Saved from defeat?

 

Larry prepares to dive

Yesterday morning Larry wrote the following letter to our fellow Northwest Passage boat crews and to Claude and David Lloyd …

“After sailing much of the way from C.Bathurst to Tuk, we started the engine about 40 miles before Tuktoyaktuk as the winds faded.  There was considerable vibration accompanied by water ingress around the prop-shaft seal.  We established that we could power at slightly over idle [just under 4 knots] without vibration or water ingress.  Thus it was a very slow trip to and entry into Tuk.

A dive in Tuk's muddy MacKenzie waters [visibility about 6 inches] found that the cutless bearing has play in it and that the blades of the feathering propeller seem excessively loose.

We do not feel we can continue safely…”

Rad, Alec and Dale

We were about to move here for the winter (organizing mail box, cell phone, possible accomodation etc.) but Larry decided to check the engine one last time and he noticed something STRANGE. A call to Yanmar Canada (the engine people) confirmed his suspicion was correct … one engine mount had a severed bolt which was well hidden and impossible to suspect previously. Meanwhile, we had to get off the dock and we called the Coast Guard to arrange for a safe place to keep our sick boat in any type of weather.


A white truck pulled up outside the dock and three men got out. They had heard our call to the Coast Guard on Channel 16 and offered us safe haven tied to one of the barges of their owner – Horizon North – a Vancouver company which provisions this north country over the short summer season. One of them – a master mechanic – had a look at the engine and said he could help and he stayed with us on the trip over and then set to work – welding first one and then a second compromised engine mount. It has now turned out that during the course of this journey ALL FOUR engine mounts were sheared – probably one at a time following weakening in a previously described altercation with fishing gear in England. The engine has been simply resting there, and letting in increasing amounts of water when we raise the RPM.

Radovan Sumera and Larry

Radovan Sumera spent hours helping us last night, and will be back this morning to mend the third and fourth engine mounts. After that, the engine will need to be aligned with the propeller shaft and tested and with the mounts all secured, we SHOULD be on our way once again. 

Our sincere thanks to Horizon North and to Rad, Alec and Dale for coming to the rescue!