We planned this day to visit the glaciers in the west arm of
Glacier Bay. We can see much better
today with no fog and a higher cloud ceiling.
Glaciers abound here and the mountains are beautiful.
Once up close to the first glacier of the day, Margerie, the birds were covering many of the
icebergs and flying around.
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| Gulls on ice |
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| Gull island |
Watching the gulls, it seemed they were dipping their beaks into the silty water and pulling out some sort of worm. They did this for a period of time and then they all quit, interesting.
Birds flying
Turning off the engines we were able to listen to the
thunder and cracking of the glacier and see quite a few calvings. We were the only boat here for at least an
hour. The other glacier up in the Tarr Inlet is Grand Pacific and it is so dirty, you can hardly tell it is a glacier.
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| Coming up to Margerie Glacier |
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| Margerie Glacier |
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| Calving at Margerie Glacier |
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| Grand Pacific Glacier, yes there is ice under that dirt! |
Next we motored back down Tarr Inlet. We had timed it right so that we were the only boat up there floating and enjoying the experience. We then turned and went to Johns Hopkins Inlet. Again, we were blessed to be able to experience this glacier without other onlookers. Johns Hopkins is one of the most active glaciers and here we had to keep moving to maintain our viewing spot. A current of water runs out of the bottom of this glacier and moves the boat away quickly..
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| Cindy at Johns Hopkins Glacier |
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| Kathy kayaking a bit closer to Johns Hopkins Glacier |
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| Gilman to the left and Johns Hopkins Glacier ahead |
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| the view by kayak |
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| Adagio Crew in front of Johns Hopkins Glacier |
After some time Steve started the engines and realized that
there was
no steering of the boat.
At
this point we were at on of the furthest points away in our trip, literally.
We were ready to turn around and head
south.
This is as far away from home as
we intended to travel.
The steering
worked for a turn or two and then suddenly the wheel had no resistance.
The rudder was now stuck at more than 20
degrees.
Steve took a quick trip to the
flybridge and turned the wheel and got the rudder part way toward center before
it too stopped working.
Same with the
autopilot, a little closer to center, but then nothing.
Looking at both helms revealed no hydraulic
leaks.
Same at the rudder and ram; no
leaks.
There was still a little pressure
in the reservoir and the fluid level was good.
Hmmmm….
Not a 5 minute fix for
sure.
There were no other boats here to
help, but there is a 200’ cruise ship arriving in about 20 minutes, according to AIS.
But, what can they do to help anyway?
With the rudder at about 4 degrees Steve
managed to run the boat back through the icebergs by revving one motor then the
other, and shifting one engine or the other into neutral.
It was enough to get back to Reid Harbor and
set the anchor, a several hour trip.
Just before Reid Harbor was passed Lamplugh Glacier. It too had some spectacular blue tones, and part of it still touches the ocean. We saw a few small calvings here as well.
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| Lamplugh Glacier, said to be one of the bluest in Glacier Bay. |
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| The splash from a small calving on the Lamplugh Glacier |
Once back in Reid Harbor Steve pumped up the pressure in the
reservoir and started turning the steering wheel. Almost no response. The wheel just spun and would freewheel for several seconds. Not good. Then Kathy yelled out “look at the window!”. Oil was running down the outside of one of the pilothouse windows. Steve knew instantly
that a hydraulic line must of burst or a fitting had failed, up on the flybridge. Under a piece of carpet, behind the flybridge
helm, Steve found a ruptured rubber hydraulic hose. Problem identified! Now the question became “how do we fix this?”
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| Hydraulic oil flowing down the outside of the pilothouse window |
Steve
pulled out his bin of hoses and found a few hydraulic hoses, but unfortunately they
did not have the correct fittings, and none were long enough to replace the bad
hose. So, replacing the failed hose up here in Glacier Bay is not an
option. Steve pulled out several 5
gallon buckets full of bronze pipe fittings.
After rummaging through all the fittings for about 30 minutes Steve had
gathered just enough parts to cap off the lines leading to the flybridge
steering unit. This would effectively
plug the leak, but render the upper helm useless. No big deal to lose the flybridge steering as we almost never use the
upper helm. Steve removed the 3 rubber hoses that connect to the upper helm and installed "caps" on the hard lines that connect
to the lower helm. He had to refill the reservoir
which had dumped half a gallon of hydraulic fluid onto the flybridge floor,
under the helm. Then pump up the pressure
in the reservoir. After a few turns of
the pilothouse house wheel the rudder was once again moving. We will be able to continue our trip without any interruption. Phew, that was a close call, as a boat without steering is not much of a boat. It would have been a bit of a trip back to Juneau to get a new hose made, and a return visit to Juneau was not in our plans.
It certainly pays to carry lots of spare parts when you go boating in remote locations. We had just enough parts onboard to fix this steering issue. I will be adding hydraulic "plugs" to my shopping list for the next major town we encounter. Replacing all of the rubber hydraulic hoses in the steering system is now at the top of my project list upon our return home. I will also have a few spare hoses fabricated so I can replace any failed hose in the future.
Even with a potentially major failure onboard, we still had a wonderful day. The glaciers were spectacular, as was the scenery. The steering failure didn't really impact our day much other than spending about 2 hours once anchored repairing the problem. The cleanup has been the worst part. Steering fluid (ATF, actually) has been dripping down the outside of the pilothouse for several days and has been a mess to clean up.
