"We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds." Aristotle Onassis
"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership" Fay Wattleton
So this is the second strait year that I have been on a John Thies special with motor malfunctions. Second strait year that I journeyed out into the Prince William Sound in search of the elusive Black Tail deer. Second strait year no tasty freezer treats. I do feel like a bit of a black Mariah.
This years trip to PWS was on John's beautiful 28 ft. landing craft. He just got this vessel this Indian summer (if Alaska has Indian summers), and I was grateful at another shot at a hunting trip. I was prepared for the little suckers this time. I sighted the old 243 in. I had the water proof boots. I had the water proof slicks. Nothing could stop me from cutting through that wet Alaskan underbrush to get the good shot. Nothing except for an engine malfunction.
The day was Friday, and the weather in the sound was phenomenal. Mid 40's. Sun shining. Knight Passage was as flat as a kitchen table. We were getting in too late for hunting that day, but just in time to catch the tide for a try at some halibut or ling cod. We just settled in on on some nice hits, and John had just pulled a baby ling cod to the boat, when we decided to re-position. Or at least attempt to reposition.
John's boat suffered its first trial of its hopefully very successful life! Her main engine's wouldn't fire. After looking at the problem for a about an hour we attributed the problem to be electronic in nature. This shiny brand new diesel engine would turn over, but we didn't think that the computer was completing the communication process somewhere and they wouldn't light up. The new technology kind of left John bereft of immediate answers, and, of course my diesel skills could fit in tea cup. So we had to make an executive decision. Find a nice anchorage here on Knight Island, or get over to the other side of the sound were they maybe more traffic.
Since the weather was good, we decided to get across the passage. We would be really stuck out there on Knight island if the weather set in on us. At least Main Bay offered us higher boater traffic and there were even a few fishermen's cabins there that might have some insight on the problem. So Main Bay it was! We started off using the boats kicker engine, and we noticed some design flaws with the steering apparatus. The control lever required some tremendous pushing or pulling to initiate a turn, and when you did make the turn you would often overcorrect! Lets just say John was a little ticked off at Rogue Boats Inc..,
So with the steering impaired as it was John decided to disconnect the engineered steering system on the kicker. Using his best plays from MacGyver he engineered a new steering apparatus directly at the back of the boat using two Sierra Mist soda cans (full), two empty MGD cans (crushed), duck tape, and two oars. (check the picture out if you want a clearer idea of the arrangement!)
We eventually made Main Bay and our floating dock anchorage for the night. The time was 9:00PM and we were just finishing dinner and going over contingency plans for the following day. The first order of business was to look at the engine again and see if we could get it running. If that failed we'd get into radio range and phone Rogue's mechanic via satellite. If that didn't work, we would try to get a tow.
I had resigned to a long weekend of just getting back home, which was A.O.K in my book. Really, I had already crossed Knight Island, in the middle of Prince Williams Sound, using a kicker, on a beautiful Alaskan fall evening. What could I have been doing on a Friday night better? This situation was fine- merely testing in our capabilities! After dinner though, we noticed another light moving in on us from further out in the bay. A Bayliner had previous knowledge of our platform and wanted to dock here, as well, for the evening. We obliged them, and after he was secured we explained our situation. He respond back, "well, I'm a diesel mechanic" I almost fell over! I'd say that was pretty good luck.
John and Bryan (the other's boats mechanic) got the boat running the following morning, and decided that we could probably limp around these bays since we were already this far out in the sound. Why waste a trip, but John didn't want to go to much farther because the kicker engine (backup) was a serious pain in the butt right now. We headed off for Eshamy bay scouting for black bears. We were not having any luck, but we did stop by the Fish and Game cabin. The strange little building photographed is a sauna right over a creek bed. Very ingenuitive.
We didn't hang around this bay to long, the tide was getting right for fishing, but we were noticing the weather was severely decentralizing. The PWS gods were not with us on this trip! Waves were getting up passed the 4-6 ft. size, and I think there might have been a few 10 footers with rain. We high-tailed it back to our safe anchorage in Main Bay. The weather didn't stabilize until the next day.
So the evening passed uneventfully. The sound of the rain and wind just rattled off of John's boat, and when the morning came, we had better weather to contend with. The skies weren't clear, but the wind had subsided, so we started back to Whittier. We had some time to do a little more fishing, but obviously this was not the week for slamming the fish. We were successful in catching only a few Irish Lords and one dinky little halibut.
"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership" Fay Wattleton
So this is the second strait year that I have been on a John Thies special with motor malfunctions. Second strait year that I journeyed out into the Prince William Sound in search of the elusive Black Tail deer. Second strait year no tasty freezer treats. I do feel like a bit of a black Mariah.
This years trip to PWS was on John's beautiful 28 ft. landing craft. He just got this vessel this Indian summer (if Alaska has Indian summers), and I was grateful at another shot at a hunting trip. I was prepared for the little suckers this time. I sighted the old 243 in. I had the water proof boots. I had the water proof slicks. Nothing could stop me from cutting through that wet Alaskan underbrush to get the good shot. Nothing except for an engine malfunction.
The day was Friday, and the weather in the sound was phenomenal. Mid 40's. Sun shining. Knight Passage was as flat as a kitchen table. We were getting in too late for hunting that day, but just in time to catch the tide for a try at some halibut or ling cod. We just settled in on on some nice hits, and John had just pulled a baby ling cod to the boat, when we decided to re-position. Or at least attempt to reposition.
John's boat suffered its first trial of its hopefully very successful life! Her main engine's wouldn't fire. After looking at the problem for a about an hour we attributed the problem to be electronic in nature. This shiny brand new diesel engine would turn over, but we didn't think that the computer was completing the communication process somewhere and they wouldn't light up. The new technology kind of left John bereft of immediate answers, and, of course my diesel skills could fit in tea cup. So we had to make an executive decision. Find a nice anchorage here on Knight Island, or get over to the other side of the sound were they maybe more traffic.
Since the weather was good, we decided to get across the passage. We would be really stuck out there on Knight island if the weather set in on us. At least Main Bay offered us higher boater traffic and there were even a few fishermen's cabins there that might have some insight on the problem. So Main Bay it was! We started off using the boats kicker engine, and we noticed some design flaws with the steering apparatus. The control lever required some tremendous pushing or pulling to initiate a turn, and when you did make the turn you would often overcorrect! Lets just say John was a little ticked off at Rogue Boats Inc..,
So with the steering impaired as it was John decided to disconnect the engineered steering system on the kicker. Using his best plays from MacGyver he engineered a new steering apparatus directly at the back of the boat using two Sierra Mist soda cans (full), two empty MGD cans (crushed), duck tape, and two oars. (check the picture out if you want a clearer idea of the arrangement!)
We eventually made Main Bay and our floating dock anchorage for the night. The time was 9:00PM and we were just finishing dinner and going over contingency plans for the following day. The first order of business was to look at the engine again and see if we could get it running. If that failed we'd get into radio range and phone Rogue's mechanic via satellite. If that didn't work, we would try to get a tow.
I had resigned to a long weekend of just getting back home, which was A.O.K in my book. Really, I had already crossed Knight Island, in the middle of Prince Williams Sound, using a kicker, on a beautiful Alaskan fall evening. What could I have been doing on a Friday night better? This situation was fine- merely testing in our capabilities! After dinner though, we noticed another light moving in on us from further out in the bay. A Bayliner had previous knowledge of our platform and wanted to dock here, as well, for the evening. We obliged them, and after he was secured we explained our situation. He respond back, "well, I'm a diesel mechanic" I almost fell over! I'd say that was pretty good luck.
John and Bryan (the other's boats mechanic) got the boat running the following morning, and decided that we could probably limp around these bays since we were already this far out in the sound. Why waste a trip, but John didn't want to go to much farther because the kicker engine (backup) was a serious pain in the butt right now. We headed off for Eshamy bay scouting for black bears. We were not having any luck, but we did stop by the Fish and Game cabin. The strange little building photographed is a sauna right over a creek bed. Very ingenuitive.
We didn't hang around this bay to long, the tide was getting right for fishing, but we were noticing the weather was severely decentralizing. The PWS gods were not with us on this trip! Waves were getting up passed the 4-6 ft. size, and I think there might have been a few 10 footers with rain. We high-tailed it back to our safe anchorage in Main Bay. The weather didn't stabilize until the next day.
So the evening passed uneventfully. The sound of the rain and wind just rattled off of John's boat, and when the morning came, we had better weather to contend with. The skies weren't clear, but the wind had subsided, so we started back to Whittier. We had some time to do a little more fishing, but obviously this was not the week for slamming the fish. We were successful in catching only a few Irish Lords and one dinky little halibut.
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