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| UNWANTED WATER, A GROUNDING, AND HAULOUTS
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August 6, 2008.
Hi, Bob,
Here is the tale of woe and coincidences that we talked about at Pierre's Echo Bay.
July 6, 2008
My wife Rolynn, my brother Gary and I had a good time working our way north through Desolation Sound in Intrepid, our 42' Kady Krogen. But we discovered that we could not empty the holding tank because the seacock on the through-hull was stuck in a mostly closed position. The repair could not be done in the water. The boat would have to be hauled, and there are only two facilities between Campbell River and Shearwater. One is at Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island, and the other is somewhat closer, at Sointula on Malcolm Island, near Port McNeill. We decided to head directly up Johnstone Strait from Forward Harbour to Port McNeill, where we would await our turn for Tarkanen Marine Ways in Sointula.
July 7, 2008
We could not be hauled today, as we once thought, so it would be a second night in Port McNeill.
July 8, 2008
We headed to Sointula and waited at the loading dock for high tide at Tarkanen. Tarkanen is an old style marine ways and shipyard – been there for 70 years and owned by the same family all that time. At high tide a cradle on railroad tracks is rolled down an incline into the water. The boat is tied with a starboard list to the cradle uprights. A winch pulls the cradle up the incline and out of the water. The sign says to shut off the bilge pumps beforehand to avoid dumping anything into the water, and we were "on the hard" by about 4:30 p.m. It was too late to get anything done that day.
July 9, 2008
Tom, the ultra-phlegmatic Finnish foreman and Michael, an interesting British shipwright, assessed the situation. Michael removed the seacock and said that it could be overhauled. This was good, because they didn’t have a replacement in stock. While we waited for Michael to work on the seacock we filled the water tanks. After the seacock was installed the tide was high enough to launch the boat, so we were off to the Goat Islands via West Passage.
We entered West Passage at about 6:00 p.m. The passage is narrow, so I was hand steering at 7.5 knots. As we approached the Star Islets we saw about a dozen bald eagles circling and diving for fish. Then BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! -- we came to a dead stop! We had hit a rock and we were hard aground at Lat N 50 36 00.36N, Lon W 126 41 42.73W.
I put the boat in neutral but left the engine running. I knew we would be unable to back off. I also knew the tide was nearly high and it would soon begin to drop. I immediately checked the forward bilge, which was directly above the point of collision. Good, no water. Since the forward bilge and engine room bilge are separated by a watertight compartment, I thought we would be fine.
I checked the engine room and saw 8-10" of water in the center bilge. Damn! That’s was a lot of water for such a short time. I figured we were holed and taking on water, but it looked like the bilge pumps were keeping up. Maybe they were keeping up because the rock was keeping us from sinking and taking on water even faster. Rolynn began filling our ditch bag with wallets, passports, cell phones, etc. As Gary packed his bags I called the Coast Guard on VHF radio channel 16. They issued a Mayday and dispatched a fast Zodiac boat and three men from Telegraph Cove, about 25 minutes away.
The good thing about channel 16 is that it’s a party line – everyone is listening. Within five minutes a man in a dinghy named “Mother Adventure” (the dinghy, not the man) showed up with a gas-powered pump and hoses. We dropped the pickup hose into the engine room bilge and started the pump. The bilge emptied in a few seconds. Hmmm? – that was quick – but there was no time to think about it. He attached a line to the bow and tried to use the dinghy to pivot us off the rock. No luck. Then an aluminum work boat named “Shit Happens” arrived. “Shit Happens” took the place of the dinghy but it could not get us off, either. About this time the Coast Guard arrived – Coxswain Carson Duect and two crewmen. Coxwain Duect asked permission to come aboard (duh?).
Not far behind was a 70’ landing craft-type barge with a crane on the deck. It was the Sea Roamer, a do-everything commercial barge and mother ship to the work boat “Shit Happens.” Mike Heavenor, the captain, directed his crew to tie the Sea Roamer to our port side. He used the crane to drop large floats between Sea Roamer and our boat, then went astern at full throttle. A lurch and a couple of bumps and we were off the rock (the rock that was keeping us from sinking!?). But we figured the pump and the barge would keep us afloat. The barge crewman from “Shit Happens” asked permission to come aboard (double-duh?). He hopped down into the engine room, took a sip of the bilge water and said, "This is fresh water. You’re not sinking."
The Rest of the Story
The guy (I never got his name) from Mother Adventure picked up his pump and left. The Sea Roamer was anxious to get back to its job before they lost the tide. We checked the prop and rudder and everything seemed OK, so we gave the crew some beer and asked how we could thank them. The captain gave me his card and said the secretary’s name is Deb – she likes flowers. Coxswain Duect called a contact in Port McNeill and got the home phone number of Albert Tarkanen, the 78-year-old owner of the ways in Sointula. Albert agreed to meet us and bring us out of the water – that is, if we got there before the tide dropped too much. The coxswain stayed aboard while his inflatable boat (with two rookie Coast Guard guys in it) shadowed us back to Tarkanen Marine, about two hours away. Along the way we monitored the bilges but no more water was seen. When we arrived at Tarkanen, there was old Albert manning the winch and Tom standing on the cradle, ankle-deep in the cold sea. We were on the hard again by 9:30 p.m. Examination of the keel showed a bunch of gouges and divots but nothing too serious. Everyone, including Albert Tarkanen, who has seen everything, said we got off lucky.
Here’s how it all pieced together. When we were on the ways the first time we filled the water tanks with that wonderful Sointula water. Since we were on the incline of the ways the tanks overflowed into the engine room bilge (later investigation found two screws missing on the flange on the top of the water tank – the source of the overflow problem). We had turned the bilge pumps off but had forgotten to turn them back on. That’s why water was in the engine room but not the forward bilge, and that’s why it was fresh water. It had never occurred to me to taste the water. Since there was so much of it, so soon, I too-quickly assumed it was seawater.
After two days of grinding and fiberglass work the keel was repaired. We would be on our way the following morning.
July 12, 2008
We were launched about 10:00 a.m. and on our way to Echo Bay for a Pig Roast. Nice sunny day . . . feeling good again. Except that fifteen minutes later the bilge pump alarm sounded! (Yes, we had turned the pumps on.) Checked forward bilge. Damn! Water was streaming in, and this time it was salty. Called Albert Tarkanen. He was on his way to Bella Coola. Albert, at 78, is still an active commercial fisherman and there was an upcoming salmon opening. He called Tom and said they would meet us at the ways. Back out of the water. It turned out that, to drain the keel in preparation for glassing, the shipwright had drilled several drain holes in the keel and had forgotten to plug one of them when he was finished.
Tom is on the board of one of the Co-ops in Sointula, and had an important meeting to go to. While he was at the meeting there was a house fire. Tom and Ken, another shipwright, are volunteer firemen and rushed off to fight the fire. Albert left for Bella Coola. It was Saturday and the errant shipwright is a Seventh Day Adventist. And we were stuck on the ways. But the shipwright heard of our dilemma and gave up his Sabbath to plug the hole. After many apologies he went away – hell, everyone went away – and there we were, alone at Tarkanen Marine, the office unlocked, bathroom and parts rooms wide open (they never lock the doors).
What to do? Have you forgotten that we still had a full holding tank that couldn’t be emptied? I dug into the problem, trying to make the macerator pump work. It wouldn’t. I tried again. It still wouldn’t work. I took it off (a yukky job at best). The pump had broken parts and we had no possibility of replacements late on a Saturday. Tom had mentioned previously that the 82-year-old gentleman on the boat next to ours had just replaced his macerator pump. Rolynn asked, "Why not use his parts?" Tom gave us the old macerator and before you knew it, ours was rebuilt. Put it in. Start it. Nothing. Try it another way. YES! We had a pump! I showered and we all walked to town to celebrate with fish and chips.
Ken returned at 7:00 p.m. (high tide) to launch us and once again we were on our way. Being evening, it was too late to go anywhere, so we turned the corner into the Sointula Boat Basin and tied up to wait for another, better day.
Steve Anderson
M/V Intrepid
That’s where the story ends. We met Steve and his wife Rolynn at Pierre’s at Echo Bay, where he recounted this tale. I asked that he send it for possible inclusion on our web site, and he did. Steve and Rolynn were happy when we met them. The plugged hole repaired by the shipwright who gave up his Sabbath did not strike Steve as negligence, but of just “one of those things.” Tarkanen is an excellent yard, and the Andersons had only good to say about them.
Of equal importance, note how the entire coast responds to a vessel (or a person) in trouble. It’s a testament to the finer side of human nature. v
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