May 12, 2014 - Marina Fire Update

Unfortunately there is nothing new to report.  The fire investigators are meeting one last time within the next week or two.  Sometime after that the official findings will be released.  People are still asking lots of questions, and people all seem to have a theory about the cause.  It will be very interesting to finally hear what caused the fire.

I will certainly post any official information here as soon as it is released.  Check back in a week or two.

May 11, 2014 - Kiket Island (Mother's Day)

Well, it's been over a month since we last went out.  Work is crazy busy now.  Plus we are doing a bunch of projects around the house and on the boat.

I just had the exhaust risers repaired, and new insulation blankets made for both engines.  One engine had a water leak in the exhaust riser, and the other side had been repaired at the same place.  The one with the leak was dripping salt water down onto our fresh water pump that pressurizes the water for the sinks and one toilet.  I had both risers rebuilt and they should be good for another 10-15 years.  I also rebuilt the sea water pump for the air conditioning system when the water seal disintegrated, leaking large amounts of sea water into the bilge.   With the pump repaired the air conditioning system is coming online again.  Right now I have two of the 4 air conditioning unit functioning properly, the other two are still causing problems.

We got away from the dock around 4:30 Saturday afternoon.  It's been a rainy week, but the the weather on Saturday steadily improved throughout the day.  When we left the sun was starting to break through the clouds and the temperature was rising.  It is a short hop over to Kiket Island but it gives me a chance to test out systems that I've been working on.  Everything was fine on the way over.  We set the anchor in about 15' of water and settled in for a nice sunny evening on the boat.

A Blue Heron looking for dinner.

We get a little too close and he takes flight.

Off to anther fishing hole, I guess.

Another Blue Heron in search of fish.

 We hung out on the flybridge for a while, but then a light breeze kicked up and it was just a bit chilly so we headed back inside.

Kevin up on the flybridge.  Warm enough for a t-shirt.

Cindy enjoying a warm afternoon on the boat.

We played a few games on Saturday night and then the kids watched Toy Story 2 on DVD.  Kathy and I discussed boat trip plans for the this summer.  It looks like we are not going to have very many trips for the next few months.  We have a lot of activities going on, and a lot of projects to wrap up.  That doesn't leave much time for boating, unfortunately.

Sitting down to play a game in the salon.

We had a leisurely Sunday morning (Mother's Day) and pulled the anchor around 10:15AM so we could get back home to our long project list.  On the way back I did some testing with the alternators to see how they would handle the somewhat depleted house battery bank.  With one engine running we were getting around 140 amps of charge.  With both motors we were getting 288 amps!  That is a LOT, and will greatly improve battery performance and life, and also mean that our batteries will be fully topped off in just a few hours of motoring.  That project is a success!  I made a list of things I need to now work on.  Our radar acted up, there was no AIS data making it to the chartplotter.  The rubber hose that the anchor chain passes through fell apart and jammed the chain this morning.  Oh well, it's a boat!  Things happen.

It was great to be back out on the water again......

April 06, 2014 - Lopez Pass and Hunter's Bay

It's been quite a while since we've been out on the boat.  Between bad weather, family commitments, skiing, and major boat projects, it's been a few months since we've been out.  We have spent a few nights on the boat, at the dock, though.  Even though we can walk to the boat in 5 minutes it does seem like a bit of an adventure to go spend the night on Adagio now and then.

The kids have been on Spring Break this week, and we were able to get away from the dock a bit early on Friday.  We left at noon so we could make the slack at Deception Pass at 1:15.  We were 3 minutes early this time; I guess I'm a bit rusty?  On our way back (Sunday morning) I was better.  30 seconds after we passed under the bridge the chartplotter showed the current change from Ebb to Flood.  Almost perfect timing.

We saw almost no other boats out this weekend, other than commercial boats.  Friday night we anchored at the little tombolo at Lopez Pass, this is one of our favorite places.  The winds were forecast to be a bit strong, but that never materialized and we enjoyed sunny warm weather.  A beach fire allowed us to BBQ hotdogs for dinner.  Yum!

Rowing to shore.  Cindy rowed on the way in, Kevin on the way back.
I think I'm going to get out of shape now that the kids want to do all the rowing!

Nice weather for what was supposed to be a rainy weekend!

Kevin finds a few nice fire-prodding sticks.

Working on the fire.  No shortage of nice dry firewood here.

Kathy watching the fire.  What a beautiful evening!

Family fun on the beach at Lopez Pass.

Lofting a "big one".  Kathy thinks this is dangerous, since it's right over
Kevin's head.  I haven't hit him yet!  :-)

 On Saturday the weather wasn't as nice.  Some sprinkles, heavy clouds, and lite but sometimes gusty winds.  I spent about 2 hours working on the shaft to engine alignment.  I rotated the shaft 90 degrees relative to the transmission flange and then started the engine to check for shaft wobble.  I repeated this until I had rotated through 360 degrees, for each motor.  I found very smooth positions for each motor by doing this.  On our way out the starboard engine had a pretty severe vibration.  We just had the transmissions rebuilt and I although I spent 3-4 hours working on shaft alignment, it still wasn't good on the starboard engine.  After my experimenting with the shaft to transmission coupling, I discovered that there was one position (out of 4) that resulted in NO shaft wobble on the starboard motor.  I really wanted to test it underway so after lunch we pulled the anchor and headed toward Spencer Spit.  What a difference.  The boat was smoother than it's ever been!  We ran under one engine, and then the other.  Super smooth.  Wow!

There were no boats at Spencer Spit.  In fact there were no pleasure boats in Lopez Sound.  Where is everybody?  All those well equipped boats in La Conner and Anacortes, and nobody is out?  Not even for a day trip?!

We were able to deploy one of our new anchor stabilizers.  I have only installed one, and the installation is still a bit rough.  I've got a lot of fine tuning to do before I can declare this project complete.  But, it was obvious with only one of them that they are going to be a big asset in a rolly anchorage.  We could tell there was a difference when I ran across the top deck, back and forth to get the boat rocking.  Without the stabilizer in the water the boat rolled more and took a long time to settle down.  With the stabilizer in the water it didn't roll as far, and slowed down much quicker.  I imagine that once I get the second unit installed we will really appreciate the difference.  I had videos of this, but they are generating errors when trying to upload to this blog.  Bummer.

We motored over to Hunter's Bay and dropped the anchor.  We were the only boat there.  In the summer, there would be 20+ boats here, anytime you checked.  I love boating in the off season.

A rainbow to the east, from Hunter's Bay.  Lopez Island.

Cindy relaxes in the salon.

Cindy made a little window art in the steam from making dinner.  Cute!

Kathy working the anchor on the bow on Sunday morning.

A beautiful morning to be motoring home.  Lopez Pass.

We arrived at Deception Pass AT slack tide.  The current was absolutely still as we motored through.  In fact our chartplotter showed the current changing from Ebb to Flood just 30 seconds after we passed under the bridge.  Perfect timing.....

Slack tide in 5 minutes 37 seconds.  Navigational challenge at it's best.

Once through Deception Pass we headed to Cornet Bay.  The kids are still asleep.  It's only 8:15 in the morning.  Kathy is going to practice docking on one of the mooring floats at Cornet Bay.  Fortunately there were no boats on the floats so we were able to spend an hour or more just doing 'touch and goes".  You could actually see Kathy master boat control during that hour.  She went from ending up 15 feet off the dock, or overshooting the end, to being able to land Adagio parallel to the dock, in complete control, repeatedly.  In fact she had 3 flawless landings in a row.  Quite an accomplishment.  We will do more of these sessions this spring and summer.

Kathy practicing docking the boat.  Cornet Bay at Deception Pass.

Kathy approaching the dock.  She improved immensely in just an hour.

I have been chasing some engine oil leaks now that I have the motors repainted.  They are very easy to find against the gleaming white paint.  I have a few leaks yet to conquer.  But I will get them!

I am going to remove the oil pan and replace it's gasket.  The other engine
is pretty much drip free.  Amazing for a Detroit 2 cycle.  They are notorious leakers.

Typical oil leak.  I will remove the bolt, apply thread sealant, and re-install it.

It was a great weekend.  The weather ended up much better than we anticipated.  Lots of sunshine and calm winds.  It was nice to be out on the water again.

March 21, 2014 - Marina Fire Investigation

Click here for my other entry containing the fire pictures

This morning I got over to the yard where the boats were taken after the fire.  They have all been lined up, just as they were in the marina.  In fact, a few of the damaged finger piers were cut out of the marina and placed between the boats, almost exactly recreating the marina on dry land.

In talking with several people involved with this process, the investigation is now complete.  The findings won't be released for a little while, apparently.  I am assuming (you know what they say about making assumptions!) that if the investigation is complete, that maybe they have figured out the cause?  We won't know that information though until the official determination has been released to the public.  I certainly have not heard anything official, just lots of speculation and rumors from fellow boat-owners and residents.

The way the investigation was conducted was that they started with the boat furthest from the center of the fire.  They investigated that boat, and the dock it was tied to.  All of the investigators (from all of the insurance companies involved) then had to vote YES or NO to the question "did this boat start the fire?"  If the unanimous answer was NO, then they moved to the next closest boat.  They repeated this process until they had no more boats to look at....  It seems like a daunting task to sort through the charred mess to find the source of the fire.

Click on any picture for a larger image:

The investigation scene in Anacortes.

Burned boats lined up on land just as they were in the marina.
The bright orange numbers painted on the boats are their marina slip number.

Look at the two motors.  You can clearly see where the galley was.  That tall
thing is the refrigerator.  The other "pile" is a trash compactor, a microwave
oven, and a cooktop/oven.  You can also see the two large fuel tanks.  Notice
the mattress springs in the rear; that's where the master stateroom was.

Even the remains of the docks were brought to the investigation scene.

Two boats from the south side of the dock.

Complete devastation!

Look at what the heat has done to this transom.  It's almost as if it melted.

The side area where they would bring items from the wreckage for further
investigation.  I guess the investigators have taken most of the items with them.

This finger pier was further away from the source of the fire.

What an aweful sight......

Back on J-dock the investigation is also complete.  The investigators have
taken every power poles electrical box.  These boxes are where the boats
plug into shorepower when tied to the dock.

Click here for my other entry containing the fire pictures

March 14, 2014 - Boat projects update

Well a lot has happened with the boat over the past few months.  The transmissions have been pulled and both rebuilt;  they should be good for another 20+ years.  I have moved the house battery bank from it's temporary location to the permanent home, in a base that I fiberglassed into place.  I have the new dual alternator setup installed and tested.  Each motor has a 160amp alternator on it.  They are controlled as a team with a Balmar MC-612 Dual alternator controller.  I can run just one engine and have up to 160 amps of charging power.  Run both engines and I have 320 amps of charging power, with both alternators acting as one unit with this fancy 3-stage alternator regulator.  It is working great so far.

I am installing the anchor stabilizer poles right now, after being fabricated and powder coated.  the poles are 14' long and there will be on on each side of the boat.  With the "flopper stoppers" at the outboard ends of these two poles, the boat should be a lot more resistant to rolling around in a wavy anchorage.  The ends of the poles are more than 44' apart when deployed!  That gives the flopper stoppers a lot of leverage to work with.  

World circumnavigator Steve Dashew tests a flopper stopper just like the two we have:

http://setsail.com/magma-flopper-stopper-test/

Here's a little video showing the deployment of a flopper stopper on a 62' Nordhavn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTngd9f8l4

 I am repainting the motors and the engine room so that engine room checks will be quick and easy.  The last of the galley cabinet doors have been made and installed.  The final flip-down TV enclosure has finally been made and installed.

I took our old flybridge bimini top back down to the boat.  I hadn't seen it since we bought the boat.  It didn't fit very well and I had to spend many hours adjusting, cutting, lubing zippers, and freeing up stuck Allen screws with a torch.  This all took longer than I would have liked.

Cabinet doors have been made and installed over the microwave and refer.

The new TV enclosure, in the UP position.

The TV enclosure in the viewing position.  TV is a 37" LED unit.

New hatch in the master head floor.  The seacock and strainer  for the
manual seawater toilet are under this hatch.

Anchor stabilization pole in the upright position.

View from the boat deck.

Pole upright.  Piece of cardboard to show where
one of the solar panels will be installed.

Pole in the deployed position.  There is a device that will attach to the end of
the pole and hang in the water.  It will resist the upward movement of the boat
when rolling from side to side, hence reducing the amount of roll significantly.

Closer view, showing all the attachment points (lines and pole).

Another view.

View from the boat deck.

Transmissions ready to take to the shop for a rebuild.  I had a spare tranny
from our old boat that I was able to sell to the transmission shop.  Nice!

Tranny's after being treated with "rust neutralizer"  Ready for paint.

Tranny's after two coats of  POR-15 enamel engine paint.  This paint is tough and
durable.  I am brushing it on, which is a slow process.  This paint takes a week to cure!

A nice clean, rebuilt transmission.  If I ever have a leak,
it will be easy to spot!  I like white for easy leak detection.

Box of usable transmission parts.  I think we will vacuum bag these and carry them
as spares in case a tranny dies someplace where we don't have access to parts.

Repainting the motors.  This is VERY time consuming.  But, any leaks will be
super easy to detect, before they become a serious problem.  It will be worth it.

New battery tray.  Dividers at the bottom keep the batteries from moving.  It is all
fiberglassed so battery acid can't effect it.  It's painted with Interlux BilgeKote.  The whole
 tray is screwed, glued, and fiberglassed to the floor.  4 of the 6 L16 house batteries shown.

The bimini top when I first put it back on.  It sure didn't fit very well.  I took the
canvas off and turned it around.  It fit much better that way.  But I still had to
mess with the positions of the poles and even had to cut about 3" off each end
of  forward bow.  Eventually I got it to sit nice and level.

But it now fits very well and it is very tight.  I don't think it is going to flap
around much in a breeze.

This is fitting pretty well.  It will be really nice in hot weather.

The canvas is showing it's age.  There are a few thin spots.  Two of the zippers
have problems as well.  We will eventually have to have a new canvas made
 to replace this one.