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.

2008 Week 35 in Review

Here’s this week’s cruising schedule aboard Catalyst, from Petersburg to Wrangell:

Sunday, August 24 – Petersburg to Ideal Cove: Kayak paddle in Ideal Cove (overcast with showers)
Monday, August 25 – Ideal Cove to Scenery Cove: Visit Le Conte Glacier, full height calving, skiff and hike Baird Glacier (rain)
Tuesday, August 26 – Scenery Cove to Portage Bay: shore walk at Cape Fanshaw, fishing group in Portage Bay (rain)
Wednesday, August 27 – Portage Bay to Roosevelt Harbor: transit Wrangell Narrows, explore Roosevelt Harbor in skiff and on foot (rain)
Thursday, August 28 – Roosevelt Harbor to Canoe Pass: kayak Canoe Pass, transit Zimovia Strait, (some sun and some rain, otters)
Friday, August 29 – Canoe Pass to Berg Bay: visit Anan Bear Observatory, bears are fluffy, paddle Berg Bay/Aaron Creek, slide show
Saturday, August 30 – Berg Bay to Wrangell: last run, pack and prepare to return to what passes for civilization (but isn’t)

Here’s the crew:

And here’re the passengers:

A major highlight of this week was visiting the La Conte Glacier. I hadn’t seen it from a boat before, though I did see it from a float plane once. It’s a very neat tidewater glacier – hard to get to because of a sand bar terminal moraine, which is shallow and keeps out the cruise ships. After that, we went back through Wrangle Narrows to explore some new places, like Canoe Pass and Anan Creek:

We hiked up Anan Creek to a “Wildlife Viewing Site,” which has a bear observatory for people to watch bears feeding in the salmon run without getting rained on (and without feeding the bears). We didn’t see any bears at the observatory, but on the way back a black bear crossed our path. We sat and watched it for about ten minutes before it ran up in to the forest:

We arrived in Wrangle on Saturday to drop off passengers, then headed to Meyers Chuck with just the crew and Bill’s wife and daughter. Coming into Meyers Chuck at night was a little tricky, since it has a very narrow entrance. Luckily, it was one of the clearest nights we’ve had on the trip and we made it in safely. We shut down the engine and watched the stars for hours.

On the subject of cruise ships

I know that there is a lot of hatred for cruise ships (and that I sometimes do the hating), but I do have some other thoughts on them.

I think cruise ships are an efficient way for lot of people to see some amazing sights and relax. They get people to see Alaska (and other places) who would never otherwise get somewhere so remote, and offer a fun vacation. They also are a way to give trees and glaciers an economic value, since people will pay a lot of money to go see (or walk on) “wilderness.”

On the other hand, the get-rich-quick boom-town gold-fever is in the blood of many Alaskans. The process used by cruise ships to transform a town just the next big thing following the gold rush, the clear cuts, and the salmon canneries. It may be a natural thing just like the fishing booms, the timber cuts, and the gold rush. I think the best thing that can be done is to research, document, publish and advertise the changes and relate them with other booms and the impact they made on towns, the environment, the local economies, etc, to try to get the positives out of the cruise ship industry. It is a little icky how some of the towns have turned whole neighborhoods into Disneyland diamond strip malls, but Alaskans have been making a profit off the latest boom for more than a hundred years.

Now, I’ve never actually been on a cruise ship, but someday hope to. If I go on an Alaskan cruise, I want to sign up for the bus trip to the Museum of Alaskan Booms. For me, though, the attraction of a cruise is in the boat itself. Ideally, we’d leave Seattle, motor out about a quarter of a mile, and then drop anchor. I would drink in the casino, hear live music, and play shuffle board. Then at the end of the week, we’d motor back to Pier 66 with a lifetime of memories.

Business as usual

The engine’s oil pressure has been gradually decreasing over the last few weeks, so I started up the auxiliary oil pump to maintain the pressure until we got to Petersburg. Once we were tied up, I changed the oil and filters, flushed the system, and sucked out the residual oil in the base. None of this changed the oil pressure, so on Monday I took all the doors off the crank pit and ran the oil pump to see if any single bearing had way more oil coming out than the others. I found that number six had oil coming out from under the rod foot, and it had bits of babbitt under it in the crank pit.

Oil from under the rod foot might mean that there isn’t enough oil getting to the wrist pin, and babbitt in the crank pit could mean at least two things: that the bearing is going bad and throwing off little pieces of broken babbitt, or that the last mechanic to work on the bearings was lazy and didn’t clean all the pieces of babbitt out of the crank pit. A little leaking oil and babbitt in the crank pit doesn’t tell me much except where to start looking for problems, so I “bumped” number six to see if the rod bearing was out of alignment. It had a little extra clearance – not too bad, but I took out a shim and bumped it again. This time it was within the specifications. I did the temperature test (checking to see if the bearings are heating up, which indicates a problem) at one, five, and 20 minutes, and it’s okay. We’re not losing the oil pressure out of the rod bearings. We’ll take a close look at the main bearings during the winter when we have more time to take the engine apart.

I also removed number five and six’s valves, cleaned them, and swapped them. Since I joined the Catalyst, I’ve taken out all of its exhaust valves and most of its intake valves out for cleaning. I’ve also replaced two of the exhaust valves with spares. Overloading is harder on the valves than any other part of the engine, since overloading makes a lot of heat and soot. First you see pitting, then carbon starts creeping up the guide, and eventually ruins the stem. It’s really important to clean the valves regularly – every year if you’re running the engine a lot.

While we’re on the subject, here’s another maintenance item that many heavy duty owners and mechanics forget. I noticed a lot of gunk in the camshaft bearing cups when we were looking at the rod bearing. All heavy-duty owners should clean out these cups frequently enough that oil actually flows to the bearing. Atlas-Imperial owners should also clean out the tops of the latches, too. This is an easy task to put off, since the first time it’s done it’s messy. After that first time, though, the job will be a lot easier if you keep up with the maintenance. It’s a pretty easy job –hose the cups out with solvent and fill them with fresh oil. Doing this save you some expensive repairs in the long run.

Breaking news

The MAK is gone!

The next stage of construction at Lake Union Park is starting soon, so all the old maritime junk is getting scrapped – including the old MAK that I helped deliver back in the ’90s.

The art of discarding

Boats, like all things, someday need to be thrown away. However, since all the owner’s energy is focused on keeping the boat floating and running, little thought is put into how to eventually get rid of it. This usually leads to a problem: how does one throw away a boat?

The value of things and boats is a weird idea that requires shared opinions and is constantly influenced by enumerable factors. It’s not pleasant to prepare for the worst case scenario, but planning for a variety of possible situations might give you the same piece of mind that fire drills and man-overboard drills do.

A few years ago, I gave my brother a car. My brother, in some respects, is not very good at planning ahead. Since he knew nothing about car ownership, I had to teach him all the rules that they do not show in the commercials. First, licensing, then insurance, then how to drive it, then how to clean it and check fluids.

Next, I showed my brother what to do with the car when he’s done with it. I guided him through many steps and actually practiced each disposal scenario. We backed out at the last minute, just to drill on what he might have to do. Here were our scenarios, each dependent on the condition of the car (we called each person, so they took our word) and prioritized:

1) Car looks good and runs – advertise on Craig’s List to find a buyer – $1,800
2) Car looks good and runs, but there’s no time to find a buyer – cross the street to the Armenians and take their best offer, probably about $50
3) Car looks bad but runs, no takers – the junk yard will offer $35
4) Car looks good wont run, no takers – the junk yard will pick it up will offer $10
5) Car is a total piece of junk – a guy will take it away for $75

I reminded my brother in all cases to accept or pay cash, and immediately send the bill of sale to the licensing department, to make sure that he’s really rid of the car.

This exercise showed that the most likely worst case scenario was to pay $75 to dispose of the car. A similar list of scenarios for even a small boat can have a huge worst-case payout. In order to get rid of it, you need insurance or at least savings and planning. Boats take a lot of work, and there needs to be more emphasis on the art of discarding when that work gets to be too much. I am a planner, which is sometimes hard to notice due to some overlaying personality traits. Seeing through to the end is easy for me and I am surprised when others can’t see huge potential, trends or catastrophes.

If you’re planning to buy a boat, please do some drills on discarding it – for everyone’s sake. Remember that it’s always harder than you think. Here’s how you should do it: first, try to sell you boat. Next, try to give it away. Then, try to pay someone to take it away. Do each drill with the boat in a different theoretical condition – and don’t let your dreams of how the boat will be after you’re done fixing it up interfere with the drill. Make up a couple of bad scenarios and see how hard or how easy it is to get rid of it in each. Sometimes, the only way to get rid of a boat is to pay someone else to break it up for you.

Without planning and drills, owners can get delusional about what the boat is worth and might even think it is worth the same as what was paid for it. This reality check can also help guide maintenance and repair priorities. It might also encourage owners to get rid of boats before they become more of a liability – or someone else’s mess to clean up. There are government-funded programs out there just to get rid of derelict boats (like Washington State’s Department of Natural Resources’ Derelict Vessel Removal Program), and they keep pretty busy. Breaking up your own boat when it’s beyond hope is a neighborly thing to do.

By the way, the car in our anecdote was actually a very nice 1977 BMW 530I. It looked good and it ran, so the Armenians got the car for $50 minutes before my brother moved to New York.

2008 Week 34 in Review

Here’s this week’s cruising schedule aboard Catalyst, from Juneau to Petersburg:

Sunday, August 17 – Juneau to Limestone Inlet: kayak paddle in river, salmon in river and along shore (rainy)
Monday, August 18 – Limestone Inlet to Ford’s Terror: meet Ranger Tim, Kayak Ford’s Terror, brown bear in creek (foggy)
Tuesday, August 19 – Ford’s Terror to Wood Spit: hike Ford’s Terror highlands, Dawes Glacier, seals, whales (hazy sun)
Wednesday, August 20 Wood Spit to Donkey Bay: great whale show, paddle Donkey Bay, 1000′s of salmon in creek (sunny)
Thursday, August 21 – Donkey Bay to Brothers Islands: forest walk, kayak paddle w/ eagle, sea lions & whales, meet Westward & Fred
Friday, August 22 – Brothers Islands to Scenery Cove: see lighthouse, visit Norio, glacier walk, slide show (windy night and rough water)
Saturday, August 23 – Scenery Cove to Petersburg: last run, pack and prepare to return to what passes for civilization (but isn’t)

Here’s the crew:

And here’re the passengers:

This week, I saw Ranger Tim. I first met him in 2000 while on the Westward. We picked him up on the way to Fords Terror and chatted for a few hours. I love seeing all the Southeast Alaska people I worked with nine years ago, especially since they’ve now taken on a cartoonish personality in my mind.

I paddled up Fords Terror again (the glacier was great), picked up more crabs, and met up with whale researcher Fred Sharpe. I also took some video of the Catalyst, which I’ll post once I figure out how to get it out of my camera. For now, here’s a picture of Bairds Glacier:

Westward Rendezvous

We rafted up with the Westward on Thursday, on its return from a 20,483-mile journey around the Pacific:

We’ve been getting updates on their progress for the past year or two that they’ve been out, so it was great to see them all again. They anchored at the Brothers Islands to rendezvous with us for a potluck dinner. The Westward looks great after all those miles, and owner Hugh was still the life of the party. I’ll write a much more detailed account of the meet-up once I have a few minutes to myself, since it was a highlight of the trip. Stay tuned!

Business as usual
I removed the exhaust valve from cylinders one and two, just to continue cleaning them up. Of course they were bad, so I put in spares. I also noticed the oil psi going down over time, and it’s time for an oil change if we continue changing based on time and not on sample results. The oil smells a little diesel-y and with all the overloading fuel, it could be soaking down past the piston or an external leak, and making its way into the crankpit. I will change it in Petersburg for sure and take a sample for the lab.

A good home for the Ready?

Word is spreading about the neat old tug Ready, which is for sale only to a good owner. The boat needs to be hauled out for some hull repair, and the new owner needs the guts to maintain, insure and operate a tug with a direct reversing Atlas-Imperial diesel.

Problems on the Velero IV?

I’ve heard that the Velero is having some timing problems these days. She’s a fish packer and research boat that’s powered by the biggest Atlas diesel still running. Owner Irv does a great job not only keeping the boat looking good, but also finding jobs to keep her employed full time. As I always say, the best way to maintain and preserve an engine is to give it some real work to do.

The Velero‘s engine was extensively modified in the 1950s with a second camshaft, Bosch fuel pumps, and injectors to increase its horsepower and efficiency. The work was done by the same guy who added the Bosch fuel pump to the Portola down in Seal Beach. The new port-side camshaft has something like a dog clutch with a precise gap, so when going into reverse, the second camshaft’s timing changes. The bolts holding the spring-loaded detent for the “gaped dog clutch” and the timing sprocket both broke. Fatigue, maybe, but the system is a one-of-a-kind. Irv may not be able to do much more than replace them and watch them more closely. I really wish I could do more than troubleshoot over the phone right now, but hopefully I’ll be there during winter maintenance for a closer look.

Lost Heavy-duties

Dirk sent us some pictures from his own collection of the Broughton Straits, a 100-foot tug that he piloted to Port Townsend in 1978:

Dirk recalled that the Broughton Straits was powered by a six- or eight-cylinder Washington diesel that made about 300 horsepower, and he remembered that “it had a large turbo but I was told the turbo had be ‘deactivated’ and wasn’t spinning any more.” He also remembered that it had a Fairbanks-Morse gen set. He sent several pictures that he’d taken in 1978, including this one:

We’ve gone through the Washington Iron Works records that we have, and found the engine card. Engine 7624 was ordered on October 17th, 1947 by the Straits Towing & Salvage Co of Vancouver, BC through the Vancouver Machinery Depot.

According to the card, the engine was a model 6-160 (same as the Donald R) with six cylinders at 12 ¾” by 16″. These models got between 375 and 400 horsepower at 327 to 360 rpm. The Broughton Straits‘ record shows it rated at 375 horsepower, with direct reverse and no clutch.

The card also shows the tug’s original name as Stan Point, but as with many of the records, that name was crossed out and the new name written beside. The folks at Washington Iron Works made a lot of notes on this record card as they did maintenance and repairs through the years. We’ve uploaded a copy of it here, and the reverse side with some testing notations here. Dan also marked an “O” for “operational” on his master list of Washington engines, so he’s clearly familiar with the tug and I’ll ask him about it when I get back to Seattle.

Dirk heard that the Broughton Straits was later taken down to San Francisco a few years after he brought it to Port Townsend. He visited the Bay Area in 1994 and saw a mostly-sunken derelict that folks told him was the same tug. Another great old boat with a great old engine lost.

California readers, has anyone seen this derelict tug? We’ll send an Old Tacoma Marine Inc t-shirt to anyone who sends us good photos.

Dirk also sent us an interesting picture of an old Atlas-Imperial diesel:

This was taken in 1978 at the north end of Lake Union, probably in one of those lots off Northlake facing the I-5 bridge, just after it was “bulldozed off to the side of the property.” Dirk says he still has its control station.

OTM Inc Weekly eBay Auction

This week’s prize from the OTM Inc shop are six (6) DRG-AR Series Field Configurable Limit Alarm Modules:

2008 Week 33 in Review

Here’s this week’s cruising schedule aboard Catalyst, from Petersburg to Juneau:

Sunday, Aug. 10 – Petersburg to Scenery Cove: Depart Petersburg, Hike Baird glacier (cloudy)
Monday, Aug. 11 – Scenery Cove to Donkey Bay: Bubble netting whales, Kayak Donkey Bay Estuary, meet Norio (rain)
Tuesday, Aug. 12 – Donkey Bay to Windham Bay: Brother’s Beach walk, explore Windham Bay gold mine, find gold (rain)
Wednesday, Aug. 13 – Windham Bay to Ford’s Terror: Fishing and Kayaking at Windham, Orcas, Set crab pots (rain)
Thursday, Aug. 14 – Ford’s Terror to Ford’s Terror: incredible glacier day, narrows paddle, uplands walk, skiff rides (no rain!?)
Friday, Aug. 15 – Ford’s Terror to Limestone Inlet: whales, crab vortex, salmon in river, beach walk, slide show (sunny & calm)
Saturday, Aug. 16 – Limestone Inlet to Juneau: pack and return to what passes for civilization (but is really a hollow illusion)

Here’s the crew:

And here’re the passengers:

We explored a mine, watched whales bubble-net feeding, played some good pranks, and “ate Alaska.” Good times.

Eating Alaska

Like a lot of the charter boats in southeast Alaska, food is a big part of cruising on the Catalyst. Chef Anne Catherine and others whip up amazing meals for passengers and crew. It would be easy to sit back and let Anne Catherine do all the work, but I like to encourage the passengers to do some good collecting and foraging, too. I call this “eating Alaska.”

There is a lot of wild food in Alaska there for the taking (with the appropriate permits, of course), from blueberries to halibut to Dungeness crab. We get passengers with all different experience levels, so some of them I just hand a trap, and others I really teach how to fish. We eat some of it right off the beach or grill it on the fantail, but sometimes it’s fun to make something a little fancier, like sushi.

On this trip, we had a big sushi party in the Catalyst‘s mess:

We had Sakhalin sole and smoked salmon and limpets and shrimp, veggies and bull kelp, plus wasabi and nori and omelet and tofu and seasoned rice. We made lots of different kinds and had a lot of fun. We made miso, too, for the full experience:

Eating Alaska is definitely one of my favorite parts about shipping out.

Business as usual

I got some good work in on the engine this week: I adjusted the clutch, changed all the pyrometers for better gages, and worked on the valves in cylinder three. While underway, I kept hearing an intermittent sticking-valve sound coming from number three cylinder head. When I pulled its valve cages, the exhaust valve was in bad shape so I pulled it out. I’ve been looking at it, and the part that worries me is the stem damage:

The face can be cleaned up, but the stem damage might condemn the valve. After I pulled out the valve, I cleaned everything, installed a spare valve in the cage, performed the kerplunk test, ran it a few minutes, and then tightened it a little more.

We’re also still overloading the engine a bit. The Catalyst‘s propeller is oversized for her engine, making the engine work too hard. The new pyrometers are showing that the exhaust temperatures are well over 700 degrees at cruising speed (Dan recommends 600 degrees for a caged un-cooled valve). I started reining in the running practices and am making a list for Bill of the options for making the engine run better:

• re-pitch the prop

• add a keel cooler, which would eliminate the need for the seawater pump

• reduce electrical load and add a 12-volt charger to replace the 12-volt alternator

• remove hydraulic controls and steering, which would remove a large parasitic load

• re-ring pistons, grind valves, service injectors, a tune-up that would increase the power available

The Washington manual states in several places not to overload the engine, but acknowledges the tendency to do so since a heavy-duty is very forgiving and can easily carry large loads. This is often difficult to explain to captains because the size of the engine compared to the available horsepower dose not equate to those used to size modern engines. It’s easy to assume that parasitic loads on the engine don’t make a difference, but, in fact, parasitic loads (using the engine’s power to run more than just the propeller) can drain lots of power and make the engine overload pretty easily.

On Catalyst, there’s six parasitic loads that draw 1 to 3 horsepower each: the fresh water pump, the seawater pump, the 12-volt alternator, the 24-volt alternator, the hydraulic pump, and the clutch-in hydraulic pump, which all run on a jack shaft and belts. All together, these take a big bite out of the 120 horsepower that the engine produces when it runs at 450 rpm. Now that we’ve reduced the cruising speed down to 350 rpm, we’ve gotten the average pyro reading down to 600 degrees, which is much better for the engine.

A lesson in applied physics

Confused by all that? Let us consider the power produced by a diesel engine curve and the power required for hull-speed curve.

Diesel engines are designed to run at a certain speed. Re-engineering them by machining or by imagination is never a good idea. The recommended running speed that allows the engine to produce the most horsepower with the least engine wear is the speed at which:

• the pistons reach their designed feet-per-minute

• the firing pressures are just below the limit

• the exhaust temperatures are just below their limit

If you try to cruise at above or below that recommended speed, you will probably “lug” or overload the engine, because you’ll be trying to get it to run faster or with a heavier load than it’s designed to. This causes high firing pressure, soot build-up, burned valves, and actually wears all parts on the engine much more quickly than at recommended running speed.

One of the easiest ways to overload an engine is to try to make the boat go faster than it’s designed to. Boats are designed to cruise at a designated speed at which the boat goes as fast as it can without pushing too much water with the bow. This follows a specific formula, in which hull speed is equal to the square root of the length of the hull at the water line. A displacement hull can’t exceed the speed determined by that equation without severely straining the engine and getting really, really inefficient. There are a lot of other factors involved in the potential speed of a boat, but the two main ones are hull and engine and until those are properly balanced the other ones aren’t a big deal.

Anyway, as a boat accelerates, it needs more and more power to maintain its speed. Let’s say our boat uses 65 horsepower to go 7 knots per hour, 80 horsepower to go 7.5 knots, 100 horsepower to go 8 knots, 125 horsepower to go 8.5 knots, and 175 horsepower to go 9 knots, and hull speed is 9.5 using 250+ horsepower to maintain that speed. The horsepower required keeps going up because it has to push more water in front of it.

Now, it’s important (except for tugs – we’ll talk about that later) to have the engine operating at peak performance at the speed the boat is designed for. This is not necessarily hull speed, although it can be. I recommend cruising at a speed less than hull speed to save fuel, ideally just before the horsepower-required curve starts to climb quickly. In our example boat, I would say that 8.5 is a good cruising speed, because to go just one knot faster you need to burn twice as much fuel and use twice as much horsepower.

Why are tugs excluded from this? They are designed differently than cruising vessels – they’re built to tow much more than their own weight, which changes the relationship between hull and engine. For those of you with tugs, you may never reach your engine’s full power even cruising at hull speed. Some tugs used as yachts re-pitch their wheels to get a little more speed, but it’s pretty scary to idle at 6 knots. Tugs should be opened up often to warm up the engine a bit, but you don’t need to worry about overloading. Once in a while, just for fun, you can put the bow against a sturdy pier and rev it up to so that the engine actually works for a while.

OTM Inc Weekly eBay Auction

We’re open for business even while I’m in Alaska! The Old Tacoma Marine Inc inventory has been moved to a remote off-site location for easier shipping and processing:

This week’s object for sale is a Cleveland Air Shifter: