Today was the day we would cross our wake and complete the Great Loop. The plan was to cast off just before 5 am and meet Pelican in the harbour. We were a bit late getting off however, as we had to deal with a giant dock spider on the boat. Louise managed to get it off the boat using her spider grabber, but it ended up on the stern rope near the dock cleat. No way I was reaching for that rope, so I had to use a boat hook to scare it away, and it did not scare easily! Eventually it moved far enough away that I could untie the boat and off we went.
Conditions started off pretty nice. We had small rollers on the beam, but the motion of the boat was comfortable. Unfortunately, we were in two wave trains, one on the port bow, and one on the port stern quarter. Any stern component to waves messes up our autopilot, so I had to steer manually. As we approached the centre of the lake, the winds built resulting in bigger waves, and the ride became a bit more sporty. We were still comfortable, we have been through much worse, but you had to hang on to something if you wanted to move around the boat.
All of a sudden the engine exhaust sound changed, it got loud. Uh oh. I looked back at the stern of the boat and saw steam coming out of the exhaust. Immediately I throttled back and the steam went away, but a few seconds later it re-emerged. Throttling to idle did not fix the problem, and now the engine temp gauge was starting to move, so I shut down the engine.
I went into the engine room and checked the strainer, which was clear of debris. Next to check was the raw water pump, and water was leaking out the side of that pump. I removed the backing plate and saw that the impeller was OK, but water was leaking out of a hole on the side of the pump. Of course this hole faced the engine. Using a mirror, I could see that the hole was threaded. OK, we lost some kind of plug.
Before proceeding, we decided to get help. At this point we were about half-way across lake Ontario, and drifting towards a shoal. The shoal was far away, but so was help, so we called BoatUS, and they told us they would dispatch a boat to tow us. At the same time, Paul volunteered to tow us using Pelican, and we decided to accept his help. It took a couple of tries, but eventually we caught his tow rope and got rigged for towing. Paul set off at about 10 kmph, which would take us about 4 hours to reach Kingston.
Pelican towing us across lake Ontario. When towing a big boat like ours, you want to use a long tow rope. This acts like a kind of shock-absorber for the swells. Luckily for us the waves smoothed out during the day, so we had a pretty smooth ride.
Just after we got rigged for towing, the BoatUS operator called us and asked what our situation was. Since we were already being towed by Pelican, we told them we had things under control, and that Pelican would bring us in. At the same time, Just a Dream and Wastin Away came past us. They slowed down for us, and Ted hovered nearby as we got hooked up to Pelican just in case. Once we were under tow, Wastin Away continued to Kingston. So nice to cross big water with other looper boats.
I spent quite a bit of time in the engine room trying to find the small plug that was missing from the side of the pump. I ended up getting a couple of burns from reaching under the engine to feel for parts. I found a few nuts and bolts, but nothing that looked like a plug. I did find one small screw with an O-ring (foreshadowing), but it did not fit into the hole.
During our years on the boat, I have never been sea sick, but the boat was rolling pretty good when I was down in the engine room and I was pretty green when I came out. Luckily I didn't puke, and as soon as I could see the horizon I lost the nausea. As we travelled across the lake, I continued to search in the engine room to see if I could find the plug for the hole in the pump, but I had to limit my time in the engine room as each time I went down there my stomach complained.
Pelican had to negotiate between ferries, work boats, other boaters and rocks as we came into the harbour. Paul made a securite call as we approached to warn other boats that he was towing us and we had restricted maneuverability. To enter the harbour he had to make a big U-turn and thread the needle through the entrance. Mike and Ted ran interference for us on the dingies as Paul did the close maneuvering.
As we got close to Kingston, the traffic picked up, so Paul made a securite call that he was towing another boat and had limited maneuverability. Several boats acknowledged and offered help. As we got close to Confederation basin, Ted (Wastin Away) came out in his dingy to help us, followed by Mike in his (Thyme Away). As we approached the basin, Mike went ahead to run interference to make sure there were no boats trying to exit the harbour. Pelican towed us into the basin, whereupon all the looper boats in the harbour sounded their horns for our wake crossing! Freakin awesome!
Once inside the basin, we dropped the tow rope and Pelican moved clear to recover the rope. Ted and Mike then moved in. Ted came alongside and did a side tie, while Mike pushed our bow. Using the two dingies, plus iFloat's thrusters, and lots of hands on the dock, we made it safely into the slip. We thanked everyone profusely, but Mike summed it up best when he said "that was fun, I'm glad I got to help out. Wouldn't have missed it". Loopers!!!
As we were dropping the tow lines, Ted an Mike came alongside. Ted did a side tie, while mike pushed from the other side to pivot us.
Here you can see Ted alongside and tied up to us, while Mike gets ready to push the bow.
When we were about an hour away from Confed basin we had called customs to check in, and so we were pre-cleared once we landed. There was a customs boat in the harbour, so we waited around for a while in case they wanted to check in with us, but they were not here for us.
Beth (Wastin Away) shot a video of us approaching the dock with our tugs.
The iFloat has landed!
We celebrated on the dock with the other loopers, and then I went over to thank Paul and Jill for rescuing us. On my way back to the boat, Louise texted me to say that Ruth had arrived with our gold looper flag, so the next order of business was to swap our flags out.
WE ARE GOLD LOOPERS!
WE DID IT!
While we were coming in, one boat crew that was absent from the festivities was Just a Dream. It turned out that they got inspected by customs. The CBP boat that was in the harbour was here for them, and the officers spent 2 hours going through their boat, even using a dog to look for stuff. Eventually they were cleared in, but what an ordeal. Fortunately for the rest of us, they only searched that one boat, but all the boats that had recently arrived expected to get searched by customs.
That evening we all went to dinner at a local brewpub to celebrate our rescue and wake crossing. Afterwards, we visited a bit with Pam and Mike on Thyme Away, then back to iFloat to sleep. We turned in pretty early, but both of us were exhausted. What an emotional day!
Boat name of the day:
iFloat
