fryedaze
Guru
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2011
- Messages
- 1,722
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Fryedaze
- Vessel Make
- MC 42 (Overseas Co) Monk 42
This was a weekend I will never forget. I screwed up more in 48 hours than I have in 20 years. I came from an industry where we shared our error so others could learn, buts some of this is just embarrassingly stupid.
We left ZYC around 0745 for the Cambridge Belgian Beer Festival. Once out in the bay the steering was sloppy and the auto pilot was snaking the boat up the bay. I decided to press on and run without auto. Steering was loose but was controllable. Two mile from the Cambridge marina I ran aground off Howell point. I was complacent and too involved in compensating for the steering issue. I routinely go outside the markers around the Chesapeake with my 3’3” draft cutting the straight line to my destination. I was pre-occupied with the sloppy steering and I wasn’t looking at my paper charts as I always do. I had the chart plotter on 12 miles and the detail wasn’t there for me to see the bar in the river ¾ mile off the point. I have been up the river about six times in the last four years. When we ran aground at 1230 we had two hours before low tide. We called Boat US and they dispatched out of Kent Narrows and arrived at 1415, we were now in two feet of water all around the boat. The tow pulled on Fryedaze from 1430 to 1900 when the tide finally gave us enough lift to get off. As we were coming off the tow captain call and said he was going to take us to a crawl as we went across what he called “boulders”. I could hear the gear slowly rolling over the stones as we went over the edge of the bar. The tow pulled us up to seven knots to clear any possible debris in the raw water intakes and we started engines and checked things out. Everything looked and sounded OK so we left the tow and proceeded to the marina which we arrived at 2030.
I got up the next day and added about four ounces to the upper helm steering and the steering issue was fixed. The system had a very small leak and it was low and air binding. I checked the sea strainers and found nothing in them. At 0745 we departed and headed down the river. About 15 minutes into our trip the engine temp alarms went off and I immediately shut down the port engine. I bet most of you already know WTF I did wrong. Yep, I didn’t reopen the port through hull and had no raw water for the engine. I opened it, restarted the engine but after 2-3 minutes I didn’t see temps dropping so I shut her down and did some more inspections. I decided to let her cool down and would try later. We ran on single engine down the bay and at about 1230 I tried the port engine again. I put my hand on the raw water pump after about a minute and it was getting warm instead of cold from the 55 degree water, so I shut the engine down and ran home without it. My guess is I wasted the impeller. Once back in port I gave backing the boat into the slip with one engine a try. The wind was blowing a steady 20 kts so I decided I would give it one shot and then fall back to bow first if I didn’t make it. Well bow first it was.
Not sure what happened to my brain this weekend but I sure didn’t bring it along on the boat. I missed drinking a bunch of good beers. Stressed my port engine. Ran up a $2400 tow bill, which I didn’t have to pay due to Boat US insurance, and more than likely caused damage to the running gear on my boat. The captain sure was a bozo this day.
We left ZYC around 0745 for the Cambridge Belgian Beer Festival. Once out in the bay the steering was sloppy and the auto pilot was snaking the boat up the bay. I decided to press on and run without auto. Steering was loose but was controllable. Two mile from the Cambridge marina I ran aground off Howell point. I was complacent and too involved in compensating for the steering issue. I routinely go outside the markers around the Chesapeake with my 3’3” draft cutting the straight line to my destination. I was pre-occupied with the sloppy steering and I wasn’t looking at my paper charts as I always do. I had the chart plotter on 12 miles and the detail wasn’t there for me to see the bar in the river ¾ mile off the point. I have been up the river about six times in the last four years. When we ran aground at 1230 we had two hours before low tide. We called Boat US and they dispatched out of Kent Narrows and arrived at 1415, we were now in two feet of water all around the boat. The tow pulled on Fryedaze from 1430 to 1900 when the tide finally gave us enough lift to get off. As we were coming off the tow captain call and said he was going to take us to a crawl as we went across what he called “boulders”. I could hear the gear slowly rolling over the stones as we went over the edge of the bar. The tow pulled us up to seven knots to clear any possible debris in the raw water intakes and we started engines and checked things out. Everything looked and sounded OK so we left the tow and proceeded to the marina which we arrived at 2030.
I got up the next day and added about four ounces to the upper helm steering and the steering issue was fixed. The system had a very small leak and it was low and air binding. I checked the sea strainers and found nothing in them. At 0745 we departed and headed down the river. About 15 minutes into our trip the engine temp alarms went off and I immediately shut down the port engine. I bet most of you already know WTF I did wrong. Yep, I didn’t reopen the port through hull and had no raw water for the engine. I opened it, restarted the engine but after 2-3 minutes I didn’t see temps dropping so I shut her down and did some more inspections. I decided to let her cool down and would try later. We ran on single engine down the bay and at about 1230 I tried the port engine again. I put my hand on the raw water pump after about a minute and it was getting warm instead of cold from the 55 degree water, so I shut the engine down and ran home without it. My guess is I wasted the impeller. Once back in port I gave backing the boat into the slip with one engine a try. The wind was blowing a steady 20 kts so I decided I would give it one shot and then fall back to bow first if I didn’t make it. Well bow first it was.
Not sure what happened to my brain this weekend but I sure didn’t bring it along on the boat. I missed drinking a bunch of good beers. Stressed my port engine. Ran up a $2400 tow bill, which I didn’t have to pay due to Boat US insurance, and more than likely caused damage to the running gear on my boat. The captain sure was a bozo this day.
