M/Y Iron Lady

Puget Sound Pilot Pi”rat”es

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Peter Rossin

Prior to our departure form Hawaii, we had heard a variety of horror stories about the Pacific Coast Pilots. Some folks advised us to go into “stealth” mode by turning off our AIS. Reviewing the pilotage regs, however,it appeared to us that we were exempt as we are under 30 meters. Prior to our departure from Hawaii, we also contacted CBP to notify them of our departure and we were advised by them that we had to report in to CBP when we entered US waters. So in the end, we figured we were safe and would report in to Port Angeles and clear with CBP prior to heading off to Port Sidney in British Columbia Canada.

The Straights of Juan Defuca are extremely busy and there is a traffic separation scheme in place to keep things organised. Being dutifully observant of the formalities, we contacted Vessel Traffic Services and gave them our particulars and destination. Our dear friends at Vessel Traffic contacted the Pilot’s Association who in turn asked that we call them on our cell. Our dear friends the pilots told us we would require a pilot to enter any port on the US side along the straight. We protested on the basis that we were under 30 meters and they told us that the 30 meter exemption only applied to US and Canadian vessels. Being a BVI registered vessel, we were non exempt and would either require a formal exemption or have a pilot aboard.

We asked about the exemption and we were told that it takes 60 days to get an exemption (plus $500). Left with the only option of getting a pilot, we gulped and asked what that would run. The answer was $1100 in cash – payable to the pilot when he boarded. You can well imagine my reaction to that……

WIth no other options at our disposal, we asked when we could get the pilot aboard and we were told that normally, 48 hour notice is required but they could find somebody to meet us around midnight – some 7 hours later. You can well imagine my additional reaction to that……

The final straw was when they asked if we wanted a tug (even the dispatcher apologised for asking, but he was required to).

About an hour later, we received a call from Tom – our pilot – who said he could come out earlier – around 9:30 PM. So we gradually made our way down to the entrance to Port Angeles where the Pilot Boat (which was bigger the Iron Lady) arrived with Tom. The first thing Tom did was apologise for the requirement to have a Pilot aboard for a 10 minute boat ride to the dock for $1100. We explained we did not have the $1100 in cash aboard and Tom said he would take half now and the rest tomorrow when he would come back for another 10 minute boat ride to the entrance of the port. We didn’t have half but we came close and he graciously accepted that.

The following morning after bunkering and clearing out, Tom came back aboard and we were off leaving the whole sorry affair behind us. The whole thing is little more than organised thievery – and I thought Tonga was bad. You may wish to read the post on that one – in retrospect it was really funny – but not so with our Pacific Pilot Pi”rat”es”.

Frankly, it is a travesty. Had I known, I would have cleared out in Hawaii and headed directly to Canada where customs cleared us with a phone call – no pilot required. Never again -I won’t be going back to the US side, I won’t be needing any $1100 pilots or $500 exemptions. Canada will be very happy to take my dollars and Washington will never see one of my dollars again.

Then there is Alaska – my understanding is that the Pi”rat”es are laying in wait there as well so I will be doing my very best to beat them – and I think I know how already.

Posted in British Columbia 2014 | 14 Comments

Hawaii to Vancouver Island

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Peter Rossin

My schedule called for departure form Pittsburgh to Hawaii on May 13 – I should have known better. Useless Scareways put me through one of their creeping delays. I arrived at the airport around 0500 for my 0700 flight. They loaded us aboard on time but we were then advised that there was a “small” mechanical issue. At 1000, we were still sitting and there was no chance I would make my connection in Phoenix. Got off the plane, got my bags returned and headed home to try again the next day.

Finally made Ko Olina late the evening of the 14th. Joining me on this passage were Steve Parsons, our regular Captain and his mate, Captain Rodger Girvin who made the passage from New Zealand to Tahiti with us last year. It looked like we had a good weather window so the next morning we returned the rental car, cleared out and tossed the lines at 0900 for the 2300 nautical mile journey to Port Sidney on Vancouver Island.

Along the, I updated Steve Dashew with daily reports via Sailmail over the HF radio. I won’t repeat them here but they can be accessed by going to Setsail.com.

The following pictures show our total journey from New Zealand to French Polynesia thru the Line Islands and Palmyra to Hawaii and our onward journey to Vancouver.

Lots of water and a very long way. At the center point of our journey from Hawaii to Vancouver, the closest land was over 1100 nautical miles away.

Overall, we could not have asked for a nicer passage. The roughest part of the trip was about 12 hours against the trade winds after we rounded the northern end of Oahu. After that, the maximim winds we saw were about 25 knots and they were always aft of the beam.

Fishing was good until we hit the colder waters of the North Pacific so we we had an ample supply of fresh Mahi Mahi. We even had some strange birds that came to roost on our forward mast.

We did have one interesting weather event as we neared the end of our trip. A weak low pressure system bumping up against a stationary high created a weak compression zone. When we saw the following 6 millibar drop in barometric pressure over a one hour period, we were pretty certain we were going to get pounded. Just as quickly, the barometer rebounded to 1021 – no wind and just a few light rain showers.

Total time at sea was just over 10 days. In my next post, I will cover our arrival in the US and our encounter with the Puget Sound Pilot Pirates.

Posted in British Columbia 2014 | 4 Comments

Palmyra Atoll

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Peter Rossin

Palmyra Atoll was our last stop enroute to Hawaii from the Marquesas. The Atoll lies about 6 degrees north of the equator and is out of the cyclone belt so it is a logical place to wait for a weather window for the final sprint north.

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During WW II and up to 1959, Palmyra was occupied by the US Navy as an airbase. In the above photo, you can see the blasted and dredged entrance channel to the inner lagoon running down and to the left in the photo. The channel was used by both ships and sea planes. While it appears easy to see in the photo, it is most difficult in real life and a mistake would be extremely costly as the water is ankle deep on both sides of the channel and the channel is barely wide enough for a boat. Currents sweep across the channel making it more difficult.

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Those small bouys are the only markers.

Permission to come to Palmyra is difficult to obtain. It is run by the Nature Conservancy and the US Government as a wild life refuge and is an incorporated territory of the US (the only incorporated territory of the US in existence). Before landing, a permit must be obtained and the process requires that any visiting vessel go thru a certified de rat inspection and bottom cleaning at its last port of call before coming to Palmyra. We managed after considerable effort to obtain a permit and we were actually the first visiting yacht to arrive in Palymra in several years. Now Palmyra is primarily run as a research station with no permanent residents and a small rotating staff along with a few scientists.

Here we are being greeted by some of the staff and subsequently followed them on a safe path thru the shallow lagoon to the anchorage.

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Palmyra does have an old crushed coral air strip and once every month or so, a benefactor flies supplies, staff and scientists in and out on his Gulfstream from Hawaii.

Some flights didn’t end so well as this old Lockheed Electra will attest to.

Palmyra does have a number of amenities. This is the Yacht Club.

And some of the treasures retrieved from around the island.

Recreational facilities.

The Yacht Club Bar (every yacht club has to have one)

The old swimming hole.

Mark Fritzer displaying his athletic prowess at said swimming hole.

In addition to various research projects, one of the main scientific endeavors is to develop techniques to restore Pacific Atolls like Palmyra to their original state. This begins, strange;u enough, with eliminating cocoanut palms which are not indigenous and are extremely invasive. This is a long term goal and only a few area have been cleared as there are virtually millions of coconut palms. The second, which has been accomplished is to eliminate rodents – again an introduced species.

The result is a proliferation of bird life – which has both its good and bad sides.

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It is hard to imagine just what a mess these fellows could make in a short period of time.

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A walk around parts of the atoll revealed some of the old fortifications from WW II.

Along with other critters like this coconut crab.

This nursery for blacktop sharks on the north side of the atoll.

This eel eating another eel.

And large Manta Rays.

And lots of nice scenery.

I’ll close with a nice Palmyra sunset and a thank you to the folks on Palmyra.

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Posted in South Pacific 2013 | 5 Comments

Scanning Sonar Issue

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Peter Rossin

Our procedure while the boat has been sitting in Hawaii is to exercise all the systems to keep things operational and identify and fix any problems before its time to depart for Alaska. In the process, we started to get an error when initializing our Furuno Scanning Sonar in January. On start up, the unit goes thru a self test and during the test, it displayed a warning that there was a training error.

Keeping it simple, there are several servo motors that control the rotation and angle of the transducer when the unit is scanning. Training refers to the positioning of the transducer horizontally (0 to 360 degrees). On start up, the stepper motor is commanded to move to a home position so the unit knows how the transducer is pointed. A training error meant that the unit was not detecting that the transducer had moved to that home position.

With lots of help from Steve Bradburn (Furuno USA), we worked thru all the simple things first. Diagnostics, looking for loose cables or plugs, obvious damage to circuit boards et al. While we were optimistic, Steve told us up front that the most likely problem was damage to the sound dome which would have permitted salt water to enter the unit and destroy the inner workings. The following picture of the sound dome gives a better idea of what we are talking about.

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Having eliminated all the simple (and inexpensive) possible problems, the next step was to order in a spare sound dome. Once the replacement was in hand, we plugged the replacement in on a temporary basis and the problem disappeared. Time to replace the sound dome and examine the failed one for issues.

Again, with Steve Bradburn’s help and some clever thinking on the part of Steve Parsons and the tech from Oceantronics (authorized Furuno distributor and service company in Hawaii), the old sound dome was removed, the new one was installed, and our CH270 Scanning Sonar was back in business.

Time for diagnostics. There was no obvious damage to the old sound dome, the seals were completely intact, and the special oil used inside the housing showed no signs of contamination.

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When we tried to turn the sonar head, it was clear that something had gone seriously wrong with the training stepper motor. Without any sign of water intrusion or external damage to the sound dome, the simple conclusion is that the stepper motor had suffered a premature failure.

The unit at that the time of the failure was approximately 2.5 years old – just outside the normal two year Furuno warranty. Since the failure was unrelated to any damage to the unit, we prevailed upon Steve Bradburn to see what he might be able to do from a warranty perspective.

At that juncture, we learned thru Steve Bradburn that each Furuno company (i.e. Furuno USA) is afforded a warranty allowance by the Japanese parent company which is included in the price paid by each Furuno company pays for equipment. That warranty allowance is in lieu of any reimbursement for the direct cost of a warranty repair from Furuno Japan.

In our case, the original unit was purchased thru ENL in New Zealand. they in turn purchased it from a company in Australia. When the Australian company (who was afforded the warranty allowance from the parent when they bought the unit and sold it to ENL) was advised of the issue, we were told that it was outside the warranty period and no claim would be honored.

We are most appreciative of the assistance we received from Steve and Furuno USA and agree that it really isn’t their issue since they didn’t sell us the unit. In point of fact, Furuno USA could have simply told us to go deal with ENL or the company in Australia and left us to figure things out for ourselves (fortunately they didn’t).

I have asked Steve if there might be something that Furuno Japan might be willing to do here. The total bill for the repair including parts and labor came to over $5600. If there had been damage to the unit, that is one thing but a premature failure is another.

On a cautionary note to others, watch where you buy your gear – it does have implications down the road if there are warranty issues. Will keep everyone advised as to where this all goes.

Posted in 64 Details | 4 Comments

Christmas Island – Kiribati

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Peter Rossin

Christmas Island lies at 1.5 degrees North of the equator around 157 degrees West. The transit from Nuka Hiva to Christmas was around 1230 nautical miles – a little over 5 days for Iron Lady. The following is a map of the transit including the onward journey of 360 nautical miles to Palmyra Atoll – more about that later.

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Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) is an island nation composed of 32 atolls stretched over 1,351,000 square miles of ocean stretching from the international date line to Christmas Island and straddling the equator. The capital is South Tarawa well to the west of Christmas (which is part of the Line Islands). Total population of Kiribati is around 100,000 people. Most of the Islands gained independence from Britain in the 1970’s.

During World War II, the island was occupied by Allied Forces and many of the structures from that time still remain. More to come on that in the pictures. During the 1950’s, Britain and the US conducted nuclear tests on some of the more remote islands. Today, Kiribati is considered to be one of the most vulnerable island nations to climate change and sea level rise. (Sources for above – Wikipedia)

While commercial ships anchor off the beach on the leeward side of the island, it is too deep for the likes of Iron Lady.

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The primary “small boat” anchorage is in the pass leading out from the lagoon near the main town of London. Entry further than this is prevented by extremely shallow water. Fortunately, the current flow in this area is always out of the lagoon which also lies in the same direction as the prevailing wind so it is relatively calm here.

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The location is marked with a stick pin.

We arrived late in the evening with little daylight left so we quickly found a spot and dropped anchor for the night. In the morning, we began the “process” of clearing in and out of Christmas as we only intended to stay one day. It began with numerous calls over the VHF along with lots of questions. Did we have a small boat that could get in to the harbor at London? How many could it hold? We indicated 3 or 4 people at best. We were told that wouldn’t work as at least 7 or 8 people had to come to the boat (get the feeling that these folks don’t get many visiting boats?). When we advised that that wouldn’t work, we were told that their customs boat was broken and we would have to send someone ashore in our dink. Steve was elected and we launched Beer Can. Some two hours passed and no word from Steve. Finally Beer Can appeared coming out of the harbor with 3 people aboard.

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After the formalities (they agreed to clear us in and out at the same time so we could leave unimpeded the next day), Steve told us that he had piled into the back of a pick up and driven around town to collect the necessary people. A long discussion followed as to how we could reduce the number of folks that had to clear us in from 8 to 3. It was agreed that some would double up no their responsibilities and we could meet with others when we came in.

All was well until they mentioned that there would be clearance fees and a fee for coming out to the boat which was normally charged to offset the cost of their customs skiff. It didn’t seem to matter that their skiff was broken and we had used Beer Can – a fee is a fee and it was still due.

It was beginning to sound like Tonga all over again (a good read if you haven’t read those posts). At any rate, Steve departed took the folks back to town (no fees having been paid) and came back to get us. When we arrived in town, no one seemed to be around to collect the fees so we went for a walkabout. The following is the entrance tot he small harbor in London.

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Again, you can see the clear influence of WW II architecture in both the newer buildings and the rusted remains of those from WW II. Seems that when new structures were required, they simply modeled after what was there.

Some of the local government buildings.

Despite the temperature (remember – we are right on the equator), the locals were engaged in a mid day soccer game.

Some folks from the US who were stationed here during WW II came back to build the local school.

One of the things we wanted to do while here was hit the local internet cafe. It was a LONG walk for very SLOW internet service – I finally gave up even trying to get email. The cost was $1 per hour – now I know why.

Interestingly enough, during our walk to the internet cafe, a truck came by with some of the immigration and customs folks aboard. They were hunting us down to collect the fee for the use of the customs skiff that didn’t work. It was modest and we gladly paid it – seems they forgot about the rest of the fees – not sure why. Oh well.

On the walk back, a kindly gentlemen picked us up and drove us back to town – turns out is was the mayor. He confirmed what I had heard – Christmas is becoming a world class fly fishing destination for bonefish and permit. Would have loved to give it a go but time was against us as we also wanted to get to Palmyra and it was now approaching the active part of the hurricane season in the North Pacific. While safe at 2 degrees North we still had to cross the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) and deal with anything developing off Baja and moving west.

The Mayor dropped us of at the local store where we hoped to pick up some fresh veges and produce.

No such luck – the boat was due in next week but only canned goods until then. The cold beer tasted pretty good though.

Besides – it contained lots of things that are good for you.

Cheers

Posted in South Pacific 2013 | Leave a comment

Nuka Hiva Departure

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Peter Rossin

With Deb, Lisa and Dan off to Tahiti and onward to the US and Mark Fritzer aboard, our first task was to refuel for the transit north to Hawaii. Once again using the good services of our Secret Agent, Pascal from Tahiti Yacht Services, we had prearranged for roughly 8000 liters of fuel in Nuka Hiva.

There were several enormous advantages to this – first, all billings and payments were handled by Pascal who simply invoiced us at the end of each month – no payments required at the time of fueling. Pascal also arranged for our tax exemption as we were departing French Polynesia directly from the Marquesas. Finally, simply arriving at the commercial pier and requesting fuel could well result in the answer that no fuel was available. Prearranging guaranteed that the required fuel would be available. Once again, cannot recommend Pascal highly enough.

The process of fueling was nerve racking at best. The commercial pier where the freighters come in is where the fuel tanks are.

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This pier lies in line with the bay which ceases a number of issues. The wind tends to funnel down the valley from town parallel to the commercial dock. Swell from the southeast trades tends to wrap around the point at the entrance to the bay and the swells build as the bay shallows. The swells, like the wind, move parallel to the dock but in the opposite direction from the wind. While at anchor in the depths of the bay, the swells are barely noticeable but along the dock and at the beach, you can get a good sense of just how big they are on a normal day.

As a consequence, the preferred method of bunkering consists of backing the stern of the boat to the commercial wharf, holding the boat off with the anchor and securing the boat to the dock with heavy lines. The following picture shows a large catamaran in the proper position.

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Unfortunately, that is it for the pictures as we were far too busy during the actual process to take any.

The procedure went something like the following. I was at the helm, Mark was handling lines on the stern and Steve was in Beer Can (our dink) with our high modulus breast line. I motored down wind towards the open end of the bay and once past the dock, turned 180 degrees and proceeded parallel to the dock into the wind. We had a range ring set up on the radar at 60 meters and I used the radar to maintain this distance from the dock as we proceeded parallel to it.

Once at the far end of the dock, I turned 90 degrees to the wind and swell. With the stern pointed towards the dock. I dropped the anchor. Using reverse gear and the bow thruster while paying out the anchor chain, we backed toward the dock perpendicular to it. Steve tied the end of our breast line off to the dock and brought the free end out to the boat where he passed it to Mark and Mark ran the line thru a turning block to the aft winch. With the boat now secured between the anchor and the dock, we continued to back down while I payed out the anchor and Mark took up slack on the winch. Once we were about 8 feet off the dock, Steve fed two of our beefy braided dock lines from the dick to the boat. It was a nervous time as the boat was coming up hard on the high modulus breast line with each swell and there is little to no give in high modulus line. Even when we were secured with our heavy dock lines, it was stressful to see them come up bar tight with each swell.

The fuel hose was fed across using our breast line and refueling commenced. We spent a total of almost two hours fueling which was complicated by a balky fuel transfer pump shoreside which Steve had to kick and nurse to keep operational.

It was with considerable relief that we tossed the stern lines with a full load of fuel and motored back to the comfort of our anchorage.

Posted in Marquesas 2013 | 2 Comments

Final Fatu Hiva

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Peter Rossin

One of my friends has been complaining that we seem to be permanently stuck in Fatu Hiva (at least as far as our blog), and that it is time to move on already. Agreed – but one final post on Fatu Hiva and a hike we made from the Bay of Virgins to a charming water fall.

As we began our hike, there was a placard along side the stream well below the waterfall that called for plans to build a hydroelectric plant to power the village below. This obviously makes abundant sense as all power is currently supplied by diesel generators and the fuel has to be brought in by the inter island freighter at considerable expense. Temo, however, told us the whole project, despite its economic sense, was in doubt as the money had to come from France and, under present circumstances, little or no money was flowing to French Polynesia given France’s current economic issues.

Back to our hike.

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Typical in French Polynesia are these small stone cairns to mark the trails. Jungle growth quickly hides trails and they are truly necessary.

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There were also ancient petroglyphs along the track.

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Like most hikes here, the trail was demanding but not nearly as long as our hike to Vaipo Falls on Nuka Hiva.

Pictures simply do not do the size and scope of the falls justice but it is the best I could do.

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Next stop is Nuka Hiva again where Dan, Lisa and Deb started the trip home by the big silver bird. Mark Fritzer (part of the FPB team in Seattle) joined us for the onward journey to the Line Islands, Palmyra and Hawaii – some 2300 nautical miles away. Next post will be on bunkering (refueling) in Nuka Hiva – an interesting experience that I would just as soon not have to do again.

Best

Posted in Marquesas 2013 | Leave a comment

Grey Wolf

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Peter Rossin

Steve Dashew just put up an interesting post on Grey Wolf – FPB 6 if I recall. She is bound from NZ to her new home port in England and plans to depart NZ for French Polynesia shortly. That is the same run we made last year although we were better positioned out of the South Pacific tropical storm season. I can attest to the fact that this is not an easy trip under the best of circumstances and what I am seeing based on the progs (weather forecast charts) that were part of Steve’s post made me pretty nervous. I would probably sit in Whangarei a bit longer to see how things develop.

It makes for a good read and Peter, Grey Wolf’s owner and skipper will be doing posts along the way. It should be really interesting to follow – I will certainly be doing so.

You can access Steve’s post on this by clicking here . Additional posts will be put up as Peter reports on Grey Wolf’s journey home.