Getting ready to go again

We're in the final process of assembling the stuff we brought home with us last fall after winterizing the boat. We plan to leave Beaufort, with the F150 loaded, on June 8. Our "Float Plan" for continuing our cruise looks like this at the moment. After recommissioning the boat we will head Northeast down the St. Lawrence on June 22. Expect to be in Charlottetown, PEI on July 3, Bras d'Or Lakes July 20, Halifax, Nova Scotia August 9, and St. John, New Brunswick on August 23. We will cruise the St. John river for 7 days before we head SE into Maine. We expect to be in Portland, ME about September 28, New York October 10, St. Michael's, MD October 14, and back home November 1. Looking forward to a GREAT summer. It is Sunday, June 13. The Beaufort hill billy's arrived in Rimouski, QC, Canada on Friday afternoon, June 11, truck loaded to the gills. The covers had been blown off the boat, we already knew that. There is some minor damage to our rear enclosure so we will see if we can get a canvas shop to do some repair before we leave. Have started up both engines and have the water system functioning. Our old original hot water heater is leaking a bit, probably time to replace it, I'm not really surprised. All other water systems appear to have survived the winter. We have the crane and flat bed truck scheduled for Tuesday. Looks like the boat is ready to go in but we do have to confirm with the Port of Rimouski on Monday that we are free to use the pier on Tuesday to lower the boat in. Cleared for launch after 12:00 noon on Tuesday by the port. The process starts by loading the boat on the trailer in the marina yard. The "Crane God" is checking the rigging before the lift is made. The rigging is fine and the balance good, the lift starts. Slowly the boat is moved over the trailer where it is set down, blocked up, and tied down for the ride to the city pier.

Once loaded and secured, the caravan leaves the marina yard and heads down the road for the city pier. Positioned at the pier wall, with the water some 20' down, the crane again picks up the boat and swings it out over the water, lowering it slowly, until it floats out of the slings. Captain, start your engines.

And off we go back to our slip at the marina. The last several days we have been starting up all the smaller systems on the boat and loading all our stuff back into the boat. We are well along to allow our departure on Monday, but now it looks like the weather may not cooperate. The wind is suppose to shift to the NE on Saturday and blow 20 knots. With the outgoing current and an incoming COLD wind, the river gets pretty choppy. At this point the river is as wide as it is across Lake Ontario. We'll see how it goes. Well it's Sunday, June 28, and we are still in Rimouski. When we did the sea trial on Wednesday, June 17, we found that the radar antenna didn't want to send a signal to the GPS Chartplotter. I discussed the error message with Garmin late Wednesday afternoon and they felt we needed an update chip, and we could get that chip from Raytech in Montreal. Called Raytech Thursday morning and they shipped out a chip later in the day for next day delivery in Rimouski. Well, the chip didn't arrive as promised on Friday, didn't get here until Monday afternoon, June 22. Installed the chip, updated the software, but it didn't fix the radar problem. Called Raytech at about 4:15 pm, left a message, but nobody called back before 5:00, so I called Garmin in Kansas. If the update hadn't fixed the problem then there must be something wrong with the antenna and it would have to come in for service. So Monday evening I took the antenna off from the roof of the boat so we could be on the road to Montreal at 7:00 am Tuesday morning. We got to Raytech shortly after 1:00 pm on Tuesday. They would check out the antenna first thing Thursday, Wednesday was St. Jean de Baptiste day, a holiday in Quebec. Thursday morning they called to inform me that two boards were defective and they would have to get parts from Garmin. No more word on Thursday on the status of things. I called early Friday morning to learn that the parts needed were on back order at Garmin and that it would be three weeks before parts were available. I said no, we were going to solve this problem long before then, and they agreed to see if they could find a new replacement antenna somewhere in Canada. Just before noon they called back to tell me they had located a new, compatible antenna an hour's drive north of Montreal. I said "go get it, I'm on my way, will you be there after 5:00, it will take me about 5 1/2 hours to get there". If I was on my way, they would wait, and they did. At 6:00 I started back to Rimouski with the new antenna, returning to the boat a midnight. I installed the new antenna on Saturday, and we are now good to go with all systems working. But guess what, the wind has again turned to the NE, blowing 20 - 30 Knts, kicking up waves 3 - 6'. So we continue to wait, probably until Thursday, July 2, before we can go. So goes boating on the lower St, Lawrence. One thing for sure, when your traveling by boat you meet some neat people. Our stay in Rimouski has been no exception, and much as we are anxious to move on, we've met some wonderful people here. I've spent the most time with Albert, our mechanic, and his wife Necole. We had them on the boat Sunday evening, June 21 for a soup supper. Necole backed a loaf of fresh multi grain bread and brought a bottle of wine. We had a great evening with Albert entertaining us with his German box accordian. The next time we see them will be in South Carolina. When we were here last July, we were told to look up Genevieve and Marcel on the SANTA MARIA I. They were never on their boat while we were here. We've met them now, and went sailing with them on Wednesday, June 24. They have both now retired and Marcel will be moving the boat to Bras d'Or Lake, leaving on Monday, June 29, (he thought). We will see them again when we get to Bras d'Or Lake in late July. Last fall while working on the boat, a curious passer by, Daniel Barbeau stopped to see what was going on this big Hatteras. Daniel owns a very nice bistro in Saint-Luce, a small town just east of Rimouski. I had a delightful dinner their last fall and we ate dinner their again today and had a nice visit with Daniel. With this down time, we decided to drive out to the end of the Gaspe Peninsula and see all the sights. This will allow us to move quickly with the boat to the city of Gaspe once we can get out on the river. The Gaspe Peninsula is the end of the Appalachan Mountain range and the end of the International Appalachan Trail is at the end of the peninsula. The 3775' mountain peaks drop quickly into the Gulf of St. Lawrence with spectacular shear cliffs. Everywhere there is a little river running into the river and gulf, there is a little town, Saint somebody, built around a spectacular Catholic Church structure. There are historic light houses on all the points, and even two wooden covered bridges. Pictures can't capture the beauty, but they are the best we can do.

Today we drove a few miles east of Rimouski to visit the jardins de metis, or in English, The Reford Gardens.

Each day while we wait to get going, we find another interesting place to visit. Like Devils Canyon, 20 miles south of Rimouski, where the Rimouski River flow from the mountains to the St. Lawrence River.

As we returned to Rimouski, this is the view of the town below, the St. Lawrence River, and one of many islands that dot the south shore of the river.

We're still here in Rimouski on           July 1. Decided to look into bus schedules when it comes time to come back and pick up the truck. Well, bus schedules don't work to well to come back from the coast of New Brunswick, the only bus each day gets back to Rimouski at 11:00 PM, and then I'm going to get in the truck and drive 6 hours back to the boat, NO. But, if I left right now, 2:00 PM, I could leave the truck in Campbellton, NB, and get back to it from Miramchi, NB in about 2 hours. Weather forcast for tomorrow, July 2 is looking pretty good to head down the river, so I left for Campbellton, found a place to park the truck and got back to the boat by 11:10. WE'RE READY TO GO!

Rebuilding the Starboard Engine

It's Saturday night, August 9, and I'm in Plattsburg, NY, ready to cross the border into Canada first thing tomorrow morning. Ran into lots of traffic this morning between Baltimore and Albany, so lost about 3 hours of productive driving. Should have no trouble getting to Rimouski tomorrow afternoon. We will start the rebuild process on Monday. 

Back in Rimouski and things are going pretty much as planned. Weather has been raw and rainy, kinda glad we're not cruising! Have the galley ripped apart and the floor pulled up. Today, Tuesday, August 12 have the old engine disassembled down to having the exhaust manifolds removed. Will meet with the mechanic in the morning to discuss what else needs to come off before we pull out the old engine.  

         Once all parts are off, sripped to the block, it is ready to come out. Things are going real slow. Mechanic has contracts with many good customers for emergency breakdown service. When one of them calls, he goes and I sit. So as of Wednesday, August 20 the engine has been moved to the companionway door.

Mechanic took care of another customer on Thursday so nothing more has been done and no phone call to tell me anything would happen on Friday. So I have left the boat and have driven to Torch Lake Michigan to join Claria, both of our kids, all four grandkids, and my sister and brotherinlaw who are visiting from St. Micheal's, MD. Have had a wonderfull weekend. L to R, Claria, daughter Mary, Captain Chuck, and sister Mary. Below, our kids Mary and Will. Hard to say what Will is trying to tell us. Will be in Michigan for a couple of more days before heading back to Rimouski to deal with the boat. I returned to Rimouski on Labor Day. Did get some scafolding erected today, Tuesday September 2. Hope we can finish the rigging tomorrow and get the old engine out of the boat.

Had a great day today, Thursday, September 4. With the rigging all set,

we moved the old engine out of the boat. We were concerned that the weight of the block, about 1000#, was to much to set on the sun deck, which is directly over the master suite. So we flew the engine accross the deck,

through the side door and dropped it to the ground.

We then loaded it onto Albert's trailer for the trip to his shop, about a mile away.

We started assemble on the replacement engine to get it ready for a test run. Once it's  ready to go, we have to dissassemble it back down to the block to get it back into the      

                          boat, then put it back together. WALA! We have an 

engine that runs! Today, Monday, September 8 we successfully test ran a rebuilt engine from the block I purchased in Florida and our old engine. Test was very rewarding, the beast roared like a tiger, and ran nice and smooth. So, we will finish cleaning it up, repainting, dissasemble and put it back in the boat. By the end of the week we should be moving the block back into the boat. Well things have slowed down again. After our successfull test run, we decided to drop the pan and confirm all was good. All was not good, we found 4 gear teeth and one 0.026 gap gage which had appearently been dropped through the timing gears by a previous mechanic. So now we have replaced the gears with the gears from the old engine. We also found one bad crank shaft bearing so we are replacing all the bearings on the crank shaft. On Thursaday, Albert, my mechanic went off to take care of another customer so no work has been done until today, Sunday, September 14, we put in three hours continuing to clean up the block and pan for painting. Albert seems to think we can paint tomorrow and start moving the engine back into the boat, my guess is that we won't start back in until Tuesday. Meantime, Claria is still in Michigan. She will take care of Mary and Petes girls next weekend while they go to Pewaukee, WI to sail the E boat with Pete's brother Steve in the annual Blue Chip Regatta, a championship of champions regatta by invitation only. Then she plans on coming back to the boat on Monday, getting here on Tuesday, September 23. Hopefully 3 or 4 days after she gets here we can be all winterized and packed up so we can head home. WE ARE READY TO GO HOME! It's Wednesday evening, Sept. 17, and the engine block sits on the engine mounts bolted up to the transmission. Now we have a couple of days work putting the rest of the engine together, heads, blower box, alternator, fresh water pump, raw water pump, fuel pump, and lots of plumbing. We should have the beast running by this weekend. WALA WALA!! The engine runs in the boat. During the test run today, Saturday, Sept. 20, we discovered a leaking gasket in the oil filter plumbing, which we will fix tomorrow. Then we can clean up the mess we have made and I can put the floor back in and move the galley cabinet back into it's correct location. We're hoping to be headed toward's home on Saturday, Sept. 27.

We're home, how great it is! We did finish wrapping up the boat in the cold Rimouski rain on Saturday, and left town about 3:00 PM for our treck home. The truck was loaded to the gills. We stopped for a day of rest and relaxation at St. Micheal's, MD at the home of my sister Mary and brother-in-law Jack. Of course we went boating on their trawler, after all we are Gorgen's! Arrived home about 8:30 PM Tuesday evening, Sept. 30.

We will head back up to Rimouski about the middle of June next summer. Check back and see how we are doing.

Down the St. Lawerance to Gaspe Peninsula

We left Kingston on Monday, July 7, starting down the St. Lawrence River towards the NE. This part of the trip traveles into the upper end of the Canadian 1000 Islands. Along the Canadian shore was a statue of St. Lawrence. We spent Monday night in Gananoque. Tuesday morning we both got our hair cut, Johnny, my last hair cut didn't make it 6 weeks as promised! We also reprovisioned and left the marina at about 2:00 continuing down river through more of the 1000 Island beauty. We spent the night on the hook near Singer's Castle. Wednesday we moved further down river, passing through our first large commercial lock, arriving at Crysler Farm Marina late afternoon. Adjacent to the marina is Upper Canada Village, a recreated early 1800's village as would have been found along the st. Lawrence. All but a couple of buildings were moved to the site from the surrounding area prior to the flooding of the river valley when the St. Lawrence Seaway was created. This is a fuctioning historic village with three water powered mills that operate, including 

this weaving mill, a cooper, bakery, blacksmith, tinsmith, cabinet maker, and cheese factory, all selling there wares. We bought some cheese from the cheese factory. We left the marina at about 3:00 and spent the night on the hook behind Pilon Island. On Friday morning we traveled 32 miles down stream to Valleyfield, where they have recently reopened an old section of the cannel and have created a waterside park right downtown. To get into the park they open two small swinging foot bridges. The width of the channel was only about 18', so putting a 14' wide boat through there was a little like threading a needle! Once inside there is a very nice floating dock which allows you to get off your boat and walk across the street to all the

services of the town. We enjoyed a nice lunch. After lunch we traversed two more locks, with a wait of only 10 minutes, and anchored for the night about 12 miles above the last two locks. On Saturday, July 12, we pulled anchor at 7:50 AM and started towards the last two locks. About a mile before the first of these locks we caught up with an empty tour boat heading towards Montreal. As a commercial boat, the locks were waiting for him and we followed him through the last two locks without any waiting. Unheard of, we traversed the seven large locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway with a total wait of only 10 minutes. We are currently in Three Rivers, Quebec, 68 NM up river from Quebec City. Tomorrow we will run down to Vauquelin, 18 NM from Quebec, traversing through the Richelieu Rapids where we will encounter where we expect ebb current of near 8 Kts. Can't wait for this great ride! The Marina Port de Quebec is in a basin behind a lock, similar to Windmill Harbor on Hilton Head. They have as much as 18' of tide here, so this is a practicle way to reduce the up down action of the docks. ODYSSEE is in the picture, in front of the tree. On the grain elevator, the run a 55 minute movie every night for their 400 year celebration. There are 16 storaqge silos to the left of the center building, and at least 40 to the right that are not in the picture. The entire surface, some 1000' long is used for the movie presentation, WOW!  We've got lots of pictures, will post when we next get wi-fi. With the great tide swing we would now see, it is important to time your departure to take advantage of the 7 MPH difference between ebb and flood tide. The flow of the water is evidenced as you look at the channel marker and the SOG on our GPS chartplotter. We are going through the water at 9.7 MPH. Shortly after leaving Quebec City, we saw Montmorey Falls, 250 ' high, along the north shore of the river. A bit further, we passed the Chapel at Ste Anne de Beaupre. As we went down river, the hills along the banks became mountains, along the north shore the Laurentian's and along the south shore the Appalachian's. Every so often you see a old light house, still being used, but really a navigational aid no longer needed. As we turned north into the Saguenay River, now a Canadian National Marine Park, the boldness of the fjord was breath taking. As we entered we saw a few Minke and Baluga Whales, and Seals. The water is 800-900 feet deep and the rock cliffs on each side tower to 2000 feet. We spent the night anchored in Baie-Eternite, and we took a picture of ODYSSEE as we hiked through the park. Saturday morning was sunny as we left our anchorage to explore more of the fjord. On Cap Trinite, the northern entrance to Baie Trinite, the Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay Statue was erected in the winter of 1878 by a merchant named Charles-Napoleon Robitaille, begged the Virgin Mary to save him from drowning after falling through the ice. To honor this miracle this statue, sculpted by Louis Tobin, was placed here. Having reached the northern most point of this trip, N48 19.663 degrees, we turn back south. We passed

through one channel behind an island that was 

                                                                                                                

maybe 300' wide and 59' deep. Another short distance down river and we came upon a large group of Beluga whales. We shut the engines off and drifted past as the whales pretty much ignored us and swam past and under us. We continued to Tadoussac and moored on the face dock at the municipal marina shortly after lunch. We got off the boat for a walk into a very delightful little town, ending the trek at their little, but very well stocked grocery store where we purchased what we needed to get through the next couple of days before we got Rimouski. We did see one of the most ingenius winter boat storage systems ever. They have a basin with it's floor a little above low tide level, that is used for a tourest parking lot during the summer. Note the lock doors and large fishing boat trailers behind the lock door. On a selected high tide day in late fall they spread the trailers and dollies out in the basin, open the lock doors, and flood the basin. All the boats come in and align themselves with their trailer/dollie before the tide starts out. At low tide they close the lock doors and all the boats are high and dry on their trailer/dollie for the winter. They reverse the process in the spring. ODYSSEE tied to the inside of the outside finger pier at the far end in Tadoussac. On Sunday, July 20, and we left Tadoussac in the morning to cross the St. Lawrence, to Rimouski, a trip of about 60 miles. We arrived at Rimouski on Monday. The boat however, had a major breakdown. While starting the starboard engine, it threw a rod through the cylinder wall and airjacket. We limped into Rimowski on our port engine, bucking steep waves from a wind on our nose of 20-25K and an ebb tide current of about 1.5K. Together they piled up some large square waves, several of which broke over the bow. We've located what sounds like a good used engine in Florida. It is ready to go but I want to inspect it and witness it running. So we have decided to pull the boat here for the winter and continue the trip again next June. It will take us at least a month to get things running again, and then it will be too late to enjoy the rest of the trip. The engine failure was caused by water in the top of a cylinder, not by old age or wear and tear. While we were anchored on Sunday night in an anchorage well protected from the SW breeze that was blowing when we anchored. The forcast was for the wind to shift to the NE early in the morning, blow 10-15 by mid morning and up to 20-25 by noon. Well the wind did shift at about 3:00AM and appearently blew near gale force out in the river, it was dead calm in the anchorage and fogged in, but the waves from the gale in the river rolled into the anchorage. The small tide current was holding the boat at about 45 degrees to the waves, so we were rocking and rolling pretty good. This action was pitching the boat in an ossolating motion, burying the starboard stern and then the port bow would dive into the next trough. After discussing this with several people, including son Will, we've concluded that we created a pumping action in the starboard exhaust pipe and muffler that finally pushed water over the top of the exhaust riser and down into the exhaust manifold. Then, we appearently had the valve rockers at just the right position to be holding both the intake valve and exhaust valve slightly open, allowing the water to get into the cylinder. Also when we started the engine, the fourth cylinder on the left side, also the lowest cylinder, was in a compresson strock. That piston couldn't go up when full of water, so the connecting rod broke and went through the cylinder sleeve and side wall of the engine casting. There is evidence of salt residue where the water was forced out through the block hole. A pretty bazzar situation, but it is the only sinareo that makes any sence. Quick update - it is Wednesday, July 30. We pulled the boat yesterday and is sitting on the hard. We are leaving today on the 1:45 bus westerly bound. Claria will go to Detroit and enjoy the grand kids. Chuck will go to Albany. From there, is still up for grabs. We have located an engine in the Tampa, FL area, so I may fly there to look at that engine, which sounds pretty good. Will probably end up at home for a day or so some where along the way, possible this weekend or early next week. The odyssey continues! Rimouski - WE HAVE AN ENGINE! This update is posted on Sunday, August 3. It's been a couple of busy days here in Tampa, FL. Flew down here from Albany Thursday on a non-stop SW flight into Orlando. Looked at the engine Friday morning and decided it was worth digging out of the "engine pile" to check out closer. Spent the rest of Friday looking at used Ford F 150 crew cab pick ups. Helped Zack dig out the engine Saturday morning. It is exactly the same engine we have, a model 5082-5000 with a serial number about 1000 older than mine. Outside looks a little rough, hasn't been taken care of as well as mine, but inside under the head and in the blower box looks great. No dicernable wear in cylinder walls or on valve camshaft or evidence of water in the oil pan. We will need to transfer some trim out parts from our present engine. On Saturday afternoon I purchased a used 2006 Ford F 150 crew cab pick up with 23,000 miles on it. Monday we will load the engine and I will start north, anticipating getting home late Monday night. Will spend several days at home and then head out for Canada on Friday morning, expecting to arrive in Rimouski, QC Sunday afternoon, ready to start the rebuild process on Monday. The odyssey with ODYSSEE continues! In the meantime Claria is at daughter Mary's in Ann Arbor, MI enjoying a visit with our kids and their kids. All is well and we are both still smiling.