Two events did happen that stand sharing. The first happened around 5:30am and involved our cat Kona. Peter was sleeping after doing a long shift. I was at the helm and Kona was sitting on my lap keeping me company as she sometimes does. Something caught her attention and she got up and walked across the dash to the window. When she did that I heard the engine make a small but very definite clunk. I immediately checked our instruments and speed and nothing seemed amiss. I hated to wake Peter up as I knew he needed his rest. At the time I thought maybe she had head-butted the throttle as she had rubbed up against it. I kept monitoring the instruments for awhile but soon forgot about the incident as nothing seemed amiss. A little while later Peter awoke & was getting ready to make some breakfast when suddenly an alarm went off. Beep, beep beep! We have a lot of instruments that make different noises and after a quick glance I realized I had no idea where it was coming from. Time to get Peter involved. He came up and looked around for a few minutes & couldn't figure it out either. He was standing by the helm looking down when he realized the hydraulic pump warning light was going off and it was making the noise. It was overheating as it had been on ever since Kona stepped on the button to activate it. Yikes!.....
The big 25hp hydraulic pump that powers the bow thruster and anchor winch is driven off the crankshaft at the front of the engine via a big electric clutch. When we aren't using the hydraulics we disengage the clutch from a switch panel on the wheelhouse console, which completely disconnects the pump from the engine and takes the hydraulic system offline. Because we only use the hydraulics when we are docking or anchoring, I did not install a hydraulic oil cooler. The short duration that we usually run the system is never enough to build up much heat. Kona engaged the pump (in standby mode, but still pumping and building heat) for over an hour, which eventually raised the hydraulic oil temp to ring the alarm. Fortunately, the high temp alarm worked as designed (now that we know what it is). If the temp had gone up much more, the system would have automatically disengaged the clutch to avoid cooking the hydraulic pump- at least thats whats supposed to happen- we caught the issue before it shut itself down. -PB
The other event is much more pleasant. Just off Pacifica in about 120 feet of water we came across a large raft of birds of all different varieties, all trying to muscle in on the same small patch of water. That caught our attention.
Then we saw the whales.
They were in pods and were feeding.... The highlight was seeing one of them breach (sorry, no video). When you first see something that big coming horizontally out of the water your brain tells you that's not supposed to happen and it takes a moment to process that you're seeing a whale jump out of the water. By the time you see the large splash you're caught up and it's like WOW!
What we think was happening here (whale experts, feel free to correct our hypothesis) was that the whales were rounding up big schools of baitfish underwater and driving them up to the surface. When the birds spotted the big schools of baitfish coming up to the surface, they charged in and began snapping them up as fast as they could. When the whales charged up from underneath the school of fish to feed, the birds scattered to avoid becoming a side-dish for the whales. That's what it looked like to us anyway...
This was a little hard to capture on video, but a lot of fun to watch.
After that it was a quick easy trip around Mile Rock and through The Gate- no its not usually this calm:
Under the Bridge, left turn for Sausalito...
...and back to our home dock at Galilee Harbor where we glided into our slip and tied up our lines under sunny skies. It's always odd being on land after being out on the ocean for awhile. It's hard to walk in a straight line and you still automatically lock all cabinets after opening them. Peter and I are both still having dreams about being underway and wake up in the middle of the night thinking we have to go check on the anchor or stand the next wheelhouse watch, but as the days pass those things are slowly fading.
The big 25hp hydraulic pump that powers the bow thruster and anchor winch is driven off the crankshaft at the front of the engine via a big electric clutch. When we aren't using the hydraulics we disengage the clutch from a switch panel on the wheelhouse console, which completely disconnects the pump from the engine and takes the hydraulic system offline. Because we only use the hydraulics when we are docking or anchoring, I did not install a hydraulic oil cooler. The short duration that we usually run the system is never enough to build up much heat. Kona engaged the pump (in standby mode, but still pumping and building heat) for over an hour, which eventually raised the hydraulic oil temp to ring the alarm. Fortunately, the high temp alarm worked as designed (now that we know what it is). If the temp had gone up much more, the system would have automatically disengaged the clutch to avoid cooking the hydraulic pump- at least thats whats supposed to happen- we caught the issue before it shut itself down. -PB
The other event is much more pleasant. Just off Pacifica in about 120 feet of water we came across a large raft of birds of all different varieties, all trying to muscle in on the same small patch of water. That caught our attention.
Then we saw the whales.
They were in pods and were feeding.... The highlight was seeing one of them breach (sorry, no video). When you first see something that big coming horizontally out of the water your brain tells you that's not supposed to happen and it takes a moment to process that you're seeing a whale jump out of the water. By the time you see the large splash you're caught up and it's like WOW!
What we think was happening here (whale experts, feel free to correct our hypothesis) was that the whales were rounding up big schools of baitfish underwater and driving them up to the surface. When the birds spotted the big schools of baitfish coming up to the surface, they charged in and began snapping them up as fast as they could. When the whales charged up from underneath the school of fish to feed, the birds scattered to avoid becoming a side-dish for the whales. That's what it looked like to us anyway...
This was a little hard to capture on video, but a lot of fun to watch.
After that it was a quick easy trip around Mile Rock and through The Gate- no its not usually this calm:
Under the Bridge, left turn for Sausalito...
...and back to our home dock at Galilee Harbor where we glided into our slip and tied up our lines under sunny skies. It's always odd being on land after being out on the ocean for awhile. It's hard to walk in a straight line and you still automatically lock all cabinets after opening them. Peter and I are both still having dreams about being underway and wake up in the middle of the night thinking we have to go check on the anchor or stand the next wheelhouse watch, but as the days pass those things are slowly fading.
Overall it was a great shakedown cruise. We learned lots about the boat and ourselves. We have a list (not too long) of things to alter/improve/add for next time. We feel great that this boat is very capable and comfortable just as we designed and hoped her to be. And of course we're dreaming & planning of future cruising that will happen hopefully in the not-too-distant future. Thanks everyone who followed our little story. We'll be posting more soon as we prep and plan for our next trip. More to come...
If you are interested in how we built Kamahele (from plans to launch to fit-out), check out our other blog: buildingkoloa.blogspot.com
Basic stats for this trip:
Sausalito to Santa Catalina Island and return,16 days total,
Covered just under 800 miles
Burned 330 gallons of diesel fuel using an average of 2.5 gallons an hour
All electricity from storage batteries/inverter
Batteries charged via solar panels & engine alternator (when underway)
All potable water supplied by Spectra Watermaker
Didn't tie up to a dock for two weeks
Had a great time...
Sue & Peter
Sept 2018
Basic stats for this trip:
Sausalito to Santa Catalina Island and return,16 days total,
Covered just under 800 miles
Burned 330 gallons of diesel fuel using an average of 2.5 gallons an hour
All electricity from storage batteries/inverter
Batteries charged via solar panels & engine alternator (when underway)
All potable water supplied by Spectra Watermaker
Didn't tie up to a dock for two weeks
Had a great time...
Sue & Peter
Sept 2018
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