Pairadice is heading South

[Crusty Chief]

Anyone else would have a tassel from graduation, but not Tom, he carries around a 300 pound table that he made in Shop Class.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Anyone else would have a tassel from graduation, but not Tom, he carries around a 300 pound table that he made in Shop Class.

 

[Crusty Chief]

So while waiting here in Crescent City for a weather window to continue south, we rented a car and played like tourists and visited a few of the Redwood forests here along the coast. The Admiral, Patches (our boat dog) and crew of AEGIS had never seen the Redwood forests so I played like the tour guide.

 

[Crusty Chief]

A few more.

 

[Crusty Chief]

And then we came across this. Supposed to be the last somewhat intact and standing Radar site from WW2 on the West Coast.

 

[Wayfarer]

I did a tour of Redwood NP a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it. Great way to spend a day. I didn't see any dinosaurs, but I'm convinced that they're in there somewhere.

 

[Crusty Chief]

Left Crescent City this morning and score! The Admiral made a Caramel, Apple Pie and shared with the fishermen next door and they reciprocated with a couple of King Salmon Fillet’s. Eat yer heart out Tom!
Ride down south was pretty good, Light winds and following seas. Here in Eureka for the night and up early for a 6AM departure to Ft. Bragg. Weather kinda sucks for any future move farther south, so hope we can secure moorage for a week or so.
First pic is of Reading Rock about half way down from CC to Eureka and the second is us.

Cheers Gang

 

[Crusty Chief]

I did a tour of Redwood NP a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it. Great way to spend a day. I didn't see any dinosaurs, but I'm convinced that they're in there somewhere.

Dave,
We saw a bunch of uprooted and downed big tree’s, but no dinosaur bones, LOL

 

[Ken E.]

John, on the topic of king salmon down there.....do they seem more abundant than AK or BC? Kings are scarce and very restricted up here this year. I'm envious. Good on Tracey to cut that deal!

 

[Crusty Chief]

Oh ****, No steering!

Its been a long day and I’m more tired than $20 hooker working a busy Friday night.
On our run from Eureka to the world famous Ft. Bragg we lost our steering 4 hours from Ft Bragg. Opened the Lazar. Hydraulic fluid all over. Seems the new slave cylinder I installed, blew a seal. Out came the emergency tiller and off we went. Me standing in the aft cockpit wrestling with the tiller, and the Admiral running the throttle, and watching for traffic.
Thankfully, I put the IPAD on the small Fridge and had a chart to follow.
Ft. Bragg is a very narrow entrance and an even longer and extremely narrow fairway to the marina. Good thing Pairadice has Bow and Stern thrusters.

Ill expand more tomorrow with maybe some pic’s, and maybe a repair update.

Cheers all

 

[w8n4sun]

Yikes, glad to see you are ok. 4hts hand steering and into a marina at that. Good for you!

 

[Giggitoni]

John,

My wife and I stayed in Ft. Bragg a couple of weeks ago (car trip from Sacramento). We really enjoyed dinner and drinks at Noyo Harbor Inn. If you look on the hill due West from the first marina, ya’ can’t miss it! Easy walk.

Hope to see you when you arrive at SF Bay Area. Al, Mark, and I are in the same marina in Vallejo.

 

[SR400DB]

I have been into Fort Bragg. That’s a tough one with limited steering. Nice work. Agree on Noyo Harbor Inn. Nice spot.

 

[JohnEasley]

Wow. Good work rolling with the punches on that one. Must have been a bit nerve-wracking coming in. Let us know what happens with the repairs.

John

 

[FlyWright]

Nice save, John and Tracey...but sorry to hear of your steering problem! Hope it's a quick fix for you.

I'm starting out on the second half of my @DeltaBridges tour. 25 bridges in 25 days. 13 down, 12 to go.

I hope to see you when I return later this month.

Cheers!

 

[Crusty Chief]

John, on the topic of king salmon down there.....do they seem more abundant than AK or BC? Kings are scarce and very restricted up here this year. I'm envious. Good on Tracey to cut that deal!

Ken,

Sorry but been kinda busy. The Salmon are out there on the west coast. The commercial guys are having a fair to good season. Crescent City guys were limited to 5 days a week and 50 fish per trip. Farther south to San Francisco the fishing is somewhat sporadic some good, others not so good.
Pretty amazing that they are using the same set ups we used up north. Flashers with 3 ft leaders to Hoochies or spoons. A select few are using cut hearing and having some success. Of course they never really divulged there secrets or locations, kinda sacred these fisherman, go figure.

Tom on ASD is a bit frustrated with the poor season up North, Maybe these guys are “Slaying em” before they can get north. LOL

 

[Crusty Chief]

Ok gang, the parts are being drop shipped to the Marina office. And should be here early next week.
Jim Palmer from Palmer Marine there in Portland was my go to guy and he came through again. His guys did the replacement back in Feb and he stepped up and had the rebuild kit shipped out to us before he got confirmation from the supplier.

If you are on the Columbia river and need work done, he’s the man! If he cant do it, he will find the best person for you. I hope we find a repair guy as great as Jim down in Mexico.

Now its time to relax, get some chores done and enjoy what boating is all about!

Cheers

 

[Ken E.]

Tom on ASD is a bit frustrated with the poor season up North, Maybe these guys are “Slaying em” before they can get north. LOL

As long as Kay has a line in the water, I like their chances on connecting with fish!

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

As long as Kay has a line in the water, I like their chances on connecting with fish!

Ken,



Tom on ASD is a bit frustrated with the poor season up North, Maybe these guys are “Slaying em” before they can get north. LOL

John, on the topic of king salmon down there.....do they seem more abundant than AK or BC? Kings are scarce and very restricted up here this year. I'm envious.

Oh bla bla bla bla.....OK it was in Canada. We finally found the honey hole...In Canada secret stream, hidden mountain...

We finally have cell service, in Shearwater. Will update thread and blog later today.

 

[FlyWright]

Nice fish and beer choice, Tom!

No ice cream?

 

[Ken E.]

Oh bla bla bla bla.....OK it was in Canada. We finally have cell service, in Shearwater. Will update thread and blog later today.

Ah Ha....You connected....nice fish! I'm not going to ask who caught them, realizing that Kay has had the hot hand, and pole.

 

[Crusty Chief]

Ah Ha....You connected....nice fish! I'm not going to ask who caught them, realizing that Kay has had the hot hand, and pole.

Ply Kay with a couple wines and she’ll tell us the truth! That gal can smell the fish farts I tell ya!

 

[Ken E.]

Ply Kay with a couple wines and she’ll tell us the truth! That gal can smell the fish farts I tell ya!

Ha! I like her style!

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Ply Kay with a couple wines and she’ll tell us the truth! That gal can smell the fish farts I tell ya!

Very true!! She even kicked Crusty's a$$ more than once....

 

[Crusty Chief]

Ok, things are coming along finally. Got the Steering ram rebuilt today and the steering fluid arrives tomorrow. So hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I hope to have an operating steering system again.
The town of Ft. Bragg has no marine store or boat repair shops. Amazon and Fisheries Supply came through. This was a brand new Ram that I had installed in January. The local “Guy” Charlie the Machinist, who was recommended by several of the local Fishermen found the seals were hard and brittle. All I cared about was getting my steering back. By the time we get out of here, we will have been here a week. The weather hasent been Ideal this last week anyway with 6 Cruisers here waiting for the weather, all but one are heading south.

We hope to depart here on Friday for Bodega Bay and should be in Sausalito Saturday. Not sure how long we will actually be in the Bay Area.

Ill provide some pics tomorrow.

Cheers all

 

[Crusty Chief]

Ta-Da!!!!!
Finally got the steering system working. Two friggin days of bleeding air. But it’s finally working. Took 3.5 quarts of fluid, a local machinist, the help of the Harbor crew in getting us the packages, and the crew of Aegis who helped spin both upper and lower helms. Last but not least, Jim Palmer up in Portland, Thank you buddy!
So, if you have a Hynautic steering system and need help bleeding the system, let me know, I can probably save ya some time and headache’s.

 

[w8n4sun]

It would have been a quicker bleed if you hadn't used pop and bottled water.

Glad to hear you are all fixed up and ready to continue your journey!

 

[IRENE]

Glad you got going again.

I would be interested to receive your guidance on what to put on my service and spares lists, as a result of your steering casualty, please...

Thanks!

 

[Crusty Chief]

Glad you got going again.

I would be interested to receive your guidance on what to put on my service and spares lists, as a result of your steering casualty, please...

Thanks!

Thanks Jeff,

I’m thinking a rebuild kit for the ram, maybe a rebuild kit for the steering box (assuming both upper and lower are the same), plenty of steering fluid. The only problem I see, would the o-rings in rebuild kits go bad after a few years? Maybe Vacume packing would help. Don’t think I would have tried bleeding a steering system out at sea.
Then again, Ive never had something that I have spares for go bad. Just the stuff I didn’t have spares for, go figure!

Also, and this one is Mooy Importantay, Before you need an emergency tiller, make sure you have one and become familiar with how to use it.

We were pretty far away from help if we needed a tow and it could have been an ugly wait for help.

Cheers

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Thanks Jeff,

I’m thinking a rebuild kit for the ram, maybe a rebuild kit for the steering box (assuming both upper and lower are the same), plenty of steering fluid. The only problem I see, would the o-rings in rebuild kits go bad after a few years? Maybe Vacume packing would help. Don’t think I would have tried bleeding a steering system out at sea.
Then again, Ive never had something that I have spares for go bad. Just the stuff I didn’t have spares for, go figure!

Also, and this one is Mooy Importantay, Before you need an emergency tiller, make sure you have one and become familiar with how to use it.

We were pretty far away from help if we needed a tow and it could have been an ugly wait for help.

Cheers

So it would appear your new ram had been sitting on the shelve for a while