Day 10 of the 1st Voyage: In which we have a $30 part flown in by seaplane because that’s how we roll.

The primary reason we chose to begin the odyssey by travelling the Inside Passage to Alaska and not head straight to warmer climes is twofold. For one, the Captain is the only one with any experience and this will give the rest of us an opportunity for some “on the job” training so to speak before we hit the really big water. In other words, if something should happen to the Captain, the only thing we’re qualified to do is throw him the life ring, then watch as he grows smaller in the distance. With some proper training, however, we’d be able to throw him the life ring, radio the Coast Guard, and then watch him grow smaller in the distance. What? Like we know how to turn a boat off? I think you have to have Navy training for that.

The other reason we chose the Inside Passage is what we like to call our “better here than out there” philosophy. In her 32 years of service, Raven has crossed the Atlantic thrice and spent years cruising through the Caribbean, up and down the coast of Mexico, and all over Puget Sound. However, from 2010 until we purchased her in 2013, she had been dormant—dock-bound at the brokerage, rarely taken out, not well maintained. The old girl was a little rusty, and a lot of her systems needed updating. She needed new sails, updated electronics, a top end rebuild of the diesel engine, a bottom job--and those were just the larger items. In the past two years, the Captain has put a lot of work—and love—into bringing her back to life and making her seaworthy once again. He has spent countless hours scrubbing, sanding, repainting decks, varnishing teak, installing new running rigging, running wires for electronics, installing radar and GPS, installing solar, building davits, replacing hoses and pumps, installing new switches and relays, updating lighting, etc., and that doesn’t account for the time just fixing things. The number of systems (and all their potential problems) aboard Raven is mind-boggling and I’m pretty sure they’ve all gotten in line for an opportunity to take the Captain down. But they haven’t beaten him yet. He belongs to the “get your hands in there and get them dirty” school of training where you work things out by thinking them through and then rearranging all the parts so that it makes sense. So far, it’s Captain = 62, Systems = 0. Today, the water maker threw its hat into the ring.

The water maker is a nifty piece of equipment in which we can…wait for it…make our own water. Didn’t see that coming, did you? But in actuality, when properly functioning, we can pull water out of the sea, desalinate it, run it through some filters, and turn it into very good drinking water. We have the capacity to make upwards of 400 gallons of water a day. Today, unfortunately, all the water we were making was spewing out into the boat, as in INTO the boat and not the holding tanks. Bring out the towels! The culprit, as discovered by the Captain, was a fitting on one of the hoses that was 1/16^th too large. The water maker had been recently serviced and, come to find out later, the “expert” didn’t have the right part, so he “improvised”. Glad we didn’t hire him to service our life raft—would hate to pull the ring and have an inflatable duck pop out because he was “improvising” that day. Needless to say, new hose plus improper fitting meant no spare on board. Editor’s Note: Raven is a model in redundancy. Not only do we have backup safety, navigation, and electronics systems on board, we also carry spares of just about every part imaginable: from bilge pumps, props, and anchors to filters, impellers, and fuses. Had we the room to carry more teak than we do, we could probably build a backup Raven.

Unfazed—and not finding the part at any of the marine supply stores in Friday Harbor—the Captain put in a call to Seattle. This was at 8:30 in the morning. The part arrived via seaplane on their scheduled flight at noon. The water maker was fixed and running by 12:30. Captain = 63, Systems = 0.

In the end, we’re glad it happened because “better here” where we’re within a day or two of parts and/or service “than out there” in the middle of the ocean where, as the Captain likes to say, “God lost his shoes.”

Editor’s Note: There is one system on Raven that was an “add on” and one in which the Captain was not a proponent: Raven is now equipped with air conditioning. Since we will ultimately be taking Raven down south—as in equatorial south—the Deck Boss insisted on having “coolth” installed. Given the unusually high temperatures the past two weeks, the A/C has already made this a much more pleasant journey and it has not gone unnoticed that the Captain seems to be enjoying the “coolth” the most. So much so, that he did concede to the Deck Boss, “Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. More cocoa?”

Also a shout out to Kenmore Air. Their same-day courier service to anywhere they fly is a flat $25.00. We couldn’t have fixed our water maker without them. (What? You think we have THAT kind of money?)

 

Pictured: Kenmore Air. Your pilot is Gary. Your copilot is a hose gasket.