Month: July 2022

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Shearwater to Campbell River

Or at least that was the plan…

Having done some simple preventative maintenance (oil, belts, filters) while waiting for Patrick, and then boarding him, we were ready to be on our way from Shearwater to Campbell River, our next marina stop, with a few anchoring stops before we reached there.

First night was slated to be at the end of Fitzhgh sound, either Fury Cove or one of the other safe harbours while we waited for good conditions to round Cape Caution. Note, however, that weather reports were good for the next few days. This will be important as our tale unfolds.

About 5 or 10 miles north of Fury Cove, which is at the mouth of the Fitzhugh Sound, the engine suddenly stopped. As long as it was out of gear, it ran fine. Put it into gear and it would stop immediately. Upon investigation, the engine room was filled with smoke, with no fire, and we eventually traced it down to the V-drive. Yes, the same V-drive that had caused the problem going from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan. Yes, the same V-drive that had been rebuilt in December. We were to find that the problem this time was far more serious, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

With no other real recourse, we hoisted sails and continued onwards out into Queen Charlotte Sound. At first it was exhilarating, topping 7 knots. But, as predicted, the winds soon died down to a whisper. We continued on into the night, three hours on duty, 6 hours off, trying to make some way in the light winds, with me sleeping bundled up in the cockpit in case something else went wrong. I wanted to be right there…

My logbook shows speeds like 2.8 knots, 3.3 knots, 2.26 knots. Then, around 03:00, the wind pretty much dropped to nothing and we were posting speeds like 0.74 knots, 0.21 knots, before jumping up to around 2 knots for a couple of hours and then subsiding to 0.9 knots, 0.2 knots, etc. That was to be our fate throughout the day, posting speeds of of less than a knot for hours on end. Around 18:00 we finally climbed up over 1 knot again. However, with winds forecast to drop to nothing once more, the channel narrowing, and night drawing close, we once again called for a tow and were towed into Port McNeil, arriving at 03:30.

When a mechanic was finally able to come out and look at the system, we found that there were angle grinder cuts into the casing, and that the casing had worn through in one spot, letting out the lubricating oil. This hole was in a place that was, basically, impossible to see unless the drive was removed for inspection, and certainly was not there when we performed the earlier fix to the flanges. Further, it appears that it was worn from inside the case as nothing on the outside of the case has any scarring from rubbing.

So Opus is sitting in Port McNeil now. We contacted the V-drive manufacturer (Walter Machine Company in New Jersey) and they are sending out a factory refurbished unit for us to install. They’ve been delightful to work with.

Frustration, depression, anger, all emotions that are coursing through me at the moment. The mechanicals on Opus have let me down so many times and each time that we think it’s fixed, it finds a new way to screw me over.

Lest you think that it’s a maintenance issue, I’ll say that I’ve been religious about oil changes in both the engine and the v-drive. The V-drive was removed from Opus and serviced in December.

Patrick elected to return to his business, understandably, since we had no ETA on repairs. Hubert is able to remain for a few days, but he also has a deadline. Hopefully the repairs will be effected before he has to leave and he can at least make the trip to Campbell River, if not all the way home with me. Otherwise, I’ll be single-handing Opus home from Port McNeil.

Both Patrick and Hubert have been great throughout, shouldering their share of the trip and keeping a good attitude throughout. They’re welcome back any time!

Port McNeil to Campbell River would be the first long leap. It’s shorter than the Ketchikan to Prince Rupert leg I single handed by about 3 hours. After that, though, things become a lot easier, especially since I’ll be in my “home waters”. The legs are shorter and the navigation familiar to me. In fact, I probably don’t even need a chart plotter or charts from there on, though I am certainly not going to do without their aid! Still, I’ll hope that Hubert can finish this trip with me. It all depends on how fast the replacement v-drive gets here!

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Prince Rupert to Shearwater

Originally I had intended on taking Opus from Prince Rupert to Shearwater single handedly. This would have been a multi-stage process over the course of a week or so. The first leg would have been Prince Rupert to Hartley Bay at the end of the Grenville Channel, a grueling 16-18 hour trip. After a couple of days of recovery, another grueling leg from Hartley Bay to Klemtu, another few days recovery, and then an easy day from Klemtu to Shearwater.

However, due to the goodness of Social Media, at the last moment (I was due to depart the next day) I found a crew person to make the trip with me. This necessitated delaying departure for a few days, though the delay was worthwhile to be able to share the duties and, therefore, have no recovery days.

Hubert boarded on July 3rd and we moved over to Pillsbury Cove to anchor for the night because there weren’t any moorages available. After carefully picking our way through the shallows at the entrance, with Hubert at the helm, we anchored deep in the cove, though we could still easily look out at Prince Rupert Harbour. I knew my ground tackle (i.e. “Anchor” would hold no matter what came up, but I had some concerns about the comfort overnight. Fortunately, those concerns were needless as we lay at anchor and the waters were calm. We headed to sleep early as we had a very early start planned for the next morning.

When we woke up, fog lay heavily upon the world, with visibility measured in tens of meters — the first time this trip that I had seen fog so thick, of course. Fortunately, since the distance was relatively short, we could wait, though we would be unable to take my preferred route and, instead, would have to take the longer route. At around 9:00 AM, the fog seemed to be lifting , and we cautiously felt our way out with radar probing the area around us and our chart plotter keeping us safely in the deeper channel. Once out of Pillsbury cove, with the range on our radar set large enough to see the two shores, we headed southwards down Prince Rupert Harbour, keeping an electronic as well as organic eye out (thank goodness for Radar and AIS!)

Fog was to dog our stern almost the entire way to the end of the Malacca Passage, including a concerning encounter with BC Ferries “Northern Expedition” in thick fog. We could see him on our radar and AIS, but weren’t sure if they saw us, so we called them on channel 16. They didn’t answer. So we called them again. They didn’t answer. Despite calling them with continued urgency and frequency (to the point that the coast guard got involved), they never answered our hails, we never knew if they knew we were there, and we took evasive action, to the best that we could – though our speed is paltry compared to theirs. They passed less than 1/4 of a mile from us, in fog thick enough that we could see, maybe, 100 meters, and never answered a single radio call.

We arrived at our destination, “Captain’s Cove” and anchored for the night in the same place that we had anchored with Quijote on the northbound trip. We woke to an absolutely fabulous day and headed south, ostensibly to Ire Cove, with a “stretch goal” of McMicking Inlet if we felt really good and making good time at Ire. However, upon reaching Ire, we felt really good, discussed it among the crew, and elected to keep going. And we did, traveling from Captain’s Cove to Shearwater in one overnight trip. Hubert was a joy to have aboard and we arrived at Shearwater after navigating via Radar fixes, chart plotters, and ded reckoning, in good spirits and still feeling like we could take on even more.

We had arrived in Shearwater early, and weren’t due to pick up our third crew member, Patrick, for a few days, so had the opportunity to run about and enjoy the delightful Cow Bay Marina for a few days before the next part of the journey.