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Monthly Archives: June 2013

Transiting the West Coast of the United States was our first voyage in the “new to us” Sea Eagle. With the short weather windows that appear on the “Left Coast” and the very constrained schedules of our crew, we decided to run non-stop for the entire trip.

Captain Mike Ferguson at the wheel of the Sea Eagle.  Notice the blackout curtain on the ceiling.

Captain Mike Ferguson at the wheel of the Sea Eagle. Notice the blackout curtain on the ceiling. Mike’s comment when he first sat down in the Stidd Helm Chair was, ‘you know, you’ll never get me out of this chair’!

With a four person crew, each would stand two, 3 hour watches per day. The most experienced members of the crew, licensed Captains Scott Boyd and Mike Ferguson, stood the 00:00 to 03:00 and 03:00 to 06:00 watches, followed by Jim Randall from 06:00 to 09:00 and Janet Boyd from 09:00 to noon. Jim worked double duty the entire trip, staying up with Janet (the least experienced) to make sure she always had help available if she didn’t understand something on the Radar.

Radar, AIS and a dark pilothouse are some of the tools for a successful night passage. Notice the Blackout Curtain on the ceiling of the pilothouse in the photo above. This keeps the glare from the instruments from reflecting off of the white ceiling and helps significantly with the watch stander’s night vision, as does the red interior courtesy lights.

Engine room checks were performed every hour for the first 24 hours underway, then we reduced the checks to once or twice per three hour watch. During the 5.5 days underway, the only issue that had to be addressed was a leak in the steering system components that had just been installed by the yard.

The three hour watches are easy on the crew, allow for plenty of rest and relaxation. Here you can see some of the crew reading and relaxing in the pilothouse. It’s a tough life, isn’t it? 😉

Jim Randall and Nancy Ferguson relaxing in the Pilothouse while off duty.  Notice the Ditch Bag ready to go on the watch berth?

Jim Randall and Nancy Ferguson relaxing in the Pilothouse while off duty. Notice the Ditch Bag ready to go on the watch berth?

Admiral Janet Boyd letting the captain know what she thinks he's number 1.

Admiral Janet Boyd letting the captain know what she still thinks he’s number 1.

The Odometer on the Sea Eagle showing more than 18,000 miles under her keel.

The Odometer on the Sea Eagle showing more than 18,000 miles under her keel.

After a few weeks of repairs and preparation for our first voyage, we assembled a crew in Sausalito and waited on a weather window to head north. I’d been watching the weather at Cape Mendocino for weeks and it had been howling winds and towering seas. We saw a brief period of calm weather in the forecast, but realized we would have to leave San Francisco under pretty harsh conditions in order to cross the Cape in calm weather.

The crew was up for the task and we departed at 05:00 on Sunday morning (6/16/2013), heading out under the Golden Gate Bridge, over the San Francisco Bar and turning Northwest into 8-10′ seas that were only 8 seconds apart. Sea Eagle was not worried about the weather, but she was bucking and pitching as she pounded her way into the head seas for 24 hours until we rounded Point Arena.

Conditions calmed as we approached Cape Mendocino and the crew collectively sighed with relief as we turned the corner and headed North!

Cape Blanco in Southern Oregon lived up to its reputation and we briefly considered ducking into Coos Bay to ride out the storm, but elected instead to push on north. Sea Eagle was riding well and most of the weather was out of the SouthWest, which is much more pleasant than the usual Bashing one takes from the prevailing North Westerlies.

From Coos Bay, we headed far offshore on a Rhumb line for Cape Flattery. Losing Cellular Signals for a couple of days, but saving almost a half-day of travel. We had fairly calm conditions 40 miles off of the Columbia River and as we proceeded up the Washington Coast, the weather switched to the North West and became rather nasty.

Sea Eagle in her new home slip in Tacoma, WA.

Sea Eagle in her new home slip in Tacoma, WA.

Sea Eagle soldiered on, and we eventually sighted Tatoosh Island and turned the corner into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. We listened to the weather and found out there were Gale Force winds in the Straits (Oh Boy)! Local knowledge saved the day, with both Mike and Scott having years of experience running charters out of Neah Bay. We hugged the South Shore of the Straits and had very moderate conditions, even though it was blowing 40 knots over at Race Rocks.

Sea Eagle arrived in Tacoma, safe and sound on Friday, June 21st (the first day of Summer), having traveled 850 miles in 5 days on her very first cruise with her new owners. Not a bad way to start summer and our adventure!

The starboard boom is rigged for paravanes at the dock.

The starboard boom is rigged for paravanes at the dock.

One of the unique features of Sea Eagle is that she has both hydraulic stabilizers AND paravanes, which is unusual because she has no real mast. However, the original owner of the boat reinforced the fiberglass stack and rigged up a set of small birds to supplement the ABT stabilizers. This can be extremely useful when the boat is at sea and the stabilizers fail.

Dropping the birds in the water can keep the trip from becoming seriously uncomfortable. On Sunday, Frank and Marlies visited the boat and showed us how to rig the paravanes, using the Forespar Flopper-Stopper poles and some custom rigging (including sailboat winches placed fore and aft).

The system is fairly simple, but there is NO way I would have figured it out without someone showing me what wire goes where.

This is one of the "fish" sitting in the storage pocket on the transom.

This is one of the “fish” sitting in the storage pocket on the transom.

After days and days of repairs and getting the boat ready for her trip up the coast, we finally caught up and took Sea Eagle out for a very pleasurable cruise around San Francisco Bay. We played tourist and did a slow putz by the Golden Gate bridge and then headed over to Alcatraz island to see that very famous bit of history.

San Francisco's landmark bridge.

San Francisco’s landmark bridge.


I was looking for Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery (the Rock), but just spotted the old buildings of that very famous prison. The boat performed flawlessly and I was able to exercise both radar systems as well as my newly wired backup navigation system (a laptop, since the backup PC was DOA).

As is usual on the bay, the wind came up in the afternoon and was blowing 25-30 knots when we headed back for the Marina. It was gusting hard when I took the boat through the very tight breakwater, so I had to keep the power on and go a bit faster than I’d like, but we squirted through without incident and slid home with little fuss.

Replacement Steering Ram with new Autopilot Pump.

Replacement Steering Ram with new Autopilot Pump.

We moved Sea Eagle from the shipyard in Richmond back to Sausalito after three long weeks of work by the yard. As with all boat work, it never goes quite as smoothly as planned. KKMI replaced the steering ram and installed a new/improved Steering Pump, but wired it up backwards and didn’t test it.

Prior to leaving the dock, I tested the backup autopilot and the rudder hard locked while the autopilot began alarming. Fortunately it was an easy fix (after a bit of head scratching). The trip back to her home slip was mostly uneventful, although I did loose steering (and the rudder locked hard port) as I was entering the breakwater. Another one of those fun, OH Sh*T boating moments. I was going slow enough that I was able to back out into the bay, which was good since I could not go forward due to the locked rudder.

Again, it was an easy fix and we were tied up in the slip, safe and sound in no time.

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how the yard had gone through all 400 gallons of water and run the water pump dry (and HOT). I could tell there was a leak somewhere, and could hear the bilge pump running every 15 minutes, but it took me a while to figure out the hot water tank relief valve was leaking and the discharge was plumbed to the deep bilge, completely out of sight.

I found a replacement valve at a hardware store the next morning and enjoyed the peace and quiet of no water pump and no bilge pump for the rest of the day! Isn’t boating fun?