Shakedown Cruise

It surprises people (and ourselves, at times) how long it is has taken to get Alpenglow ready to cruise. We remind them (and ourselves) that 1) the boat is a complex system (electrical, plumbing, mechanical, electronic, etc.) and 2) will be our home eventually. In short, we want to get as much as we can right the first time since it is time consuming and expensive to replace or repair what we screw up when working in haste.

We target for the start of our first shakedown trip a cruise event on March 20-21 put on by the yacht club, Queen City Yacht Club, to which we belong.  From there we take off north for a planned two to three week trip.

Unfortunately, the weather was wet and blustery even for this time of year (late winter/early spring), so we cut our losses and returned to Seattle after ten days.  We did go as far north as Sucia Island, anchoring three nights in Fossil Bay.

We also brought along the “girls”, our two calico cats, Annie & Maggie. Maggie adjusted pretty well to the boat but Annie would spend much of her time underneath the covers of the bed or tucked into some tiny cubby hole.

While the trip was shorter than we wanted and we didn’t cover as much ground (or see as much sun), we are pleased with the boat. It is comfortable and handled the foul weather we had well. We look forward to the summer cruising season ahead.

Seattle Boat Show

An encouragement that we used with Seahorse Marine, the folks who built Alpenglow, to get our boat finished expeditiously was our willingness to make it available for the Lake Union floating boat display portion of the Seattle Boat Show (January 29 to February 6). It also gave us a good deadline to get the boat cleaned up.

While at Seaview East Boatyard we pretty much reassembled the boat, repaired a few things that cropped since the boat left China, and cleaned up lots of dirt and grime (both inside and out).

The photo to the left shows how masts are typically stepped in the US.  The mast is on a cart which can be wheeled close to the boat. A lifting harness is placed on the mast and a crane lifts it into position where a couple of guys guide it into position. Contrast this with how they did it when the boat was first assembled (stepping a mast at Seahorse).

We moved the boat over to the Lake Union venue on Wednesday, the 27th.  During the show it was part of the Capital City Yachts display.  They are the broker for Seahorse boats and their sales representatives stayed on the boat while it was open for display.

We’d love to have many more sisterships cruising around as it creates a market for the inevitable time when we sell the boat.

Let’s not sink it just yet

When our boat was off loaded from the freighter on Sunday night, we had Lars Nilsson and Costica Gheorghiu from Marine-Tec help us. Lars is a licensed captain and Costica was a ship’s engineer on a commercial freighter. Our first journey was from Terminal 46 on the East Duwamish waterway over to Shilshole marina. That was plenty.

The next morning, with the help from our friends Dorothy & Dave Nagle, who own DavidEllis, hull #2 of the classic Seahorse Marine 462 Diesel Duck, and visiting “duckies” Jerie & John Milici who own Peking, hull #3 of 462 ducks, we took Alpenglow through the Ballard Locks.  Our destination was Seaview East boatyard where we will begin reassembling the boat.

It was my (Kurt), first time driving the boat.   It was pouring down rain and there was lots of water being spilled from the Lake Washington Ship canal giving a nice current to contend with.

With the help of lots of good fendering, major mishaps were avoided and the journey ended with the boat still afloat.

Someday Your Ship Will Come In – Ours was January 3, 2010

We tracked the course of the Cosco Tianjin, the freighter carrying Alpenglow, on its route from Hong Kong, to Yokohama Japan, to Prince Rupert BC, to Vancouver BC and finally Seattle.  It arrived on a cloudy Sunday afternoon and we eagerly went to Hamilton Viewpoint near our home to watch it enter Elliot Bay.

Our little boat had a good position on the ship. It was located forward of the bridge and engine exhaust and well protected by containers on either side.  You can just see the fly bridge and bow poking out from its protecting containers.

Just “Ship It”

For another ten days after Kurt’s departure, Marcia stayed in China monitoring last minute fixes, and the preparation of Alpenglow for shipping. Since we were importing the vessel ourselves, we were going to have to know how to reassemble the boat after it arrived in Seattle.

When the boat is shipped, it will sit on top of shipping containers exposed to the full force of the North Pacific in winter. The mast and rigging had to come down.  All of the electronics on the mast had to be secured or removed. All of the electronics on the fly bridge had to be removed. Everything not bolted down inside the boat has to be secured.

 

 

After the boat is secured, it is driven to a small port near the boat yard where it is put on a small (by shipping standards) vessel and taken to the main port where it is loaded on the large container ship that will take it to Seattle. The boat is securely lashed down to a cradle purpose built to hold our boat.

Let’s Have a Party

On the evening before my (Kurt’s) departure from the boatyard, we had a party to celebrate the “completion” of our boat.  The boat was cleaned and celebratory flags strung. We paid for exotic American food to be brought in, KFC dinner boxes.

Pictures were taken and speeches were given.

Here is Marcia with Henry, our project manager, and  another of both of us with Mr. Gong, the electrical/electronic foreman.

The View from the Bridge

Our boat has a fly bridge (or flying bridge to some).  It is located directly above the lower helm in the pilot house. On nice days it is a delightful place to pilot the boat or simply spend time. For close quarter maneuvering, its view (especially forward) is outstanding.

 

 

The view to the rear is fine except for close-in objects. Having someone below telling you what might be lurking in your blind spot is handy.

 

 

 

 

 

The lower helm in the pilot house is more comfortable and has a larger set of controls. It also is part of the normal living/social area of the boat not dependent on having good weather.

Electrical Panel

We often joke about when you own a boat, you become a city manager on account of all of the systems on board necessary to support a style of living similar to that on shore. Old-timers will scoff at the complexity of a modern boat saying it is an invitation to disaster (or at least a smaller bank account). Nevertheless, that is the way new boats are built because boat buyers expect creature comforts comparable to their home.

To illustrate this, below are photos of our electrical panel.

Our boat can handle shore power of either 110VAC or 220VAC. Internally, we use 220VAC so shore power of 110 VAC is “stepped” up to the higher voltage through adjusting the connections of our isolation transformer. Since this photo was taken, we have added a warning telling us to NEVER, EVER step up 220 VAC to a higher voltage.  Bad things happen.
As mentioned above, internally we start with 220VAC which is used for selected items which would only operate with shore power or the generator. Most AC devices operate with 110V which we obtain by stepping 220V down.
The gritty backside of the AC panel.
We own a 24VDC boat but we do have some 12V items.  The 12VDC is obtained by a DC-DC converter from 24V.
The backside of the DC panel