Tenakee!

Wednesday midday. Weather is light rain, 50 degrees, wind E at 15 gusting 25.

We’re tied to D float, Tenakee Springs. We got in last night at 7:00, after a long but very pleasant motor from Poison Cove in Peril Strait.

We left Sitka Monday a little after 10 in the morning. I wanted to leave earlier to take advantage of the tide but neither the harbormaster’s office nor the fuel dock were open early enough. The weather was gorgeous. We encountered a chill wind out of the north as soon as we cleared the breakwater that continued until we reached Kakul Strait. Needless to say, it was hard on the nose, preventing any use of the sails. We were anchored in Poison Cove by 5:00PM.

Tuesday dawned clear and cold, cold enough for the dew to be frozen on the deck and the seas to be steaming. We were underway by 8. There was no wind, and by 10, the deck was dry and the day was warm. The cruise down Peril Strait to Chatham was beautiful. Jazz and I spent most of it lounging on the foredeck, listening to the bow wave and watching the countryside slide by. Chatham Strait was a mill pond, hardly a breath of wind. As we approached Tenakee Inlet, it had begun to cloud over and the wind began to blow, on the nose of course.

Last night I walked through the village of Tenakee Springs. It consists of a four-wheeler trail, barely wide enough to pass, that winds along the north shore of the Inlet for about a mile or so. There are buildings above and below the ‘road’ most of the way, with the ‘springs’ at about the midway point, adjacent to the fuel dock ramp. I put springs in quotes because they are a bath house about 20’ x 30’. I would have gone in last night but segregation of the sexes is practiced and it was women’s hours when I was there. I plan to check the scene out when men’s hours start this afternoon. Across from the bath house is the store. It wasn’t open, another delayed discovery opportunity.

The harbormaster came by last night after we got tied up, a very nice lady by the name of Wendy. She said that AC was available but that it was $20 a day. It’s $19.60 a day for Blue Note just to be moored with no AC. We are sheltered from the wind and most of the wave action but not from the rude boaters who haven’t figured out what “no wake” means.

Tenakee Springs has no cell service or at least no CDMA cell service. I haven’t tried the wifi since it’s likely the only internet service to the village is via satellite making a wifi enterprise too expensive. I’ve had no problem with being cut off as it were, but I do notice I talk to strangers just to have a conversation. Jazz is a great traveling companion but his vocabulary is somewhat lacking.

The forecast this morning sounds like tomorrow might be good for travel. I’m thinking of heading to Auke Bay, Juneau, with a stop overnight at Funter Bay. We’ll see what the forecast is this afternoon.

Update: As I was walking to the bath house I noticed a couple of wifi antennas so I strung mine up when I got down to the boat. Dada, an internet connection. I’m going to try to upload this. We’ll see.

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Old boat, old body

Thursday morning. Overcast, low 50s. Rain is in the forecast and a wind advisory is posted for Sitka Sound this afternoon.

Well I’m still in Sitka. Last weekend I was able to repair the cooling system on the engine to my satisfaction without The Part. It involved finding a preformed hose of the proper dimensions and carefully clamping it on to the damaged hose barb. The hose has to make an almost 180 degree bend and I was afraid of putting too much stress on the broken piece by bending a straight hose to fit. Napa to the rescue. I ran the engine for an hour on Saturday with no leaks. I had a bit of a start when the temp climbed to 205. I was beginning to think there might be something else wrong when it dropped back to 180. Must have been the thermostat hanging up before it opened. Anyway, no more cooling issues observed. When I reorder The Part I will order a thermostat. Monday I ran the engine for 45 minutes and changed the oil.

I spent Monday and Tuesday running around for last minute stuff. I was happy to see my fishing license in the post office. Thank you Susan!

Because the route to Tenakee Springs goes through several narrow straits, it’s important to use the tidal current to your advantage, especially with a slow boat like the Blue Note. The currents can reach 8 knots in Sergius Narrows and if your vessel is only capable of 6½, it’s obvious that timing is crucial. The tides on Wednesday dictated a departure time of 1:00 PM to get through Olga and Neva Straits, with an overnight stay in Sukoi Inlet to catch low slack water at Sergius Narrows Thursday morning. That way we could ride the tide through Peril Strait and on to Chatham Strait.

Best laid plans… Tuesday night I hit the liquor and grocery stores. All that remained was to settle up with the harbormaster, stop at the fuel dock, and go. Wednesday morning I hopped out of bed and was bending over when something went out in my lower back. The pain drove me to my knees and brought tears to my eyes. It was all I could do to stagger into the head, swallow some ibuprofen, and crawl into bed. I spent all day flat on my back. Fortunately I had a good book. It was a struggle taking Jazz to do his business.

As I write this, the pain has pretty much subsided. I can move around without looking like a cripple. The only problem is now the weather doesn’t look very good for the next day or two. I’ll check the long range forecast when it comes out this afternoon and make new plans.

The pic shows our route to Tenakee Springs. Google Earth is so cool!

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The Part

Friday, midday. The forecast is for rain but right now it is beautiful, dry, calm, 60 degrees.

The week has been marked with ups and downs. Tuesday afternoon Dirk called to say he had just put the part I ordered for the engine in the mail. Thursday, it was in the local post office! Well done USPS! When I got back to the boat I found that the part would not fit on my engine. Two silver linings, however. I learned that the part number was cast into the housing and was able to get the part number off of my part. The other silver lining was that the box that held the part also had oatmeal cookies from my niece Dana. Thank you so much, Dana!

I called Kelley, the parts guy with my part number. He said it was a valid number, but not on engines sold into the US and that he couldn’t get it. I have e-mailed a parts guy in Vancouver, BC, to find out if it was on engines sold in Canada and if it is still available.

Sitka is a really nice town. I continue to enjoy roaming around. As I mentioned earlier, I got the bicycle out. I quickly discovered that the chain was jumping when I was climbing a hill. Because there are hills just about everywhere I want to go, the bike was unusable as it was. This presented me with a dilemma. The bike is old and tired and wasn’t an expensive bike to begin with. It needs pedals, a seat, a brake/derailleur lever cassette, and now a new chain. Sitka has a bike shop so off I went to see what they had in the way of new and used bikes. Unfortunately, they had sold all of the used bikes from their rental fleet. The mechanic assured me that I was going to have to replace the chain rings with the chain. I told him I had replaced them last April. He copped such an attitude that I put buying a new bike there totally out of the question. The new chain cured the problem.

Wednesday, the harbormaster office called to say they needed me to move over to the transient dock. I told her that I was expecting the parts and she told me to sit tight until I had made the repairs. I’m relieved because there is no AC on the transient dock. It did start me thinking of moving on though. I’ve decided to go to Tenakee Springs from here.

Update: I just got a response from Vancouver vis a vis The Part. It was used on vehicles in Europe only. This means finding it used in North America will be almost impossible. Apparently it is available by special order from Germany. He said it will take about two weeks for it to get to him. I went up to the harbormaster office to let them know. She said it will be OK to stay where I am for the next several days but depending on their impounds I will probably have to move within two weeks. This is another dilemma as the only way to charge the batteries right now is via the shore power charger or by means of the large alternator on the engine. Obviously, the engine can’t be used unless I am able to effect repairs. I guess I’d better be successful repairing the engine.

The pic is the view from the transient dock to where I am now. Nice view. I just hope it doesn’t become mine for the next two weeks.

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Wednesday morning. Steady light rain, calm, mid 50s. The forecast is for a wind advisory for tomorrow.

Over the long weekend, I determined the problem with the fresh water engine cooling system. The hose barb on the thermostat housing broke off. It’s not a part you can go to the local Napa store and walk out with. I called the Mercedes dealer in Anchorage and after some research, Kelly, the parts guy was able to order one. When it gets in, Dirk or Amy will forward it on. Thanks guys.

The other event was the departure of the Resolute. Steve and his father Chuck headed up through Olga and Neva Straits yesterday afternoon to await the tides for Sergius Narrows and Peril Strait today. They are headed for Baranof Warm Springs, Petersburg, and points south. I was sorry to see them go. Steve is a terrific sailor and a great traveling partner. Fair winds to you, gentlemen.

I am enjoying this town. The market is wonderful. Their prices are about 2/3s of what they were in Valdez and the produce is edible even after 2 days. They carry several of my favorite items and they are only a block away. I’ve tried a couple of restaurants and spotted several more I intend to try. Steve and I tried the Italian one last week: really good pizza. We got a big kick out of the fact that both the cook and the waitress are Asian. I wonder if the Mexican restaurant is run by Bulgarians.

I finally broke out the bicycle and am beginning bike exploration. Sitka has bike lanes! And hills. Guess I’ll have to repair the front derailleur…and get used to riding in raingear.

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Sitka!

Saturday morning. We are tied to the end of A dock in Thomsen Harbor, Sitka. The weather is beautiful, partly cloudy, 65 degrees. Forecast is for pleasant weather all weekend.

We arrived Thursday afternoon. The weather remained calm for the remainder of the crossing. It was forecast to kick up to 25 knots SE and 9 foot seas, which would have been a beat upwind. We were making for Salisbury Sound which is one of the gateways to inside and protected waters. At 11:30PM Wednesday, I noticed the engine had overheated again. I had been checking it about every two hours and had added a couple of gallons over the course of the last twenty four hours. When I opened the access to the coolant tank I could see the coolant water where it was dripping on the case of the start battery alternator. I couldn’t see the source because of the angle and a mirror fogged up every time I tried it. I suspected the fresh water pump seal had failed. My fear was that if it failed completely, I would be caught by the weather and forced to make a very uncomfortable approach under sail with no motor for maneuvering in close quarters to an anchorage. From that point on the drill became set the timer for 20 minutes, check the coolant level, add water, check boat position, situation, and status, pump bilge, 2-5 minutes of rest, timer goes off, repeat. Steve suggested rigging a towing bridle and that I rig a tow line in case it failed and we continue to Sitka, a distance of about 20 miles which is what we did. Fortunately, it didn’t get any worse and we made our way with no other excitement.

Poor Jazz. He found it impossible to do his business on deck. He was forced to do it in the cockpit since I wasn’t letting him down in the cabin for obvious reasons. Of course I wasn’t happy with that since it greatly increased my workload which caused him to try harder to hold it and, well, you get the drill. As we were coming along side the dock, Jazz got so excited he couldn’t hold it any more. He let fly, which wouldn’t have been a problem except he was standing right where I needed access to be able to dock the boat single-handed. It made for some fancy footwork and a few words of course but all ended well.

I had to laugh at myself. The first thing I did after getting Jazz to dry land was to get an internet connection. I had forgotten to schedule a payment and didn’t want to pay the late fees. At least that was my justification. I just barely made the deadline.

So we’re here. The boat is plugged in. Cell service is good. Internet is ok. I even found the local public radio station, so I’m feeling right at home. I’ve talked to family and with this entry the blog will be up to date. I expect to be here at least another week and a half depending on how the repairs go.

The picture is of a couple of my neighbors here in the harbor.

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