Chapter 70: Trouble in Trent

Log 70
Troubles on the Trent

6:30 AM
Thursday, July 27, 2000
Starport Landing

Day 88

I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I did want to get a few things in a log.

It was a very interesting day on the Trent yesterday.
The morning started out near perfect, with a pretty sky, and the promise of a great day of cruising. We pulled anchor in Deer Bay about 8, after we cleaned all of the bugs off the boat that had accumulated the night before. (I had to leave the anchor light on all night, and being in the middle of a cove these bugs must have said, “hey look…a light, let’s go over there, and then die” because the boat was covered)
Terry and I had discussed our plans for the day several times, and we were trying to make some time to be able to spend more time in the Georgian Bay when we get there. Our thoughts were to get through lock 41, and to Lake Simcoe, the largest lake on the Trent-Severn.
The first few locks were ok, but going a little slow, so we knew we were going to be tight on time, so we decided any time we had open water we would go as fast as we could, to make up some time. This worked out great as we blasted across a couple of the smaller lakes, and things were looking good.
Then the problems began.
We were coming out of a lock and getting ready to enter what the books says is a very narrow channel, and to be very cautious. We went through there with no problem, and even commented on how all of these “caution areas” were not really any big deal; you just had to pay attention. Shortly after that we entered a fairly large lake, and as planned we were going to go fast. We were out in the middle of this lake, in the channel, so I pushed the throttles forward, and all of a sudden “BAM” the props hit something. HARD!
I knew immediately we had a problem, it was just a matter of how big of a problem. I went in the engine room to have a look, and the port engine was vibrating pretty bad, and the generator sitting on the port side was vibrating as well, so I assumed we had hit the port prop. The starboard side seemed ok, but we wouldn’t be able to tell until we get a look at it.
For the next few hours we worked to try to find a place to pull the boat, and change the props. (The good news is I have a new set that I carry with me just for these kinds of emergencies) As it turned out, the best place to get this done was the place we were heading to in the first place. Starport Landing Marina, on Lake Simcoe. The only problem now was that we couldn’t go fast anymore, and so the day would be longer.
The next problem (problems) occurred as we were going down what they call the Trent Canal. This is a man made canal that connects a couple of lakes to help form the Trent-Severn. They report the depth to be over 5 feet, but they are wrong. In a stretch of waterway about 3 to 4 miles long we hit at least 3 times, and the problem is these hits are not like at home where you stir up some mud, the boat lerches a little, and you say we just hit bottom. This entire area is solid rock, so when you hit bottom here, you are hitting rocks.
By now I just want to be done for the day. I know I will probably have to put on both props, and I just wanted to be tied up to a marina for the night, and get this thing done. Time wise, we were not doing to well either. We still had several locks to go, and it was getting to be about 4:30.
All during this time I had several conversations with the marina, just to let them know our time frame, and make sure we had a place to tie up, and they could get to us first thing in the morning. Which they said “no problem” to both of these requests. Things had been better, but we were fine, we just needed to get this chapter behind us.
We came out of lock 41 and into Lake Simcoe about 7PM. Based on our calculations we should be at the marina by 7:40, and the marina was open until 8. Then came problem number, I don’t know, 3 or 4. We were just going along, and the port engine stopped. Dead. No power. The computer display beeped a warning, and the read, “code 338 tach signal loss”. Who know what that means? I didn’t, and so I tried everything I knew to get the engine to go again, but with no success.
Soooooooo now we only have one engine. We recalculate our arrival time, and called the marina. This time we were close enough to call on the ship to shore radio, and tell them our problem, and that we would be later than planned, so they should go home, and we would see them in the morning.

4:45 PM
Same day
Same place

Sorry, I was pulled away for 9 hours, to fix the boat.

So here we were limping along with one engine, trying to keep the boat straight. The sun was going down at a high rate of speed, and I’m trying to decide how I was going to get Headquarters in a slip. Just then we got a call from the marina on the VHF. They wanted to know are position, and said they would be there on the dock to catch our lines when we got there. Knowing that helped with at least one of our problems.
Well we made it in, without crashing the dock, and at least we were tied to something. The next hour was spent trying to get power to the boat. To explain all that went on would take too long, and probably not be funny (unless you were there) but trust, me it was a treat. The one thing I will say though is that this is probably the friendliest marina we have ever been to. Ever.
Earlier in the day, Deb figured out that we would be late getting in so she decided to cook some enchiladas for dinner, (which she did as we went through the locks) but she needed to finish them in the oven. Well we finally had power to the boat, but it was not adequate for running all we needed so, we had no more than turned on the oven, and the stove, and the circuit breaker “broke”. Now we had no power, unless we ran the generator. (The marina was now closed, and we couldn’t get to the circuit breakers) We ran the generator to get us through dinner, but there was some good news. While we were finally eating dinner (at 10:30) we saw the lady who owns the marina going into the office, so I went and found her, and ask her to open the door to the circuit breakers. (I knew where it was because of all the time we had spent earlier trying to get power) She was only happy to do so, and as soon as I got to the breaker panel I saw which one was “broke” and I “flipped it”. Wha-la…power! We were back in business, and we could turn the generator off, and sleep for the night.
Which we did.
The first thing I did this morning (after writing the beginning part of this log…hey they don’t open until 7…eastern) was to call the engineers at Detroit to ask them about the boat, and what could have happened. The engineer asked me if I had checked the emergency shut down. Which I told him no, I don’t know where it is. Well he said when the mechanic gets on board have them check this to see if that could be the problem. (If we get one to come, I’ll do that)
The owner of the marina (Freeman) and his entire staff are the most helpful people you could ever imagine. When they opened this morning (8:30) he was standing beside my boat and telling me what he had already done. Without even being asked, he was contacting the local Detroit dealer to see how soon they could get here, and they were getting the lift ready to pull my boat, and check out the prop. I like this place!
With only one engine, the trip from the fuel dock, where we were docked, to the boat hoist was an adventure, but we made it without hitting anything. When I saw the lift I could tell they were not used to pulling this size of boat, and I wasn’t sure if it would do it or not, but it did. Once the boat was in the air it confirmed my thoughts, and we could see the port prop was heavily damaged. The starboard prop looked good, so we decided to just change the port one, and put it back in the water. While this was going on I was on the phone with Detroit, and had arranged for the mechanic to come to the boat late in the afternoon.
With the boat back in the water, and the mechanic on his way, but not until later, we decided to take a dinghy ride to see some of the lake. We found a sandy beach not to far away so we stopped there, and got in the water for a while, and just enjoyed the afternoon. The weather, again, was perfect. (We have had nothing but perfect weather since we left Syracuse last Saturday, and they tell us this has been the nicest days of the summer)

6:15 AM
Friday, July 28, 2000
Day 89

We had just finished dinner, when the mechanic got on board about 7:30 PM, last night. After determining that they had given him the wrong connection for the engine computers, he started looking around to see if he could tell what the problem might be. As he was doing this, I mentioned to him what the Detroit engineer had said, so he looked at the shut down to see if anything was wrong. Guess what? It was tripped, and once he reset it the engine fired just fine. We talked for a while about how, or why this happened. He asked us if the water was rough, because maybe that had jarred the trip loose. After a lot of discussion the only thing we could figure is that 1) this could just be a fluke (and that would be under warranty) or 2) maybe hitting the prop that hard could have caused the problem. (Which means I would have to pay for the service call) He said he did not make that decision, that would be up to Brian, his service manager. (Can you guess who I’ll be on the phone with first thing this morning)?
The bottom line of where we are at this point is that we have lost about 1-½ days of travel time, but if the weather will cooperate with us we should still be able to still get back to the marina on Saturday, August 5th. When I figured out the travel plan for this leg I built in a couple extra days for weather, and we have now used them for repairs, so we’ll just have to see how we do. What it also might mean is that some of the special places I wanted to stop at we have to bypass. Oh well.

Today…
Another beautiful morning, but there is a chance of rain later.
Now that everything is running normal again, we are ready to go, but we have to wait for the prop to be repaired so we can leave. The prop shop told us they would have it back by noon, so we should be out of here very shortly after that. Our plan is to try to get to the end of the Trent-Severn today, and at the mouth of the Georgian Bay. It is fairly aggressive to think we can do this but we’ll see how we do.

I’ll keep you posted.

BK