We left False Pass late so Wade didn’t wake Sara until 5:30 am. Wow! He’s a wonderful husband! Wade tried to sleep as much as he could but after around 4 hours of sleep the wind started to pick up and Sara let out the mainsail and Wade woke up. He grabbed his morning hard boiled eggs and started peeling them near the back of the boat. He noticed white smoke or steam coming from the exhaust. Sara said, “I noticed the exhaust was smokier about 30 minutes ago, so I stuck my head over the side of the boat and saw water being expelled with the exhaust, so I thought I should I would just keep my eye on it before waking you. Maybe it’s because of the cold air?” Wade had also seen that water was still being expelled with the exhaust, but we both thought there should be more water. To prevent the engine from overheating Wade decided it was a good time to change the raw water pump impeller.
Fun Fact most sailboats use sea water to cool the engine so water is drawn into the boat by use of an engine driven pump with a rubber impeller. The raw sea water flows through a heat exchanger that removes heat from the engine antifreeze and is then expelled out the exhaust, which also keeps the exhaust plumbing at a cool temperature.
Wade got out his tools and a spare impeller. For easier access he removed the alternator. Once the impeller backing/retaining plate was removed, sea water began coming out. Wade did not think the pump was below sea level, but the water did not quit coming so we quickly emptied the back room to access the engine thru hull and shut the valve. The water stopped pouring in the boat and Wade was able to expertly replace the impeller and the boat was a giant mess of stuff all out of it’s storage lockers. The old impeller had a few missing rubber vanes, which was self evident of it being the problem. Six years is the length of service received from this last impeller.
We fired up the engine, there was no steam from the exhaust and significantly more water was also coming out the exhaust. The additional water going through the system cooled the exhaust gasses and exiting water to an amount that no longer was there steam upon being released into Alaska air of 50 degrees. Our engine is probably thinking to itself, “I though this is a sailboat?! But I’m sure getting a workout!” After the engine ran for awhile and water was bailed out we put the boat back together and continued on our way.
During the bulk of the repair, Sara was in the cockpit sailing around dozens of fishing vessels and big cargo ships as we passed near Unimak Pass. Our speed over ground from the mainsail was 1.3 to 3 knots during this time. The wind had shifted on the nose again so we weren’t pointing towards Dutch Harbor, but for Hot Springs Bay, Akutan Island. Sound nice right, haha! As nice as it sounds the winds were supposed to get stronger from the southwest over the next few days and we wanted to make Dutch Harbor. So we are again motoring into the wind and the heavy currents creating a feeling like we are motoring in a washing machine agitate cycle. Blah Blah.
We have heard from friends of a spring/early summer krill bloom that happens around Unimak Pass. We kept trying to pin down when it happens, but we couldn’t learn any additional specifics. The saddest and coolest part of the krill bloom is all of the things that feed off them. It is like their duty in life is to be food for others Back to the “cool” part, we saw thousands and thousands of birds flying and sitting around us as we sailed. We also saw whales all around us and dall porpoises jumping. We are not sure if this was the krill bloom mentioned by others but it was pretty spectacular.
After writing this noon report, Wade assumed watch and Sara went to bed. Something changed . . . wind, real wind, enough wind we could sail. Wade put up full main sail and the stay sail, as smaller foresail, and we sailed as close as we could to the wind and with a little motor assist we were cruising 8 knots. Wade woke Sara up a half hour before we pulled into east channel, the entrance to Dutch Harbor marina, and thankfully there was space at the dock so we tied up for the night.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Underway Noon Position 54° 27.805’N, 165° 30.689W
Current Position Dutch Harbor Marina 53° 52.571’N, 166° 33.112W Great VHF Weather Signal, Great SSB Signal, No Data Iridium Go connection
To find where are Wade, Sara, and SV Just Drifting were at noon, copy and paste these coordinates 54.46341667,-165.51048333 into Google Maps!
To find where are Wade, Sara, and SV Just Drifting, copy and paste these coordinates 53.876198333,-166.55186667 into Google Maps!
