On the Road

Every year, we host a Rainforest Festival here in Petersburg and one of the events this year was a tour by Breakaway Adventure Tours of the Le Conte Glacier which is a tidal glacier.  To get you oriented here’s a NE Google view–the yellow line is the Canadian border and beyond that, the Stikine River.  Also visit this site hosted on pbase by John Scurlock.

Icebergs can be seen here in this digital photograph–and many of them make it past our house about 25 miles distant in the Wrangell Narrows.  I lassoed one last year and dragged it up our beach for free ice.  And the Petersburg fishing industry in the past century used this as a source for ice for the fishpacking industry.

We’ve had record rainfall this August–I measured about 25 inches over a 30 day period and officially in town about 18 inches fell during this month.  Of course, the rivers ran wild and waterfalls were abundant–this is the approach into Le Conte Bay.

This berg is grounded at the entrance of the bay where fjords are shallower.  This is because the ice (which reached the entrance up until about 250 years ago) released their rocky contents when spreading out into Frederick Sound.  Today, this glacier is backed up about four miles.

This is a side canyon with Castle Mountain in the distance.  These peaks we see due east from our house; they have been honed sharp by glacial action over the millennia.

As we enter closer to the source, we encounter hundreds of harbor seals.  Sometimes Orcas will hunt in here–a captive meal of sorts.

And here’s the glacial face with a huge serac breaking off.   We are parked about 1/4 mile away so the sound arrives late–which is equivalent to dynamite!   A gleeful passenger raises his hands in excitement!

And here’s the consequence–a small tsunami–this one about 15′ tall and surging towards us–what excitement!  This glacier extends down below sea level to bedrock; here about 700′ so when submerged bergs break off–they’re launched into the air with no warning or sound.   This is indeed a wild place!

Glacier ice is not white, nor clear, but absorbs and reflects many spectra resulting in many beautiful colors.  I call this the Horsehead Iceberg–what a beautiful trip!  Come up for our Rainforest Festival next year.

So as not to let down our most ardent fans–here is the next chapter in the refit of this 112 year old tug….

OK–we’ve painted the upper and lower house, plus hauled out on the marine rail and cleaned & painted the hull.   So I’m now turning to the interior machinery–so put on your overalls and enter the the engine room by clicking the above link…..

OK–you’ve seen the engine running but it wasn’t that simple.   After four years of sitting at the dock, all this beast did was to hiss and spit rust and water from everywhere–and at 250 lbs starting pressure this is a lot of hissing.  The engineering is a snake-pit of pipes, tubes, valves,  etc.   Below is the control part of the engine which can either be started from the bridge, back (‘Texas’) deck or right here with the manual over-ride.

Part of the problem was this air valve which pumps air in the 7th cylinder–at the very top of the photo above and stores it in two huge air receivers for future starts.    This is critical–as this engine lacks a transmission and clutch–it is a direct reverse–meaning that in order to back down the boat, I have to shut down the engine, shift the cam and restart–all within a second–and then power in the opposite direction.  This means bringing the entire crankshaft, rods, pistons,  main shaft and propeller (many tons) to a complete stop, then moving the cam 2″ and restarting everything in the opposite direction.  This takes a lot of air.    So all valves must function.  This how I found one when I took it apart:

This is the valve responsible to supply air into the receivers and reaches several hundred degrees in temperature and is under a constant 250 lbs. pressure.

This is the “seventh” cylinder all rebuilt including the valve pictured above.  It is powered by the main engine to pump air–which is needed for restarting the engine.  On top are two triangular valve housings–letting air in (green piping on  right) and out (yellow piping on left–to be stored for the next start).  The blue pipe is water coolant.

Here are two open bays showing the camshaft–each supplying the needs of a piston–which is 10″ in diameter and weighs 250 lbs. each.  The head is about 400 lbs, and a piston rod is about 200 lbs.  This is a lot of mass to turn and reverse direction.

Each bay exhibits four cams and each cam has two lobe strategies for running in both directions.   No clutch, no transmission…..very simple.  Moving the cam engages the second set of lobes and the timing is now directed to a reverse start and the engine runs the opposite direction.  The cams (in order from left to right here) are 1. fuel, 2. intake valve, 3. air start, and 4. exhaust valve.

This engine was built in 1944 by Washington Iron Works and is a model 6-R-13 (6 cylinders, 13″ stroke and right hand).  In dual engine applications, these engines were cast as mirror opposites so an engineer could tend to both from a center isle-way.  In the Katahdin, it is a single engine but this was built as the port engine for the USS Glassford, a ship that was never built as WWII was winding down at that time.

Washington Iron Works built thousands of engines for 101 years in Seattle (where the two sports stadiums now exist).  Only eight Washingtons are still powering vessels.  Here’s the engine when it was built in 1944–still in the factory.   It has powered three other boats including the Foss 15 which spent a lot of time here in Alaska.

BTW, everyone asks me where I get parts–I’ve a 40′ steel container with two other engines all broken down.  The Katahdin engine will run forever.

OK–here are all the moving parts exposed which require oiling every two hours times six cylinders.  All the pushrods are exposed on the outside of this engine, unlike the modern automobile engine.  The four functions that run this engine (see above) are:  Bendex (fuel) injectors, intake valve, air start valve, and exhaust–see cam description above.  Everything moves when this puppy lights off.  OK–here we go:

and….

After three days of fiddling around with all these controls, I finally found the shifting problem–I’d inadvertently positioned a brass disc in the selector valve backwards–no air, no shift.  This has been corrected so it’s time for dock trials, then sea trials….Stay tuned……

Now it’s time to haul the Katahdin out of the water and clean the hull.  I have to tow her with our skiff and can do this only at high slack.  Problem is, that everyone else moves around at high slack–including this skiff, two seaplanes, a fuel barge and a ferry so it’s a crowded harbor.  The current is still running about half a knot and we bounce around until we can get a line on the dock at the marine rail.

Then we hand pull all 120 tons into the cradle….

Once we get her wedged in and blocked, the rail hauls us out slowly to reveal quite a mess on the hull–the result of five years of procrastination.  Actually, we’ve devoted all our time to the restoration of 10 buildings at Totland but now it’s time to catch up.

Yikes!

Double Yikes!  Look at this mess–even starfish!  This is Marine Biology 101!  Time to get out the scrapers and pressure washers….

No wonder I couldn’t steer!

All the growth was removed by hand, then pressure washed.  In all there were 25 wheelbarrow loads of this stuff.

Then we get out the tools of the trade–caulking mallets and irons….

With the help of a local shipwright, I first reef the seams that are questionable, cleaning them before threading first cotton followed by oakum (hemp and pine tar).   Then the seams are painted and then cemented with hydraulic cement. We spend two days cleaning up seams, plugs, etc. before the two coats of bottom paint just prior to launch.

Here are a couple of  seams ready for touch-up.  The hull is now spotless.

The wheel is polished and zincs are welded in place.  Ready for launch–Click  here for the the video of us sliding down the rail and  here to see us drift out off the rail.

Meanwhile the bears move in without an invitation.  Here, mom checks out our barbeque.  Fortunately, we didn’t have any fish on it.  This bear has been making the rounds along the Narrows and seems quite agressive….

….with a cub in tow.

Kupreanof prayer flags….  Looks like we’ll need to post a Katahdin III.  Stay tuned!