Lost Weekend in San Juans - aka Thanks C-Brats!

[Jazzmanic]

With grand plans for last weekend in the San Juans given the spectacular weather, Caryn and I set out with high hopes. The plan was to trailer by boat from Seattle to Anacortes. That plan was quickly waylaid when we had a problem with one of the trailer tires. (Misstep #1) This turned out to be a precursor to further misfortune. Undaunted, we decided to travel by boat to the Juans which was a non-issue since the weekend was forecasted to be one of those rare times in the PNW when it was sunny, warm and windless! After stopping for an hour and half to do some fishing at Humpy Hollow (no luck), we headed for the SJ's through Deception Pass. Scouted out Rosario Resort for a mooring buoy (again no luck ) discovered the Doe Island docks had been removed and decided to overnight at Blakely Island Marina, a destination we hadn't been to in several years. We had a fun time participating in the 60's night and hamburger bbq.

Anxious to get on our way with plans to go to the Eastsound farmers market and whale watching, we decided to fill up. On the way around the corner to the gas dock, I noticed that the gauges were no longer working. I figured that I must have bumped some wires while sleeping in the v-berth and decided to fiddle with the wires. (Misstep #2 ) I'm sure I shorted out one of the wires to the gauges because now, after stopping the engine to gas up, I no longer had power to the iginition switch! After a couple hours of troubleshooting, I came to the conclusion that it must be a fuse problem to the ignition switch since I knew it wasn't a battery problem because the kicker was able to start. I decided that the best alternative was to bring the boat to our mechanic at Granite Boatworks who was located 20 miles away at our old marina Twin Bridges. At that point is was apparent that our wonderful weekend plans had come to a screeching halt.

So I tied the kicker to the main and began the arduous journey towards Twin Bridges. As a side note, we had work done on the kicker in the spring and noticed that it was really purring nicely. So I had the utmost confidence in the kicker's ability to get us over there safely. Another side note is that I have extreme confidence in our Suzuki DF90 main engine. It always starts right away and we've NEVER had motor problems. The only two problems we've had were a bad electrical trim/tilt relay which was easily replaced several years ago and now this electrical problem that I helped create.

So now we made our way across Rosario Strait, normally the most treacherous piece of water in the San Juans. The good thing, it was fairly calm, the bad thing, we were headed straight into a fog bank in the middle of the straight. This is where the radar really shined. It was the first time we really HAD to use it. We were able to navigate safely across Rosario Strait going 5 mph in a fog bank with no problems. Of course, on the other side near Cypress Island, the sun again shown through and it was a gorgeous day. Too bad we would be spending one of the nicest days of the summer putt-putting along to a destination 3 hours away on our kicker instead of spotting whales and enjoying all that the San Juans had to offer. It was at this time that I decided that maybe I could enlist the help of some C-Brats who might be in the area. Perhaps they could tow us at a quicker pace and get to our mechanic before he left at 4:15? For some reason, I misplaced Starcraft Tom's number and I knew he and Susan were planning to be in the SJ's very near where we were. I called Kevin of Catch-22 to see if he had Tom's number. No luck but he was kind enought to pick up. I decided to call Pat and Patty to see if they had Tom's number. Bingo, Pat was able to help and he supplied the number. Like a true C-Brat, Pat offered that if he were closer, he would be happy to help himself but alas they were in Blaine, at least 2 hours away. By this time, we were at least 2 1/2 hours into our journey and had only gone about 1/2 way. We finally called Tom who said he was about an hour away in Deception Pass. He didn't think that he could pick up and run in time to help us make the deadline so we said our goodbyes and continued on our way.

Not 20 minutes later, Susan leaves a message saying "We're on our way to help." Don't you love that C-Brat spirit? About a 1/2 later, there they were, Tom and Susan to the rescue. Tom climbed aboard trying to troubleshoot the fuse problem and Susan tied a tow rope to our bow eye and proceeded to tow us. Unfortunately, Tom couldn't make headway either with our fuse problem and we decided to stop towing since we were only about 45 minutes to an hour away down the Swinomish Channel and by this time had missed the deadline to meet the mechanic. In any case, we really appreciated the effort. Thanks Tom and Susan!

Epilogue: We did make it to Twin Bridges. They were happy to help us dock (even though we were no longer custombers) and put C-Dancer on the rack. We cleaned up the boat, flushed the kicker motor and got a ride from our wonderful daughter and her great boyfriend who came all the way up from Seattle to pick us up. Granite Boatworks owner/mechanic Scott Roberts (who has a great reputation btw) was able to pinpoint the problem on Monday and yes, it was a 15 amp fuse hidden behind all the multitude of wires in the battery lazerette. They were also able to reconnect the loose wires to gauges and all is fine. I bought a spare tire and rim and trailered up on Monday, brought the boat down and just as I was launching, who happens to walk by but Jan of C-Change. He graciously offered to help launch the boat. Another C-Brat to the rescue.

Yes, it was a lost weekend but I took a lot away from this experience.

1) It was good to know the kicker was in good working order and was up to the job as emergency backup, which is what it's there for to begin with.

2) I really need to clean up the rats nest behind the helm.

3) I really need to identify and label all the wires near the batteries and clean that up.

4) I need to orient myself with all the fuses and have backups for all.

5) I needed to have a spare tire/rim for the trailer before I had a problem.

6) FINALLY, it's great to have the network of C-Brats always willing to lend a helping hand in our time of need. Thanks Pat, Patty, Tom, Susan, Kevin and Jan!!!

Now, back on the water for more adventures.

___________________________________

Peter & Caryn
C-Dancer

[Don and Brenda]

Great story!

[starcrafttom]

I feel so bad that spent all that time tracing fuses under the hood and behind the helm but forgot the battery. Sorry about that I should know better. I have a box with close to a hundred fuses of different sizes and types on the boat. I should have gotten you going.

Well at least your ready for this weekend. Hey when are you going out for pinks or silvers??

[Grumpy]

Peter,

I think you can add this one to the "Lessons Learned" column. Unlike automobiles, which are bad enough, boats of our "ilk" are custom rigged and often do not have detailed wiring diagrams. (and even if they did.....)

Project for Winter might be to locate, indentify and make a list of every damned fuse you can find. Then get one or more spares for each (type & rating).

I thought I had done this but last weekend I had occasion to remove a panel and found a whole new fuse box full of potential open circuits

Next "peeve" is why do all the damned alarms on a boat sound the same ??

I made two crash stops last weekend thinking I had high water or high temperature or low oil. Both of them of them were DSC alerts one from a bayliner out of fuel and the other was a sailboat taking on water.

One thing you might consider in the San Juans is putting out a call for "any C-Brat". We too were out there that weekend (but we would not have reached you until Monday,) but we did see a number of C-Dory's.

Best,
Merv & Kathy

[c-ness]

Great story. And a great attitude. We have had a few of these incidents and they can be 'interesting'. But it does show the value of being a c-brat!

[chromer]

So that's where you were.

[Jazzmanic]

Thanks guys. I actually did hail C-Brats on both 16 and 68 to no avail. Oh well, it took our mechanic 2 1/2 hours to sort out the problem so even if we got there in time, our weekend still wouldn't have been salvaged. Yeah Roger, it was one of the "lessons learned" kind of experiences. I've been putting off cleaning up the boat wiring but I guess that should be a priority this winter. It's no fun losing out on one of the very few spectacular weekends in the San Juans. Live and learn...

Peter

[Grumpy]

Peter,

Just remember that some of those fuses need to be where they are. ie. close to the battery. Others are the product of alien invaders.


Merv