Disaster at sea!

When things go wrong, they really go wrong!

After a quiet night in Codville Lagoon, we decided to head towards Shearwater.  Leaving the anchorage around noon, we first circled around Codville Island which is in the center of the Lagoon.  As we came to the west side, we were hit by some pretty nasty winds and the weather seemed to be turning for the worse and we were not even in the open strait yet, so we decided to just keep going around the island, and ultimately ended up anchoring right where we started.  Total mileage about 2.7 for the day.

The next morning, the weather seemed much calmer, so we headed out of the Lagoon, back into Fitz Hugh Sound and, about an hour later, into Lama Passage, a relatively narrow channel that would lead us to the settlements of Bella Bella and Shearwater.

As soon as we entered the passage, strange noises started coming from the engine compartment.  A quick survey seemed to indicate that the Raw Water pump was failing.  We quickly turned off the engine and attempted to sail upwind through the passage, while I attempted to further assess the damage.  It became apparent that the pump was OK but was its pulley was rubbing against the thru-hull fitting that should not have been that close to it.  Thinking that the raw water pump mount must be bending, I jury-rigged a quick fix with some lumber to hold the two apart, allowing us to run the engine although it still did not sound too good.

Fighting a now 20 knot wind against us, and some building seas and pouring rain that suddenly came from nowhere, we managed some slow progress up the channel to the nearest anchorage I could find on the chart - a place called Fancy Cove.  We managed to get the sails down and get into the cove where we got the anchor down.  This was not a great anchorage for the prevailing winds, but better than nothing.

While the boat wandered around on its tether, I further assessed the damage, only to discover that the problem we much worse than I originally thought - one of the front engine mounts had snapped in half, explaining why the front of the engine had dropped so far down to allow the pump pulley to come into contact with the thru-hull fitting.  The pulley had managed to carve a pretty good grove in the soft bronze fitting, fortunately not all the way through as yet - the pulley itself seemed to be perfectly OK.

As we were only about 10 miles from Shearwater, I decided we could get there under our own steam with a little more jury-rigging.  I rigged a block and tackle from an outside cleat, through the overhead hatch and connected to the top of the engine to allow me to lift it to approximately the right height.  This solved the raw water pump issue but left the prop shaft somewhat unaligned - not much more I could do for it though.

In the morning, after a restless night, we got away about 7 AM to take advantage of the perfectly calm conditions that usually persist at that time.  Indeed, we had no wind at all and the seas were flat.  Although we could only motor at severely reduced RPM, we were able to limp all the way to the Shearwater Marina by about 9:30, where they found us a spot near the mechanics. Fortunately for us, this is the only place between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert that has any major marine repair ability.  When we took a really good look at the problem, it became obvious that both of the front engine mounts had broken - I'm not sure what was holding the engine up before I got my block and tackle on it.

By the end of the day, we had the engine lifted up, the broken pieces of the mounts off and re-welded (and hopefully a little better reinforced) and had the engine back down again.  As I write this, we are awaiting another mechanic who will attempt to get our prop shaft re-aligned - the way it is now we would not get far.

On the down side, we are somewhat stressed out.

On the plus side, the weather has turned quite pleasant again and they have a restaurant and pub here.

BTW - Since I have found internet access here, I have added a couple of pictures onto the last couple of posts, reflecting happier times.