all headed over to Buca di Beppo for a very tasty celebration dinner.

At six, the show closed and the class ended. Everyone filled out course evaluations at the restaurant, and they gave us rave reviews. Here’s a sample:

I think the program was coo. I really liked it and learned a lot. It would be better if we had a couple of days in the week instead of one. MoB MoB MoB L*fe L*fe L*fe.”

We think that’s a complement.

I know that I had a good time this session. It’s too bad that the head gasket didn’t fully seat, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault; the engine is old and sometimes these things happen. Despite not running the engine all afternoon Saturday, I would still say that this was one of the best classes and we addressed many issues with the engine, so the class was definitely a success.

Next year, we’ll do Cylinder One.

2009 Week 26 in Review

20Work continues on the Arthur Foss

This week, I continued to work on the Arthur Foss’s Washington, working with OTM’s mechanic Crystal. We started the week with two big challenges to work on 1) make a tool to drive out the very stuck air-start valve, and 2) put the very heavy cylinder head back onto the engine.

I had to make a tool to get the air-start valve out. Back in 2005, during the very first session of Diesel Engine Theory, we pulled all the intake and exhaust valve cages out of the Arthur’s engine. I wanted to pull all the air start valves in the head at that time, too, but they were really, really stuck. I decided that it would be best to take them out when we had the heads off, but I’ve been really antsy to start getting them out.

The day to get them out came on Thursday of this week, when I got to South Lake Union with the tool I’d made. It’s basically a cylindrical steel punch that I put up against the air start valve on the underside of the cylinder, and then wailed on with a ten-pound sledge hammer. It didn’t budge for a while – long enough that I thought “crap, I’m going to have to cut this [censored] out in pieces,” which I had to do with one of the exhaust valves back in 2005. But then I hit it some more and it finally came loose and popped out of the head, and I brought it back to the shop to clean it up. Whew.

Later in the week, we used a borrowed three-ton come-along to winch the piston back up into the cylinder, then set the head back on the cylinder. The come-along was a really great tool – I want one. I’ll have to put it on the Arthur Foss’s wish-list, too.

I picked up a bunch more supplies, including water grommet material in two thicknesses. Then, I had to make a lot of calls and fuss over the head gasket because the manufacturer didn’t have the right material, but I finally got it.

There was also a lot of cleaning and painting all the individual parts. We painted the rockers and valve parts the usual Arthur white and painted the exhaust manifold with high-temperature paint. The TAP guys helped out a bunch this week with the painting – thanks, guys!

With all that accomplished, we were all ready for the next class on Saturday! But first…

South Lake Union party

The Friday Lake Union Park Working Group is still doing great things. On Thursday, they had a big party to “roll out” a new planning document that they all worked on. Lots of people showed up to see representatives from every group (like 20!) speak and everyone was really excited. I’m excited too – ten years ago, none of the different boat factions would even have been in the same room together, and now applauding for each other and finding ways to work together. Way to go, everyone!

Atlas-Imperials are not dead

The Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society just published an article in their quarterly rag the Sea Chest titled “The Atlas Imperial Diesel Engine, an Innovative Engine Built in the 1920s”. While this article gives the Atlas-Imperial diesels credit for being innovating and durable machines, the overarching theme suggests that the engines are gone for good.

I disagree.

Old Tacoma Marine Inc is here to show the next generation that heavy-duty diesels like the Atlas-Imperials are alive and well and still working as they were designed to do almost a century ago. The 500 or so heavy-duties from the four manufactures that I like the most are near-evenly grouped into four active categories by use: commercial, pleasure with a purpose, museums, and collectors. In all categories, the engines must function to fulfill specific duties, and these keep a small but diligent group of mechanics, engineers, operators, parts suppliers, curators, grant writers, museum program managers, and grey-haired guys who know everything all gainfully employed year-round. We’re a tight bunch who meet often and share stories and get their own tables at the tugboat parties or tractor shows.

This network of support and the great need for the engines to run is the reason this article is premature in writing of the death of these innovative engines, built to last from the 1920s and far into the future.

Underwater Surveys surveys the Lightship #83

A diver from Underwater Surveys did an underwater video survey of the Lightship #83 this week. He found that the hull is in about the condition we expected, with lots of aquatic growth – so much that it looks like a coral reef. I can’t wait to haul it out and clean all that off.

If anyone needs an underwater survey of their boat, let us through and we’ll patch you through to Underwater Surveys.

Indian Grave #3 running!

This week, I also got word that the Indian Grave Drainage District’s engine #3 successfully ran for about five minutes. I can’t wait to see them all working!

Diesel Engine Theory Session Four

Saturday morning, we all met on the Arthur for part four of the Diesel Engine Theory class. The first task was to move all the parts from my truck back onto the boat. We brought them all to the back deck to sort them out:

We did some more painting and cleaning and sanding, and cut grommets for the exhaust manifold:

We also did some old Diesel Engine Theory standbys, such as the Washington Valve Dance (putting spring retainers on the valve stem), the Kerplunk Test (fitting the valve cages into the cylinder head; a “kerplunk!” sound is good, a “squish…” sound means more sanding), and annealing copper gaskets with heat and then cold water:

Then we had another amazing lunch cooked in the Arthur’s frying hot galley with the fabulous Chef Kim, who made cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and cayenne brownies. She also baked lots more of the amazing bread she made last week, and we all had tons of it.

After lunch, we did some more cleaning, then got the rod bearing back in. This was an excruciating job because the rod bearing is two big heavy pieces of metal that fit around the crankshaft. It’s tricky because you have to suspend the lower half while you get the upper half in place and the bolts through. I rigged up some braces to keep the pieces in place, then got into the crankpit while all the students maneuvered the pieces into place.

It was hard work (especially since the boat was hot and the crankpit full of solvent), but we got it done just a little after five. Next week is the last week of Diesel Engine Theory 2009; let’s hope we get it all back together in time!

Seattle Power Tool Races

The power-tool races were Saturday evening. I wish I could have attended. Hopefully next year.