Our 1988 30-foot Catalina, Emma Lee, is a fine looking boat. Dark blue canvas, bright white upper decks, glistening teak accents, and a light grey hull. She does not look her age. However, when one opens the engine compartment, one realizes that beauty is only skin deep. Twenty-seven years of being moored in the maritime climate of the Northwest is hard on one's arteries, including the electrical system.
In August 2014, we headed out for our summer San Juan/Canadian cruise under clear skies and fair winds. We had a pleasant evening at the Kingston Marina and decided to go up the east coast of Whidbey Island as we headed to the Skyline Marina west of Anacortes. After sighting Smith Island in the distance, I glanced down at the control panel and noticed that the alternator was not charging the battery. In checking the battery gauge, the voltage had dropped to 10.5 volts. Having a diesel engine with an electric fuel pump, this caused a bit of consternation. We turned off everything that sucked juice out of the battery and crossed our fingers that we could make it to the marina.
Unfortunately, crossing our fingers did not provide electricity to the fuel pump and our Universal 25XP died. But Emma Lee is a sailboat: We could just put up the sails. Unfortunately, there was no wind anywhere to be found. Fortunately, having known that our battery bank was not large enough to keep our refrigeration in the icebox running over multiple nights, I had brought a jump battery that was fully charged. After connecting it to the battery and waiting ten minutes, the engine turned over and we were back underway.
Once we got into the marina, I called my buddy Mike Beemer, who is with the Skagit Valley Marine Technology Center, and invited him to coffee the next morning. After arriving, he started to wiggle wires and, sure enough, the wire to the alternator was broken. A quick splice and all was good. Yahoo!
The next morning, we continued north to Eagle Harbor off Cypress Island. All seemed good, but the engine intermittently lost power for short periods of time. I thought I had fixed the problem the prior fall by cleaning out my dirty fuel tank and replacing the fuel filters. Why was this happening?
We successfully arrived at Sandy Point near Ferndale and had a crew change: My wife Jessica and daughter Hannah headed back to Olympia and two buddies joined me: Dan, who grew up north of Yellowstone and has been handy since a young boy, and Jim, who is a mechanic, woodworker, motorcyclist, and all-around fix-it guy. Needless to say, the perfect crew for an aging boat.
We started out on a pleasant afternoon . Soon after we departed, the wind died and we turned on the engine. All was good for the first five minutes but then, when crossing some waves, the engine started sputtering again. We got back up to normal cruising speed, but when I took a hard starboard turn to avoid a log, it sputtered again. We safely arrived in Fossil Bay on Sucia, dropped the anchor, and started to try and figure out what the problem might be. Clogged fuel filters? Loose wire? Once again, we started wiggling wires and found that the ground wire from the fuel pump to the engine block was likely the problem. The wire did not appear to be broken or frayed but, upon closer examination, we found that the wire was corroded internally and not creating a solid ground. We replaced the wire and once again all was fabulous.
While we had plans to head out to Barkley Sound, it seemed prudent, given our engine troubles, to head into the Canadian Gulf Islands and points north, which would keep us closer to marinas and mechanics. We had a great night at Nanaimo, a brisk sail across the Strait of Georgia, and a delightful evening with fellow boaters in Pirates Cove on the Sunshine Coast
The next morning, as we were motoring north on autopilot, I noticed that the autopilot was making constant adjustments. What was that about? We removed the hatch under the cockpit floor to inspect the wires that fed off the steering wheel to the drum on top of the rudder. The wires felt quite loose and Jim discovered that at least half of the strands in the cable were broken. A clevis pen had fallen from the pedestal and lodged on a pulley, which created a constant chafing that was slowly breaking the strands in the cable. This was not good. Any ideas of sailing in big wind and waves were dashed until we could replace the cable. We immediately hunted down the emergency tiller, made sure all the components were there, and headed to Garden Bay at the entrance to Jervis Inlet where we would get it repaired.
Thanks to magic of iPads and very expensive data, by the time that we had arrived at the marina we had located a replacement cable and chain on the Massachusetts based Edson Marine web site and had called them to see how quick they could deliver it. They were not able to ship it that afternoon, but would provide overnight delivery for about $100 so that it would be in Garden Bay two days later. Was that really possible? What about customs? How would they get it up 100 miles north of Vancouver in such a short period of time? We hoped it was possible, but prepared ourselves for the worse.
While we waited for the new cable, Jim began taking off the old cable and disassembling the drum on top of the rudder, which required loosening very corroded steel bolts screwed into the aluminum drum. It required one-half of a can of Blaster and a torch to expand and contract the bolts. Six hours later, we were ready to install the new cable, whenever it was to arrive.
In the meantime, we enjoyed the benefits of a fine little marina, including clean showers with warm water. One morning, as I am taking a shower and washing my hair, I leaned against, with my eyes closed, what I thought was the side of the shower, which turned out to be the door. It opened, I fell to the floor, and hit the metal handle on the door, which carved off a 2 inch flap of skin on the side of my head. This was not good. I quickly washed the blood off, found a compress, put on my clothes, walked out of the restroom, and encountered the captain of the marine safety vessel that was stationed in the harbor. He gladly gave me and Jim a lift to a nearby small, rural medical clinic.
When we arrived, we were told that a new, very young doctor, who they had not met, would be arriving in an hour. They were not sure if she was capable of doing stitches. In addition, she had a full schedule of appointments. About an hour later, we were called into a examination room and a very young female doctor joined us. She looked at the wound, smiled, and proclaimed that she loved to do stitches! She spent her winters at Whistler stitching up downhill skiers and snowboarders and was very proficient with a needle and thread. Thirty-minutes later I left the clinic with 18 stitches.
While having such an injury might appear to be a drag, it actually provided me a great opportunity to just hang out on the boat the rest of the day sleeping and reading.The following afternoon, as promised, the cable arrived from Massachusetts. We quickly installed it and we were soon on our way.
We then headed back across Georgia Strait and sailed/motored south through the Gulf Islands to Sydney Spit, where we spent a very pleasant evening among many jovial, fellow boaters. In the morning, when it was time to crank up the engine, nothing happened. No clicking of the fuel pump, no grinding of the engine, nothing. Once again, another problem to be solved.
After 30-minutes of jiggling and testing wires, we concluded it was a faulty ignition switch. The nearest replacement was a ride on the ferry that goes to Sydney. In a conversation with a powerboat neighbor, he indicated that he owned a Catalina for many years and knew how to jumpstart it. With the help of two screwdrivers, he was able to connect the solenoid with the ignition wire and the engine started right up. The boys then crafted a wire device that made it easier to connect the solenoid and the ignition wire, which we used to start the engine the rest of the trip.
It was a bright, sunny day as we headed back into Washington waters on our way to Friday Harbor. As we sailed the channel past Roche Harbor, the engine, once again, started sputtering. Keeping the engine at a low RPM made it possible to limp into Friday Harbor where we purchased a new primary fuel filter and installed it. That afternoon, we headed to the south end of Lopez Island.
The skies were clear and the winds blowing from the north at about 7 knots. I was great to be alive. However, soon after we departed, the engine started sputtering again. Darn! After taking several deep breaths we began to troubleshoot what the problem might be and I realized that the fuel hose was kinked when we installed the new fuel filter. Once the kink was removed, all was good. We had a pleasant evening in MacKaye Harbor and a delightful sail across the Straits and south back to Olympia.
By the time we arrived in Olympia, I had purchased a new wiring harness for the engine online from Catalina Direct and had figured out how to remove the fuel tank to clean it. Two months later, thanks to Paul Paroff, Emma Lee's engine was rewired and her fuel tank was removed, cleaned, and reinstalled. We also changed the radiator fluid and cleaned out the heat exchanger. Since then, we have taken her north for two races in Tacoma and Des Moines and been to Seattle: Her engine has worked flawlessly.
In retrospect, it was a great trip. While we had beautiful sunsets and a few days of great winds, we also had the opportunity to solve lots of problems, which provided plenty of bonding opportunities and great material for stories and articles for newsletters like Ship-to-Shore.
Bob Butts, Emma Lee