ALL THAT WENT WRONG During our First Year of Sailing.. Learning by Doing | A&J Sailing S1Ep.14
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
- We left it all behind to live out our dreams of exploring the epic coastal waters of the pacific northwest by sail! We found a no-frills sailboat, spent months fixing it up and taught ourselves how to move around with the wind!
Steep learning curve, this sailing business! We learned that anything that can go wrong on a boat WILL (during the first month on the water) including steering & engine failure! This week trouble stirs again and we find ourselves bucketing water, rather quickly, out of our bilge..
On with the show! (cue smoke)
0:00 Intro
0:17 Recap - All that went wrong during our first few weeks on the water
2:35 Trouble stirs again!
3:30 I'd like to use a lifeline please - Phone a Friend
8:30 When in doubt wrenches out!
16:32 Everyone likes a good sailing montage
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WHO WE ARE
Hi! We're Allison & James 👋 a Canadian Aussie duo who left it all behind to live aboard our small no-frills sailboat in the Pacific Northwest! Join us on our liveaboard adventures in one of the most incredible sailing destinations in the world!
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I bought a boat with a friend years ago that was an absolute kludge. We knew it when we bought it and thought that it would be a fun, "project." The project became an endless set or ongoing projects that never ended even though the two of us refused to be beaten. We called the boat the, "Economic Stimulator." It was a marriage of frustration, financial destitute and some of the best stories of my life. We gave it to a friend after several years and I bought a new-to-me boat that took me from San Francisco to Alaska. I have really enjoyed your journeys. Thank you for posting.
Love that! So much respect for folks who pour blood sweat and tears into a boat to bring it back from the brink of despair. Definitely a project that never ends no matter what side of the new or used boat spectrum you’re on. Endless fixing and upgrades, but so rewarding! Did your friend continue to work on it after you passed it on?
Awesome you made the trip from SF to AK!! What a journey👏🏽So glad you’ve been enjoying the videos we’ve been making. Hopefully brings back good memories from that trip!
@@AllisonandJamesSailing The boat had a balsa core that eventually became entirely saturated and she became an organ donor. I believe the keel now lives as weights for divers, and most of the parts became transplants for other destitute sailors in need. The hull became part of a landfill, but she lives on breathing life into several other ships in need.
I think considering the age of the boat and this season being your first, you guys were able to tackle the issues that came up with no serious problems and learned valuable lessons from them. For those of us who are aspiring to get out there and experience the sailing/cruising lifestyle we gained from you honestly sharing the reality that is sailing. It doesn’t matter how old the vessel is as brand new boats break down too.
Awh, thanks for that! Really means a lot to hear that sharing our journey has been helpful for folks! We've really learned so much, through all the challenges and the rewards make it all worth it. We'd really love for others to experience the magic out here, no fancy boats required, cause as you said they all break anyhow!
Hi guys I've watched a few more of your videos and really enjoy the laid back attitude, and that positive style..
On old boats SHIT does happen.. decided to watch your series from the start..
Thanks for checking out some of our other videos! Really glad you're enjoying the vibe. We've put up three seasons so far and we think they keep getting better. We've learned a lot since starting out! Hope to be back soon with some more, cheers!
As someone looking seriously at a C30 for a first boat in the next year or so, these videos showing common problems are so much more useful than "everything went perfectly and don't we look great" content. Sobering but not dissuading, it gives us a realistic slice of the kind of things to prepare for. Thank you!
Awesome! Glad you’re finding value in the videos, love to hear that!
It’s definitely not all smooth sailing, but our experience is that C30’s are great first boats!
I am using your videos to convince my wife that sailing is not all just sitting in a sailboat for long hours barely moving and being bored out of her mind. Aside from your breakdowns, an important factor in gaining experience, you've had plenty of adventure and have seen lots of places inaccessible by car.
haha! We definitely find ourselves very busy onboard! Agreed, it's been trial by fire out here, but that's what makes the adventure! Certainly makes the good times that much better! Thanks for watching, Cheers Ernie!
This is a really well put together video you guys! Excellent storytelling. Awesome job overcoming another challenging situation. Fair winds in your future (fingers crossed nothings else breaks)!
Thanks so much!
they say sailing is all about fixing your boat in some exotic locations ;-)
basically fixing your boat everywhere all the time! It’s worth it, thanks for watching!
@@AllisonandJamesSailing yep, welcome to The Club ;-)
Loving your videos guys! Stoked to see what ya'll get up to next!
Thanks so much!
obsessed w u!!!!
love & miss u! -A
I am no guru. Things break all the time. It is being able to fix things when they break that are the makings of a good cruiser. So you two are great cruisers. Really enjoying the videos.
We're so grateful to have you on speed dial! Thank you for your support and always being there for us
Great video! Thanks for sharing. Also from the PNW on the Island. I would strongly recommend running a manual switch power line to the bilge pump as the float switches often get stuck from sludge. I’ve had so many rule pumps fail and just recovered my neighbors sunken boat from the rule automatic switch failing (i now run nothing but Johnson pumps out of spite). Also a high water alarm is a great safety investment and will help you sleep better. Also marina neighbors will hopefully phone if they here it going off. Great that you now have a spare in the boat! Thanks again for posting look forward to following along.
Awesome to hear from a fellow islander! Sorry to hear about your neighbours sunken boat, that really sucks :( we have the rule pump on a 3-way switch, it still functioned if you held it over to manual but that didn’t stop our bilge from flooding. I may also be switching over to Johnson pumps outta spite 😂 kind of wish I didn’t buy a rule spare! I’ve thought about putting a high water alarm in but the bilge on our catalina is so shallow it would end up alarming constantly while under sail, it’s like only 6” deep, I still might though 😀 thanks for watching and we hope to see you out there sometime!!
Ah, the wind in the Salish Sea doing what it does! Good stuff!
Haha you know it! Typical Salish Sea stuff! Rarely get to a planned destination around here but it’s good fun to just see where you end up!
i love it ... i love it, when people tell what they made wrong. its much more to learn from ... thx!
We learn from our mistakes! Thanks so much for being here Jürgen!
“No harm done other than the fuel pump bowing up”
😂😂
haha! Thanks for watching Dace! Hope to see you soon friend!
Awh thanks for giving Denny credit ❤ He is a pretty awesome cool sailing guru! I remember the call. I was panicking but Denny was a cool cucumber. Sailing and schedules don’t work. And yes things always break but you guys seem to have the skills to learn and fix. That’s the important thing!
He's the best sailing guru, so knowledgeable. Inspired by you guys!
haha it was a stressful call, I was also panicking 😅
Thanks & hope your boat projects are going well in the land down under! Can't wait to see you guys soon!
You need to loosen it till it almost comes off then put grease on it and keep doing it till you can turn it by hand. But make sure you set the lock nut tight. I use two small pipe wrenches.
The stuffing box in our Catalina is very inconveniently located underneath the cabin sole, pretty hard to get at with anything but the smallest of pipe wrenches. I think Catalina direct sells a specific set of stubby wrenches for this reason.
another great video, amazing shots & editing! sailing and owning a boat is hard work lol, glad it all got fixed 🙂loving the videos!
Thanks so much Caroline! We appreciate you🤍
Your 1st boat? C-30 . interesting. I had made all the ports where you have bee in my C-22. Starting with a small trailer sailor and an outboard motor I was able to sail the whole of the Salish Sea from Olympia to Princess Louisa , Victoria, and Nanaimo. When I got my Tartan 37 I was ready for AK. Luckily the previous owner had a pretty good store of spares onboard. I have used and replaced bilge pump, fresh water pump, raw water pump, diesel lift pump and alternator belts while cruising. I added a spare alternator to my spares store. I carry a 9.9 Honda outboard on the rail so I can tie the dinghy to the hip for emergency propulsion.
Hi Don! That is awesome! There's so many amazing places to explore in the Salish Sea! We really enjoyed our trip up Princess Louisa! Stoked to hear you made it up to AK! That is our dream/what we are working towards!
Correct, this our first boat (won't be our last) and it's worked out well for us so far! Good boat to learn on - handles well and it's comfortable size for both of us to spend considerable amounts of time on! When we purchased it we inherited a small selection of useful parts.. things the previous owner had planned to fix but didn't get around to doing. We have been upgrading our onboard store as we go! Including adding a small outboard :)
@@AllisonandJamesSailing Last year I added a manual downrigger after seeing sailors catch salmon near Broughtons. It has produced many wonderful meals in the San Juans, and of course a crab pot. I would fish for prawns but the thought of hand pulling 300' of line is not appealing.
Amazing! Nothing better than a meal of freshly caught seafood after a day on the water!
We just got ourselves a hefty rod and dual crab/prawn trap! Stoked about catching our own dinner :)
Great video..couple of suggestions…double hose clamps on the bilge pump hose…and heat shrink over the electrical connections. Happy sailing!
Thanks Sue!
Good day you two crazy cruisers. I just found your site last week and have caught up binge watching. I too am in the PNW and just started sailing about 6 years ago. Started out on San Juan 24, then up to Tartan 28 and now a Com-Pac 35. Its really nice watching you work through issue on the C-30. My best friends had a C-30 when I had my Tartan. Its a great boat. Like you I really enjoy working on all the systems. Its by far the best way to get to know your S/V. Hang in there, the work does slow down, but never actually stops, but you seem like you have the right attitude. Any who, Ill be watching keep up the good work. Maybe we will catch up in Desolation Sound next year. We are planning four week in July/Aug next year. Our boat is ClearWater. I too have a youtube channel, but not commercial reasons, just for friends and family. th-cam.com/video/gQYewssemuo/w-d-xo.html Best of Luck, Jeff.
G'day Jeff! Thank you for watching & for writing us! We love comments like this, hearing other's stories and getting to know cruisers in our area.
That's awesome! Our C-30 has been a great boat to learn on! It's been a 'trial-by-fire' first season. But we've enjoyed working through all the systems and figuring things out as we go! We've definitely confirmed that this is a lifestyle we really love so it certainly won't be our last boat!
Would love to bump into you out here! We will keep an eye out! Chat soon, cheers!
You need two bilge pumps INSTALLED as the one you have doesn't look like it can push much water. Put another fused directly to the battery, and if you can manage a separate hosed outlet. Maybe a float switch on it higher in the bilge to kick it on only if the other cant keep up or has failed. Maybe something with much higher capacity and if on the same hose two check valves to keep them from blowing water back out a pump. My Catalina 30 has two. If you get the chance to change it, you might consider a dripless packing gland as well.
Thanks for your thoughts! You can never have enough bilge pumps. If a dripless packing glad fails (they're recommended to be changed every 5-6yrs regardless of visual condition) its very difficult to stop the water from flooding your boat, due to the shallow nature of the bilge design in the Catalina 30 it wouldn't take long to overwhelm the bilge pumps. I can see why you'd want more than one if you had a dripless packing gland. I think we'll be sticking to our traditional stuffing box, sure it might be a bit more regular maintenance but overall they're pretty safe and bullet proof.
Well two things. 1. things break even on new boats and on well looked after old boats. Don't despair. 2. We visited French Creek a few years ago and were instructed to raft up for our overnight stay. We weren't comfortable doing that as it isn't often practiced in Puget Sound and we pressed on to Nanaimo. Should we have just stayed? What do you think?
French Creek is indeed a rafting marina! We weren't sure what to think about it at first, but it's where we bought our boat and kept it while we fixed her up! We learned to love that place! It's affordable, not pretentious at all, has everything you need, unlimited fresh seafood and we met some really great helpful skippers there. It will always hold a special place in our hearts haha
But hey, maybe when we finally get around to a new paint job we will feel differently about rafting up there!
We often sail past Nanaimo and never visit haha! Thanks for watching! Maybe we'll bump into you out here :)
No manual bilge pump!
We have a bucket 🪣
Good afternoon, i Was watching your video and you mentioned a family reunion in Ontario. i am from a small city Stoney creek. i am now living on Vancouver Island. Looking for advise on buying a sail boat here. sailing the Pacific north coast. R Crossman
Amazing, welcome to the island!! Hope the sailboat search is going well so far, cheers!
great video, if these bad things keep happening give me a call, all the things going on with your boat is what I have done for the last 45 years, look me up, my number in on my site here, always have a good electrical meter on board and install an electric bilge alarm for water..
That's a lot of experience! Thanks so much for the support!
Comforting to have people you can call when you need :)
Canada is not the Pacific Northwest!
British Columbia sure as heck is a large part of the PNW!