Willy Goes South

Had a great time meeting Salty Bear ll and his wife in Prince Rupert.
We provided a spot of humor for our Canadian friends in the harbour. Switched the draw from one tank to another and I need to reach under the salon floor to do that and do it by feel. Screwed up and switched them both OFF. Didn't get far and right there in the harbour we didn't have far to drift so I put out a pan pan call. CCG took us to a nearby float before I could bleed the air out of my fuel system. Salty Bear saw the whole thing and rushed down to help and that he did. He helps everyone that comes near him in any need at all. He took us to the store including a side trip to a special meat market. We even met his wife before we left the yacht club.
Once the air was out of the fuel lines the Mitsubishi ran fine once again and we were on our way. I've never had any fun on the waters just so of Prince Rupert and we had the usual 2 to 3' seas ... This time quartering from astern. Got into Billy Bay (near Kitkatla) just before dark. Set the XYZ and slept well.
In the morning we did a drive-by of Kitkatla and went out a pass into Hecate Strait. True PNW wilderness. Hecate Strait is a wild place.
Picked up a NW breeze and 3 1/2' Stern seas in the north end of Principe Channel and made a long run down to Anger Is. Entered Ire Inlet on the east side of Anger Is (very narrow and dramatic) and anchored in the west end of the inlet. Very little space so I had a choice of better scope or less swinging room. So many of you have put down short scope anchoring I choose more scope. The tide went out and the wind came up in the night. We hit the rock w a crashing noise and a good shudder. Sent us out of the rack like in a fire drill. Scared the rap out of us. Since we were just swinging at anchor I don't know how that could have happened .... But it did. Went out on the bow in the rain (light) and my shorts and shortened up the scope and rode enough to keep us off the rocks. Decided to move the anchor (XYZ) a bit so we re-anchored. Put the alarm and went back to the bunks. I Judged the rode length, the swinging room and the distance set on the anchor alarm. Not much off and a "stack up" will bite ... Me in this case. We stood anchor watches till o-dark-thirty and beat rudder out of there at first light.
A gale was forecast so we went a short distance to the north end of Patterson Inlet ... A fairly good anchorage.

Good to hear from you.....glad you're still enjoying your adventure!

Eric, you are my hero. It is wonderful hearing about your cruise South. Hope you ride out the gale in a very safe harbor. I will be looking for more updates. Stay safe.

manyboats said:

We hit the rock w a crashing noise and a good shudder..

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Hope there was no damage.

Note to self: reconsider/adjust anchor-rode length when there is a significant tidal-level change.

Eric,

Sounds like fun on the Central Coast!! LOL

We are at Shawl Bay Marina in the Broughtons now.

We are in Shearwater now and will stay one more night. Raining a lot today and wind 15 to 20. Was a gale about 40 w gusts last night. Very wet still.

Continued account of travels ...
Seas too rough so we went into Patterson Inlet (north arm) to find a Krogens and a 40' sailboat already there. Anchored so the rocks were not far off the stern (downwind). Wind about 30. Later in the day wind rose to about 40 w higher gusts. Krogens dragged. Later found out he had a very big Claw but he said it was fouled. Sailboat moved fwd threatened by the dragging Krogens. We shortly did same Because Krogens didn't. We were close to the shore (windward) and the sailboat downwind. This was the third time we'd anchored now and w the XYZ on about 3-1 scope. Stood watch all night w roaring gusts coming down off the mountains but we did not drag. Must have made the sailboat guy nervous but he showed no evidence that he was.

Seems like you're making good time, Eric.

Hey, Eric, is that the 'modified' XYZ with the square-ended tip you are using there? If so it looks like it must be working....

Indeed it is Peter. We've used the chisel point XYZ most of the time and it's worked very well. We've had soft or mud bottoms all the time though. I think anything would work fine on soft bottoms but the only way I know for sure it's a mud bottom is when I see the mud on the anchor when I pull it up. About half the time the XYZ has come up clean and that could be other than a mud bottom but at this point I haven't used it enough to say it works fine on other bottoms. Time will tell. Would be nice to know if the XYZ was working well on other bottoms but can only conclude that if we use it for some time and it keeps setting and holding. One could then conclude some of the bottoms anchored on were not mud. We used the Dreadnought last night and I was really inpressemd how solid it set.

We are in Shawl bay w Larry and Nancy (Larry H). So nice and calm and peaceful and not even any rain yet.

Had a scary moment rounding Cape Caution. Right out in front of the Cape the engine slowly went to an idle .... Wouldn't run over an idle. Never did quit altogether but I was still very stressed. You've heard "don't sweat it?". Well I was sweat'in it ... Literally. Rolling badly on 10 foot waves is not a great time to pull hatches and jump down into the engine compartment! I switched all the fuel draw and return valves to open and soon the engine came back to life. Went to full cruise speed and anchored in Allison Harbour.
The next morning I changed both fuel filters and checked everything over real well. The next day we reached the Broughton Island area and anchored in Claydon Bay. Wonderful anchorage. Watched a Black Bear on the beach for about an hour.

Chris baked a cake for happy hour so we'll do that now.

Hi Eric, tell Chris that I really like cake! Lol
Did you manage to get your engine problems corrected?
We've had some pretty good weather (good for the NorthCoast anyway)
Hope your adventures are safe for the rest of your journey.
Cheers Kevin and Melanie

Miss Melanie would like to attend the happy hour!

sure would like to see a plot of Willy's trip south

manyboats said:

Had a scary moment rounding Cape Caution. Right out in front of the Cape the engine slowly went to an idle .... Wouldn't run over an idle. Never did quit altogether but I was still very stressed. You've heard "don't sweat it?". Well I was sweat'in it ... Literally. Rolling badly on 10 foot waves is not a great time to pull hatches and jump down into the engine compartment! I switched all the fuel draw and return valves to open and soon the engine came back to life. Went to full cruise speed and anchored in Allison Harbour.
The next morning I changed both fuel filters and checked everything over real well. The next day we reached the Broughton Island area and anchored in Claydon Bay. Wonderful anchorage. Watched a Black Bear on the beach for about an hour.

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Have dual Racors as primary fuel filters. In similar situation, switching from one to another would address the problem. What do you think?

Thanks Mark but I really don't know what caused the near stoppage. I had just changed the filters before we left and checked everything over. If you're going to have dual filters it would seem stupid not to have dual plumbed in place fuel pumps too..... Or dual engines. I suspect there is something wrong w the engine that has been wrong since we bought it. It seems to miss a beat from time to time and it's so subtle I'm not sure if it's engine or in the drive line.

We're in Eco Bay tonight. Kind of a high end place .. $5 for a shower. Very nice place though. The Sarah Sarah is here so I've finally seen a Rocna anchor. It's a 65' Seahorse knock-of aluminum passage maker. Looks like it may rain later. We passed on the "happy hour" hour tonight.

manyboats said:

Thanks Mark but I really don't know what caused the near stoppage.

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Problematic fuel pump?

manyboats said:

Thanks Mark but I really don't know what caused the near stoppage. I had just changed the filters before we left and checked everything over. If you're going to have dual filters it would seem stupid not to have dual plumbed in place fuel pumps too..... Or dual engines. I suspect there is something wrong w the engine that has been wrong since we bought it. It seems to miss a beat from time to time and it's so subtle I'm not sure if it's engine or in the drive line.

We're in Eco Bay tonight. Kind of a high end place .. $5 for a shower. Very nice place though. The Sarah Sarah is here so I've finally seen a Rocna anchor. It's a 65' Seahorse knock-of aluminum passage maker. Looks like it may rain later. We passed on the "happy hour" hour tonight.

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Hi there Eric. The Sarah Sarah is a Steve Dashew designed, Circa Marine built FPB64 that came up from New Zealand on its own bottom. A thing of beauty to my eyes (not everyone's!) that is better equipped to take on the oceans of the world than 99% of the rec boats out there.

Yea Mark it's possible. That's what made me think of the wired and plumed in place fuel pumps like twin Racor filters. Just makes sense to me. If you're buy'in into the "twin engines are great for redundancy" philosophy (I am) one should adopt other much easier redundancy methods without question. But w 473 things on my "list" It may be awhile before it gets done.

Conrad I don't share your opinion. I like to see those boats just because they're interesting and most boats aren't very interesting at all. Not very many interesting boats on this forum either including my own. I do have two interesting anchors on the bow though.
The Dashew boats look like a military high-tech experiment and personally I wouldn't want to draw that much attention. The one boat I designed was More unusual than the Dashew boats and I did enjoy the attention I received from that but I was the one responsible for the design and construction of the boat. I'm not convinced the D boats are much better or even better at all than many of the very fine passagemakers available now. Time will tell. If passagemakers in general follow the lead Dashew has put forth and then if their success ins't the result of fad- like popularity and more time passes ..... When nobody copies your design it's almost certain to be of little value. But the D boats are so specialized there will never be very many anyway. As to beauty Conrad I will say they are better looking than a Humvee.