Gopher Broke is Headin' Home

[BDofMSP]

Me too. I have a professional captain who does occasional trips for me. I pay him by the trip. All I had to do was send his resume and the $30 into Boat US/Geico.

HOWSOMEVER, the insurer did tell me that while under the captains control, the boat is only insured for liability, not damage to the boat. They would not insure for damage to the boat itself.

That's who I'm with right now and that endorsement had no such caveat. Thankfully!

 

[BDofMSP]

Everybody loves pics...

Here are a couple pictures I just got from the yard. The starboard shaft is pulled, and you can definitely see the bend at the bottom of the strut here. They're working on the port removal now. Strut removal scheduled for Monday.

The other photo is of her transom with the name removed. Pretty good I'd say!

BD

 

[ranger58sb]

BD, what's that dingy davit system?

-Chris

 

[ljk]

Insurance

Time to find another insurer,

Good advice. I am checking with Pau Hana, our resident marine insurance expert, now!

 

[BDofMSP]

BD, what's that dingy davit system?

-Chris

Sorry for the delay. Honestly I can't remember the name of the manufacturer. It is a Canadian company. The documentation is on board so it will be awhile before I get back to it.

I will say it's pretty slick. Motor mounted to the top of the front post, connect the strap and winch it up basically just like a trailer works. Rolls over the rollers and hits the stop. The only problem is that the way they installed it the cover for the boarding / swim ladder hits it. Minor adjustments will be required, but haven't been prioritized yet.

BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Status update.

Shafts both removed and measured. Starboard off 15 thousandths and port off 8. Kahlenberg thinks that they can straighten both of them, but need to measure themselves. They expect a work-week turn around. They will get them tomorrow AM. Interesting note, Silverton painted the shafts for some reason, including inboard. That extra thickness all had to be sanded off in order to pull the shafts. They said they've only seen that a couple times before.

Struts both removed, and new ones supposed to arrive today.

Assuming all goes to plan, we should get the parts early next week, install mid week, align and test late week, in time for us to leave that weekend. Fingers crossed.
BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Man, glad I'm on the hard tonight! 18 ...

GALE WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING...
Rest Of Tonight
Southeast gales to 40 kt becoming south gales to 45 kt. Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Waves 5 to 8 ft occasionally to 10 ft building to 10 to 14 ft occasionally to 18 ft.
Wednesday
Southwest gales to 40 kt becoming south 10 to 20 kt. Slight chance of showers in the morning, then showers likely in the afternoon. Waves 10 to 14 ft occasionally to 18 ft subsiding to 4 to 6 ft occasionally to 8 ft.

 

[rslifkin]

Man, glad I'm on the hard tonight! 18 ...

GALE WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING...
Rest Of Tonight
Southeast gales to 40 kt becoming south gales to 45 kt. Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Waves 5 to 8 ft occasionally to 10 ft building to 10 to 14 ft occasionally to 18 ft.
Wednesday
Southwest gales to 40 kt becoming south 10 to 20 kt. Slight chance of showers in the morning, then showers likely in the afternoon. Waves 10 to 14 ft occasionally to 18 ft subsiding to 4 to 6 ft occasionally to 8 ft.

Sounds like some good Great Lakes weather to me!

 

[rgano]

Sounds like some good Great Lakes weather to me!

I believe that is the remnants of Tropical Storm Cristobal - welcome to our Gulf Coast world.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

BD, where is your slip in Bayfield?

We are in the Apostle Islands Marina, right in town.

Once you get there we should have a Trawler Forum Happy Hour and see if we can scare up any more members in the area.

 

[BDofMSP]

BD, where is your slip in Bayfield?

We are in the Apostle Islands Marina, right in town.

Once you get there we should have a Trawler Forum Happy Hour and see if we can scare up any more members in the area.

Eagle - so sorry I missed this post!

We're at Pikes Bay. We do have a couple trawlers in the marina but none are members. Of course, I don't own a trawler so maybe there's hope for converting some others!

Seriously hoping we're there by July.
BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Another update. Sorry there hasn't been much to say up to this point.

Kahlenberg contacted the yard today and said that the shafts can be straightened and would be done by Wednesday. Yard will reinstall "ASAP" Thursday, but there's clearly a lot of work to do there. I'm just praying that at least they can splash her by EOD Friday so that we could stay on it for the weekend! We've got a number of projects that we'd like to start, but would need a place to stay (because, dog).

Even if we need to wait for Monday for sea trial, etc I'm hoping that we can spend the weekend there. If not, we'll leave as soon as we can but we're starting to try the patience of some of our work relationships with all the reschedules. With the 4th coming up people want some certainty and we keep changing our story.

One other item of note. Yard finally provided the estimate that the insurance company has been waiting for for weeks now. And it was simply "labor", "Parts", and "Subs" (Kahlenberg). Insurance surveyor said that they need to see details and approve the costs to be "reasonable and customary" for each job and part. Not at ALL what I wanted to hear now that 80% of the costs are sunk and there's no way around the other 20% - boat can't go back in the water without them.

I've never made a marine claim in my life, and I made that clear to both parties when this started. I have NO idea what the process is, I assumed that the insurance company would make those details clear to me (they didn't) and that the yard was used to dealing with this all the time and would be providing what was needed (they didn't). Everyone says it's everyone else's fault and responsibility. Ironically the only party that has NEVER commented once in this process is Geico themselves. The surveyor is just a sub for them - doesn't even have access to their systems. Only sees what documents I or emails provide him. He specifically called them out in an email asking them to update me on policies around "tear down expenses" which they never did, even when I asked them to. Fortunately Pau Hana (Peter) did once I emailed him, but Geico has been silent.

The high level estimate seems pretty reasonable to me and both sides (except Geico) have told me not to worry, so I'm not going to. But not a fun way to start the process of wrapping up this visit and claim.

BD

 

[BandB]

Another update. Sorry there hasn't been much to say up to this point.

Kahlenberg contacted the yard today and said that the shafts can be straightened and would be done by Wednesday. Yard will reinstall "ASAP" Thursday, but there's clearly a lot of work to do there. I'm just praying that at least they can splash her by EOD Friday so that we could stay on it for the weekend! We've got a number of projects that we'd like to start, but would need a place to stay (because, dog).

Even if we need to wait for Monday for sea trial, etc I'm hoping that we can spend the weekend there. If not, we'll leave as soon as we can but we're starting to try the patience of some of our work relationships with all the reschedules. With the 4th coming up people want some certainty and we keep changing our story.

One other item of note. Yard finally provided the estimate that the insurance company has been waiting for for weeks now. And it was simply "labor", "Parts", and "Subs" (Kahlenberg). Insurance surveyor said that they need to see details and approve the costs to be "reasonable and customary" for each job and part. Not at ALL what I wanted to hear now that 80% of the costs are sunk and there's no way around the other 20% - boat can't go back in the water without them.

I've never made a marine claim in my life, and I made that clear to both parties when this started. I have NO idea what the process is, I assumed that the insurance company would make those details clear to me (they didn't) and that the yard was used to dealing with this all the time and would be providing what was needed (they didn't). Everyone says it's everyone else's fault and responsibility. Ironically the only party that has NEVER commented once in this process is Geico themselves. The surveyor is just a sub for them - doesn't even have access to their systems. Only sees what documents I or emails provide him. He specifically called them out in an email asking them to update me on policies around "tear down expenses" which they never did, even when I asked them to. Fortunately Pau Hana (Peter) did once I emailed him, but Geico has been silent.

The high level estimate seems pretty reasonable to me and both sides (except Geico) have told me not to worry, so I'm not going to. But not a fun way to start the process of wrapping up this visit and claim.

BD

It will work out but I'd never accept a high level estimate like that. Need to have detail. The yard should be knowledgeable in that regard.

 

[BDofMSP]

It will work out but I'd never accept a high level estimate like that. Need to have detail. The yard should be knowledgeable in that regard.

I agree. And I told the yard the same. This isn't their first interaction with an insurance claim. Their position is that they don't deal with the insurance, I do. My reply was that they're not serving their customers well if they don't do what they can to facilitate that. Plus I can't break out their estimate for them.
BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Update. I was forced to put all work on hold until new estimates were prepared and reviewed and approved. These estimates will be delivered today, but I have no commitment on turnaround. In the meantime, the guy working on installing my struts only got one done before he was told to stop, so even though the shafts will be delivered tomorrow, we're not ready for installation. That guy has be reassigned to another project and has broken down his tools and setup, so I'm now back in the waiting line for an installer.

So much for leaving on Monday. Lucky if we're done a week from now, maybe more.

BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Surveyor received the detailed estimate yesterday. Says he won't look at it until tomorrow, and then he turns it over to the adjuster. Lucky if we're back to working on it again in a week I'd say.
BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Bingo. Exactly A week - they start working again tomorrow. I will hold back telling the details for now but suffice it to say this whole week of downtime was completely unnecessary and accomplished nothing.

With luck we splash Monday.
BD

 

[BDofMSP]

Made it back to the boat today. Very satisfying to see her and it was great to see that both shafts are already installed Monday work should wrap up quickly. I would love to get a jump on the trip and make Beaver Island Monday afternoon perhaps, but not likely. We did get a lot of small projects done today though, and feel good about leaving. Unfortunately I did not get all the engine anodes switched for freshwater because I couldn't get some of them loose. Next ones will have antiseize on the threads. Tomorrow we'll provision and get everything stowed and prepped. Then it will be time to get excited.

The insurance situation has reached a new low. The initial settlement missed 75% of the labor and nobody noticed. The good side is that I've finally gotten a supervisor involved and at least someone is communicating with me. Hopefully this clears up easily.

 

[BDofMSP]

BD, what's that dingy davit system?

-Chris

The dinghy system is from Sea Weed Marine. It's the tendr rollers series.
https://seaweedmarine.com/tendr-rollers/

I have to say that in the few times I've used it, it's performed great. I do need to evaluate it's adjustability next. We blew a dinghy tube and ordered a new one well over a month ago, but it's not delivered yet. Once it does we'll have to adjust some things.

BD

 

[ranger58sb]

The dinghy system is from Sea Weed Marine. It's the tendr rollers series.

I have to say that in the few times I've used it, it's performed great. I do need to evaluate it's adjustability next. We blew a dinghy tube and ordered a new one well over a month ago, but it's not delivered yet. Once it does we'll have to adjust some things.

Thanks. The one we had from Jatco worked similarly, easy.

-Chris

 

[rgano]

Made it back to the boat today. Very satisfying to see her and it was great to see that both shafts are already installed Monday work should wrap up quickly. I would love to get a jump on the trip and make Beaver Island Monday afternoon perhaps, but not likely. We did get a lot of small projects done today though, and feel good about leaving. Unfortunately I did not get all the engine anodes switched for freshwater because I couldn't get some of them loose. Next ones will have antiseize on the threads. Tomorrow we'll provision and get everything stowed and prepped. Then it will be time to get excited.

The insurance situation has reached a new low. The initial settlement missed 75% of the labor and nobody noticed. The good side is that I've finally gotten a supervisor involved and at least someone is communicating with me. Hopefully this clears up easily.

If the anode holders are frozen in place, I would assume that they have not been checked in a very long time. If that is so, them there is no anode protection going on because there is no anode left. I suggest removing and checking all anodes every 90 days or less. I do.

 

[Codger2]

I suggest removing and checking all anodes every 90 days or less. I do.

WOW! Rich, have you ever googled OCD!

 

[rgano]

WOW! Rich, have you ever googled OCD!

Of course I have. That definition is way too mild for me. If I wait six months, I am gonna have those big chunks of anode where I don't want them. I remove them at 90 days and wrap in a rag and hammer off any used up parts and reinsert for the other 90 days I get from them. This is an engine flushed with freshwater and hanging in the lift. I do not have any other anodes on the boat, shaft or hull or rudder.

 

[BDofMSP]

If the anode holders are frozen in place, I would assume that they have not been checked in a very long time. If that is so, them there is no anode protection going on because there is no anode left. I suggest removing and checking all anodes every 90 days or less. I do.

All anodes were basically 90% remaining except one that was broken off. That will have to be recovered at some point. They were removed because they were zinc, not magnesium, and now all are replaced. Thanks completely goes to my brother who was able to fit outboard due to his comparative lack of cheeseburger consumption.

The new ones were installed with anti seize.

BD

 

[BDofMSP]

OK! So we are BACK on the move! Could not be more thrilled.

Had a great day crossing from Sturgeon Bay and made Mackinaw City Marina. A bit of fog but nothing concerning, basically flat seas until Beaver Island where things picked up quickly and considerably through the Strait. 2-3 ft through there but nothing worrisome. Really the only excitement was the last 2 miles to the marina where there were 3 sailboats, 4 power boats, a dredge, and two ferries all converging at the same time to the same point. It was only exciting for about 5 minutes until I reminded myself that the marina was already closed and I had nothing to hurry in for. I laid back.

Well actually there was one more bit. Coming into the dock gusts blew up to about 25 and we were blown into the dock face directly sideways at much more force than we were planning. Boat was fine but two 4x4 posts were loudly complaining about the event. Slip holders on the other side told me that it happens constantly due the the prevailing east winds through the strait, and that three posts (including one I hit) have been replaced already this year.

Tomorrow is a short day - just up to Sault Ste Marie. We can't really lock through because there's no marinas on that side and our dinghy tube is still popped (dog needs to get to shore!). Our next day course is a straight crossing to Copper Harbor, so any move down the shore towards Grand Marais or Marquette is just additional time and fuel.

Looking forward to the short day though. My brother joined us and he's a hard worker and knowledgeable and savvy. For example today since we had plenty of time on our hands during the crossing, he got down and put a brush on a handle and scrubbed the bilge clean. Can't buy that kind of help! If we get in early we'll get a chance to clean and buff and remove the residue of thousands of miles of hard delivery.

I do have to add, even though our schedule and agenda is very close to what it was with my delivery captain / crew, the experience of cruising with family is IMMENSELY satisfying. The fact that you're sharing experiences that you will remember and build on is really meaningful, and makes the dollars, days, and drama fade away very quickly. This is why we do this, right?

OK - off to check weather and seas. Thanks for following.
BD

 

[Rufus]

So what was the tally for the misadventure into the mud?

 

[IRENE]

Great posts, thank you.

I previously lived where you are tonight. That run tomorrow is a haul - hope the wx cooperates.

What kind of speed will you make if conditions permit?

 

[BDofMSP]

Today Lake Huron was flat calm, with just a little fog/haze. Very little traffic and almost no freighters to dodge on the St Marys.

We cruise 18 knots at 2250 rpm and burn about 32 gallons an hour on 450 gallon tankage. There's no current to speak of so that's very consistent.

Tomorrow should be about 8ish hours of cruise time plus lock time. Seas should be calm and skies fair. Winds maybe 10-15 when we arrive but much calmer in the morning. Just a nice ride on the boat!
BD

PS - had time this afternoon so my brother and I replaced the engine belts. I had planned to do it when I got home but opportunity knocked.

 

[ljk]

Today Lake Huron was flat calm, with just a little fog/haze. Very little traffic and almost no freighters to dodge on the St Marys.

We cruise 18 knots at 2250 rpm and burn about 32 gallons an hour on 450 gallon tankage. There's no current to speak of so that's very consistent.

Tomorrow should be about 8ish hours of cruise time plus lock time. Seas should be calm and skies fair. Winds maybe 10-15 when we arrive but much calmer in the morning. Just a nice ride on the boat!
BD

PS - had time this afternoon so my brother and I replaced the engine belts. I had planned to do it when I got home but opportunity knocked.

Once again, I cant tell you how much I am enjoying this thread! Memories!

 

[BDofMSP]

OMG what a day. It was SO COLD out there today, like hypothermia cold. Everything I brought with me I wore cold.

Plus the fog was so thick and for really long stretches. Fortunately it didn't start until we were so far out that the chances of encountering boats small enough to not show up on radar was pretty much zero. Seas were calm however, until about the last 2-3 hours, then 1s became 2s and 3s. Lots of big ship traffic, although few actually in play. Tough ending.

We were really lucky to parallel an 800 ft cargo ship about 3 miles East of us. He was making 13 knots and I was 18. Just knowing someone was close and viewable, and could also see me on AIS and radar was very comforting. We did check in once before we passed to make sure that was true and indeed they had been "watching" us (on AIS and radar because fog) and were curious. Anyway since we had similar speeds we were within 30 miles of them for a huge portion of the trip.

Once we were simply 100 yards inside the harbor the temp jumped to high 80s and had to shed 7 layers instantly. Copper Harbor is beautiful and I wish we could spend more time here (without Covid). We will certainly.

Hard to believe this is the last night. Tomorrow there will be MUCH rejoicing! Fingers crossed.