SO WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OR ON YOUR C-DORY TODAY??

Roger, You were on watch so I take it you had all night watch running. did you have the engines running? Radar? AIS? Once you are past the opening to the strait, you could find BIG commercial ship traffic. They don't run slow.

Sounds like a fun trip, great fish shots and gutsy, but like you said, (sort of) you went prepared. How far did you drift over night? If you did.

Thanks,

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
hardee":3i13cm60 said:
Roger, You were on watch so I take it you had all night watch running. did you have the engines running? Radar? AIS? Once you are past the opening to the strait, you could find BIG commercial ship traffic. They don't run slow.

Sounds like a fun trip, great fish shots and gutsy, but like you said, (sort of) you went prepared. How far did you drift over night? If you did.

Thanks,

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
Click to expand...

Harvey, I had the engines running but only going 5-6kts. We motored at that speed from about 10PM until 4AM. We went slow so we wouldn't cause (much) damage to the hull if we hit something. That's as fast as I'll go in the dark. As for commercial traffic, there's more concentrated large vessels in the Puget Sound and the Strait than there is outside the strait. The cargo ships are the same size in either case as most of them are going to either Seattle or Vancouver. The weather was exceedingly clear and we could see the anchor lights of the drifting commercial fishing boats from 5-10 miles away. I do have AIS installed and did have the radar on for the night time run. Once I was out there, I didn't feel too worried about potential problems.

I have a ditch bag near me at the helm with a backup radio, a gps in a floating case and McMurdo FastFind PLB (that I bought recently). My buddy Brad also has a PLB. We both own Mustang Integrity Float coats and bibs and had those on board. The water temp was about 64-65F where we were at. The biggest concerns are:
1) Holing the hull. I think this was highly unlikely at the speeds we were traveling. However, I do have twin bilge pumps (both tested prior to going out) and twin macerator pumps that I can quickly switch over to pump out the bilge (drop the hoses down from the fish boxes). I have two HUGE batteries (4D's) so we could pump for awhile. I also have a manually operated pump, a large bucket and a couple of milk jug like bailers that I use for moving ice around. So we can move a lot of water if needed. Of course the goal is to keep the water on the outside.
2) Taking on water through some unknown leak - all the through hulls on my boat are above the water line except for the two plugs to drain the sponsons. Those are brass plugs that aren't coming out or coming loose with the way they're installed. The biggest concern I have is the scuppers. The scuppers on the Tomcat (and the 25) are only about an inch or so above the water line when the boat lightly loaded and they are at or near the water line with a full load of fuel. Add to that load a few hundred pounds of ice an then start adding in fish, and the scuppers are darn close if not under water. Fortunately, taking on water, it's generally at your feet where you can see it. HOWEVER, if the path between the deck scupper and the outside through hull becomes compromised in any way (hose comes off, scupper fitting fails etc), the water coming in the scupper gets deposited below deck and you might not notice it. I'm going to start another thread on my current thoughts on the "self bailing" deck of the Tomcat. To discuss the scupper issues and potential for causing serious problems - especially for a heavily loaded boat. But bottom line, after being out this weekend and after reading about another recreational boat almost sinking while tuna fishing this weekend, I will be adding water level detection alarms inside the sponsons. We didn't have any problems, but the potential is there.
3) Falling over in the dark - in the super calm waters we were in, the potential for this was low but still it's a possibility. We wear our self inflating PFD's at all times except when sleeping. I have flashing beacons attached to the life vests that activate if wet and I've attached a small flare (the kind that you shoot like a launching a pinball) to each life vest. We also have a manually operated search light on board. I keep the swim step ladder and throwable readily available and I have a heaving line ready in the cockpit. As long as we can find the person, recovery should be straightforward.
4) Fog and getting run over. If heavy fog, I only go as fast as the speed that will allow me to stop prior to hitting a fixed object at about half the distance I can see. So I likely won't hit anything. It's the other guy that worries me. A tight watch on the radar + AIS reduces that risk considerably. It's mostly the hot shot and stupid recreational fishermen that worry me. Some guys do 30kts in the fog and not all of them even have radar. That's scary. The risk is highest near the marinas and hot near shore fishing areas.

Overall, I'm pretty darn safe/careful. I have backups to every single important safety item and have carefully thought through the risks and the appropriate responses. I'll never be risk free, but I'm willing to bet that I'm less likely to have a serious problem when I'm 50-60 miles offshore in good weather than many boaters are when they're 1 mile away from the marina. Nonetheless, I can always do better. Every time I go out, I learn something new and it often results in a change or a new purchase/modification to increase our safety level.
 
Thanks Roger, we can all breath a little easier now that we know you are pretty safe. Some good lessons/info in that post. Thanks for sharing. I am a firm believer in redundant safety items.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Great trip Roger and really good, thoughtful safety planning. We could all do well to be as safety conscious. (Plus the fishing was awsome :shock: )
 
Flash flood alert,
This morning we woke thinking how nice it would be to take a little cruise and explore the Chesepeake. It was a slow morning, breakfast, coffee and getting dressed almost took until noon. But that's what Sundays are for right? :thup
I thought, great time to replace the broken finspray. One screw driver, a little elbow grease, thank you honey for some help from the top and the new faucet was installed. I kept pumping thinking there was something wrong, no water coming up through. Well, I don't think the one unit had been working for a decade. Finally, water with God only knows what came through. Yeah, now we have water! I actually like the finspray better than the foot pump. It moves a lot more water with what feels like less effort. Now I need to sanitize, drain, probably sanitize,drain and maybe sanitize again. Then pour a gallon of the cheap vodka down to continue sanitizing the tank.... :teeth
So the new faucet is in and it begins to rain, and I mean rain...did I say rain. I mean pour on us. Well, we didn't even leave the dock. Stayed right on the lift, opened up our bottle of wine and had a picnic on the Dory. It hasn't stopped raining since. So we bailed after lunch, came inside and have continued to enjoy the day inside. Watching lightening, listening to the thunder.
I did manage though to throw the fishing line out and catch a really nice perch to feed the crabs.
Later this week we'll go for a little cruise.
 
lau ched at bellingham on 8/20. Were greeted by Joe and Ruth. Nice to see a familiar face. Cleared customs at Pender then proceeded north. I had always wanted to stop at Gibsons. That is now out of my system. $10 to stay at their docks for a couple hours. Rude people all over that place. What a disappointment. Went out to the provincial marine park but it was packed and little room in the cove for anchoring so anchored closer to the open water, and set the drag alarm. Woke up in the middle of the night to the alarm going off so pulled anchor and headed off into the dark. Ended up in center bay on gambier. Had to use the radar to stay safe and spot other anchored or moving boats while entering the bay. Found a great place to anchor at the head of the bay. It is called Port Graves. There is a temp dock there which also serves a church camp. Miles and miles of forest trails to hike on crown lands. Traveled orth for several days stopping at out of the way places like Schooner cove, which has a really nice facility and are very accomodating. Also went to French Creek. That is a little more rustic and packed with fishing and pleasure boats. Rafting is a requirement if you are in there and it is full, whiich I would guess is usually the case as there seems to be a brisk fishing industry there.

The Straits of Georgia have been rough for several days so we decided French Creek was probably as far north as we would venture, given the sea conditions. Made the run back down to nanaimo this morning in 4 foot seas and 20 knot winds. Glad to be in harbor.

We still need to cross the straits again to get to vancouver and meet up with my son and his family. Then on down to Friday Harbor and a couple weeks in the San Juans.

The old boat has functioned perfectly, radar was a real godsend. I really like the permatrims on the 35's but in the heavy following seas while slowed way down they at time seem to be an inconvenience.
 
Finally got a live bait tank back on the boat. Installed a Kodiak 14 gal round tank in the engine well. I can still raise the engines and turn them. The tank can easily be removed if needed.
 
Spent some time reworking under galley storage. The two plastic drawers and stacking bins visible in my album work well. The area under the pilot seat has been a bit of a jumble. Carolyn wanted a set of shelves to use up the dead air over my lovely catch all bin. I wanted to preserve acces to the control box shifter etc for maintenance. Like the drawers and bins they are wedged in place with foam to the hull and overhead, Carolyn suggested some coated wire stackable storage bins she had in her garage. I did a test fit. Nice for length, stacked 3 high, they fit to the hull under the shifter and wedge on top of the edge of my previous catch all bin. A couple of eye straps to the under seat area and a bungee under the works holds the bins tight to the overhead. Also completely fills the open dead air spot with a lot of storage for daily use pots and pans etc. with 15 minutes work all storage items can be out of there to allow acces for maintenence. Nice mod cost $zero. :thup
 
Took the SleepyC around the corner (Point Wilson) and through a moderate tidal chop, to the PT Marine Science Center at Fort Warden. Spent the afternoon there, watching the wildlife, (a whole bunch of kids, new to sailing, and some older types rowing newly built and finished boats) and a few feeding seals out past the breakwater. Spent the night at Mystery Bay state Park and headed home with 598 hours showing on the tach. Back at John Wayne the tach shows 601 hours. Another boating milestone reached. $$$$$ service coming up. And every $ worth it. There is a price for peace and sanity.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

January_2010_552.thumb.jpg
 
Hi Harvey. Glad to see you getting out a lot. We are a couple weeks from departure. Late getting away. Thinking of a few days at Harrison lake BC then maybe over to PT. Will keep you posted. George
 
C-Hawk has been approved as a USCG-AUX Facility for Flotilla 07-04 in District 11 South. We will be patrolling, AtoN verifying and training out of Channel Islands Harbor, Ca.
 
***

Replaced the galley faucet with a
Delta 101-DST Single Handle Faucet.

The task was easy.........the extra parts minimum.

The pictures can be seen on Lady KC ( Photos page 14)

***
 
Finally got around to replacing both HP and LP fuel filters under the hood of my Suzuki DF150s. LP very easy, HP not as easy but access was good. The Armstrong bracket is great to stand on and tilting the engines up and down provided an easy way to get to everything.

Found another benefit of twins! If you only do one engine at a time, you can use the assembled one as a model to put the torn down one back together correctly. :roll: I actually had the HP filter in upside down didn't notice until I took the shroud off of the other engine. It started and ran fine even that way but I took it apart again and did it right. Had a bunch of problems with the little spring clamps holding the hoses on, some of them broke and I replaced them with stainless screw clamps and used blue locktite. The first engine took about 2 hours, the second one only 30 minutes.

Will get underway tonite to see how it runs at high speed.

Also replaced worn 11" wiper blades with longer 14" blades. They fit fine and clean a lot bigger area.

Charlie
 
Rob worked on our under counter storage... we went back and forth with bins versus plastic drawers etc. We ended up buying some of those modular mesh drawers that go into a modular base. What is so different about the solution is hard to show in a picture. We bought a base that was less deep and only the bottom drawers are that cabinet depth; this allows room for the hoses and wires. Then Rob thought... since the hull bows outward, why couldn't we just buy the longer,deeper drawers for the top sections.... Brilliant. We used every bit of space! Its probably more expensive buying the bracket separate from the drawers... and the checkout clerk wondered if we had picked the wrong stock...

He also installed a Campingworld under table drawer. He had to trim the slider so it ends up being a very shallow drawer (there are two slider grooves and the one which allowed a deeper drawer didn't allow us to put our table down. Still, but it will be great for things like knives and silverware, pencils. The drawer also doesn't have built in "stops" so we have to be careful until we figure out how to create a stop or the whole drawer will end up on the floor.

He also installed a 3 step swim ladder and we bought this great handle/post that fits into the pole holder hole thingys (can you tell I don't fish).. so its easy for me to get in and out to the step. I have something to hold onto as I step into the motorwell and then onto the step.

The bad news is he had mounted a garbage bag holder on the door before we did the under sink basket drawers... and now it won't work with what we bought.

We are going out to Lake Mead tomorrow.... enough of projects for awhile.

Mary
CapeCruiser 23
"Freedom" formerly known as "Cocoon"
 
Rob installed my shower corner caddy in the corner by the stove today... its stainless and bamboo... and doesn't really block the view. Also a towel rack/handheld in front of the sink... and a nice plate rack behind the stove... and a papertowel rack above the back window (above the stove).

Check out the pics for Freedom.

We are trying to find the best possible place to put the camper enclosure to store on the boat. Yes, we could leave it in the garage but you never know when you might use all or part of it... we were just on lake mead yesterday and needed shade on one side of the boat... worked like a charm.

I think we may almost be ready to boat camp now!

Mary
23 Cape Cruiser
"Freedom"
 
Today....I serviced both engines, covered the boat with a tarp in 30mph winds (not fun) and walked away from it until late April next year.
I hate having to put it away for so long. Alaska is great but it has a relatively short boating season.
Off to Az. until April.
 
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