Best jury rig story that got you home

dogon dory · Last edited by dogon dory on Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:37 am; edited 1 time in total

Sorry, Folks - Post Deleted By Author

Aiviq · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 5:08 am Post subject:

I hesitate to tell this story, because it makes me look like an idiot (but then again, I am an idiot, so here goes). Back in about 1982, my dad had a 36-foot diesel powered fishing boat that was fresh water cooled via a keel cooler. We kept the boat in Seldovia over the winter, and took it up to Kasilof to fish for Salmon in the summer (lower and middle Cook Inlet, Alaska). I was about 25, and I had a girlfriend who was a nurse up in Kotzebue (which is a long ways away from Anchorage, where I lived). One day in March, she accompanied a medevac to Anchorage, and had a couple of days off before she needed to get back. I thought it would be romantic to go for a little cruise in the boat (first mistake. Commercial fishing boats are not very romantic).

We flew down to Seldovia in my dads Cessna, and I got the boat fired up. My original plan had been to just cruise out into Seldovia bay and anchor a short ways from the small boat harbor, but the inspiration struck me to take her to a place called Portlock, an abandoned cannery site about 10 miles down the coast, where it would be a bit more secluded. (Second, huge mistake. Portlock was actually more like 30 or 40 miles down the coast, and during the winter my dad removed just about everything from the boat - things like radios, sounder, tools, spare parts, charts, etc.) But off we sailed.

Of course about 2 hours out of Seldovia the weather started to get bad. Wind, waves, and it was getting dark. I realized that Portlock was a lot farther away than I had remembered, and I should have turned around right then and there. Third big mistake, I kept on going.

About another hour along, the engine alarm started to sound, and the water temperature gauge showed it was overheating. I shut down the engine and lifted the engine hatch to have a look. Eventually I found the problem. The belt that ran the cooling water pump (and alternator) had broken, so coolant was no longer circulating through the keel cooler or engine. I started ransacking the boat looking for the spare belts we ordinarily carried, but they were not on board. Nor were tools or much of anything else that might be helpful.

At this point we were adrift in a full gale with no radios, no signaling devices, little food and water, and the tide was carrying us into the Gulf of Alaska. Worse yet, I sensed that I was not making a good impression on my date. Around this point, I looked out at the back deck, and noticed that the dingy, a 10 foot Zodiac we ordinarily carried on a hard top over the net reel had broken off and been swept overboard. Things were not looking very good at that moment.

However, since this is a post about jury rigs that got us home, there is a (relatively) happy ending. I eventually located a roll of electrical tape, out of which I fabricated a belt from the flywheel to the water-circulating pump. I was totally convinced that this extremely flimsy appearing jury rig would fly apart the instant I started the engine, but to my surprise, it did not. I put the boat in gear, and headed back towards Seldovia, now over 3 hours away. I told my girlfriend that we would stop in Port Graham or English Bay, small native communities about an hour from our present location. She though that was a good idea, and laid down in the v-berth to get some sleep.

As I came abreast of the first village, I looked down into the engine compartment at my make-shift belt, and it was still going strong, so I decided to continue on. I passed the second of the two villages, and still the belt was holding. We were about another hour out of Seldovia, and I continued. Shortly thereafter, my girlfriend woke up and spotted the lights of Port Graham receding behind the stern. I told her I thought we could make it to Seldovia. She was not amused.

But we did make it to Seldovia. I moored the boat, we walked to the airport and I flew her back to Anchorage. That wasn't the last time I saw the girl, but for all intents and purposes, it marked the end of the relationship. My dad told me that when he was next on the boat, the belt lasted another 30 minutes or so before failing suddenly and without warning. A healthy margin of error, I think. If any of you are in the coast guard, please don't arrest me for the various crimes and regulatory infractions I committed that night. It was probably the worst case of bad judgment and lack of common sense I've ever been a party to, but it did turn out to be an excellent learning experience.

Jim

Otter-BelleHavenMarina · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:17 pm Post subject:

I was on a Rwandan fast patrol boat on Lake Kivu in central Africa in 2001. Beautiful day, beautiful Avanti boat with twin Yammy 250's, and we were on our way from Cyangugu to some town whose name I forget in the north. The engines conked out several times in succession and the overheating light came on. The two Rwandan pilots spoke neither English nor French. None of us spoke Kinyrwandan. The wind was easterly and we were drifting slowly toward Congo (where I didn't have country clearance to be). I couldn't see anything obstructing the water intakes, but I got in the water anyway and used my buddy's toothbrush to scrub all the algae off the intakes on both engines. That seemed to do the trick, and off we went. We let the Rwandans have the toothbrush.

I couldn't figure out how to load two photos from the escapade into the message here, so I put them on the Otter photo album on page 4 starting here

B~C · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:00 pm Post subject:

what an interesting, diverse, perverse bunch of folks C-D owners are.

starcrafttom · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:05 am Post subject:

squid.. i mean otter . who do you work for?

while towing a boat out of the high sierra the steering box of a 76 chevy luv fell apart. my buddy james and I shimmed it back together enough with cardboard that it would steer the luv for 4 or miles of mt. roads before loosing steering again. then we would have a beer and fix it again. it took 6 hours and a twelve back to get home.

dogon dory · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:08 am Post subject:

Sorry, Folks - Post Deleted By Author

wailedcentipede · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:56 pm Post subject:

on one trip into the Nass river about 50-60 miles on a gravel logging road i arrived and realized their was a hole in the gas tank of the car ... i pulled the tank off and up-ended it so the re-maining gas was at the one end and used "licquid metal" to plug the hole .... this patch lasted for years .... the tube of liquid metal was purchased about 5 months back to patch a hole in the trunck of the car ... the tire chains had punched a hole into the trunk and everything was getting wet ... this also lasted for years

dogon dory · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:10 am Post subject:

Sorry, Folks - Post Deleted By Author

Otter-BelleHavenMarina · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:29 pm Post subject:

Yes, it's a good one. Note to self: buy tube of liquid metal to throw in my van crate next to duct tape, wire, and chewing gum.

Redƒox · Guest

Aiviq. I liked your story (boy can this rambunctious soul relate Shocked

)

All good stories! Cept I can't think of a mechanical failure worth mentioning yet. My old Johnson 75 scattered on me, back in the late 90's. (in Thum Cove) After that, Mom and I still went on to troll-travel for silvers for two more days around the Cape Embarrased

... Baaad ... Embarrased

k3nlind

This doesn't really fit the subject since I was headed out, not home... but then it also doesn't fit elsewhere.

On a recent trip to Lake Powell, I left home having forgot to put the pin in the hitch stinger of my motorhome. A friend was following as we were traveling together. We drove about one-half mile before the boat was left behind as I cleared an overpas before entering I15 south. In my rear view mirror I noticed that my friend was not in sight. I asked my wonderful spouse to take a look out the rear window of the motorhome to see if she could see our traveling partners. After a moment or two she reported that she could not only not see them, but that she could not see my boat either. Needless to say we immediately turned around and retraced our path. As soon as I recrossed the overpass, there in the middle of the road was my boat, trailor and friend... laughing loudly. I made another u-turn and pulled in front of the trailored boat to rehook.

Even more funny was that after having backed up to the trailor and exiting the motorhome I found there on the rear bumper the pin right where I had left it. I was in the process of reattaching when I saw an officer of the law coming toward the rear of the motorhome. He had a concerned look on his face so I quickly blurted out to my friend, "Sure is a good thing I cary an extra stinger pin just in case of emergencies like this!"

enjoy,

ken

rogerbum

TyBoo

k3nlind · Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:13 pm Post subject:

Actually I have always used safety chains... That part of the story and the lesson learned is to pay close attention to completing the task at hand and don't let the spouse (or anyone else) divert your attention in the midst of hooking up your trailer.

As for the fact that it could have been much worse, let there be no doubt. "Ken" = CoolSmile

= "blind luck"! I had stopped at a red light just before entering I15. It was there the trailer decided to go its own way... I am sure glad I didn't make it to I15 at cruising speed.

These days I make a point of checking the hitch three times and having someone else check behind me!

rogerbum · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:00 am Post subject:

Thanks for the clarification. Must be that the chains had S-hooks on the ends that jumped off. That makes me think I should replace the S-hooks on my safety chains with locking links. Will take an extra minute or two to hook up but will keep things attached. I really think one of the best things about this site is having people who share their mistakes and other problems so that we can all learn from them - especially safety related issues. It always makes me re-think what I'm doing and makes my next trip a little safer.