We have just returned from our 10-day "shakedown" cruise in the San Juan and Gulf Islands, our first cruise since the delivery trip last fall. Quite a bit of catch-up reading this list but it really is a font of worthwhile information. "Kathy K" is a 1983 Sundowner 30 tug yacht with Pathfinder (Volkswagen) diesel engine. Since she sat without being used for many years (last log entry was in 1993!) there have been (and continue to be) a number of "projects". Navigation Software Cruising in the San Juan and Gulf Islands in the Pacific NW, we used a laptop computer running Visual Navigation Suite 5.0 connected to a handheld GPS for the first time. We used Passport vector charts in the San Juans and Canadian CDI raster charts in the Gulf Islands. Since each series of charts overlaps both sides of the Canadian - US border through Haro Strait, we didn't have to quilt vector and raster charts. My wife who is not really a navigator found it really easy to steer the boat through Mosquito Pass (a narrow, twisting and shallow pass) by observing the boat symbol moving over the chart. In fact I had to keep reminding her to look out the windshield and to watch the depthfinder! VNS really is a "gee whiz" product. However I did find it easier to keep a paper chart on hand to read details. Reading a paper chart is quicker than zooming in and out. Zooming in on raster charts made text blocky. Navigation aid descriptions on Passport vector charts sometimes overlaid other text making it had to read. Previously I had entered over 200 waypoints into the GPS from the Weatherly Waypoint Guide. I like their waypoints since they were verified on the water and are usually offset to the safe side of navigation aids or other features. I downloaded all these waypoints from the GPS to VNS. I had to select each waypoint out of a list to copy it. Would have been easier to say "copy all waypoints". VNS doesn't really support setting up routes using existing waypoints. Yes it can be done, VNS will ask if you want to use an existing waypoint when you set up a route using the mouse. But you can't copy a route to make a new route and then edit waypoint names to create a new route. Guess I have become used to the way my Garmin 45 GPS handles routes. Breakdown at Sea Coming back across the Straights of Juan de Fuca, we were about 2 nm W of Smith Island at 9 am when both the fresh water pump and alternator belts on the engine disintegrated! There was a strong ebb out of Rosario Strait and a 10-15 kn breeze causing a very bouncy chop. Without way on, Kathy K was really being tossed about and rolling heavily. You really had to hold on. Fortunately everything was stowed and nothing was spilled or broken. So with a spare water pump belt I set about to remove the raw water pump hoses, remove belt fragments wrapped around the raw water pump shaft and install the new belt. But I couldn't do it! The rolling (and the fact that the holding tank was full) made me almost instantly seasick when working with my head done kneeling into the forward engine room door. After several times coming back up for air, I decided to ask for help. I was also concerned that a stronger breeze against the tide could rapidly make things worse. Luckily we had BOAT US towing insurance. I called the BOAT US 800 # on the cellphone and very soon after that got a call from Tim's Marine at Friday Harbor. He was available to go immediately so I asked him to come get us. Since we were almost as close to Port Townsend as Friday Harbor, I asked to be towed into Port Townsend (close to our homeport). The towboat arrived in less than an hour and we had a very smooth ride to Port Townsend and a very professional docking. (Tim said that he had once brought an 85' schooner onto the Port Townsend Boat Haven (a tight place) at night in 25 kn of wind.) We were very glad to have bought unlimited towing coverage for $85/year. The charge was $135/hr from the time the towboat left until it returned to Friday Harbor (estimated at 5 1/2 hours). Towing distances and times can be long in the straits and islands. I also called the Coast Guard and informed them of my situation. Luckily I wasn't directly in the shipping lanes and didn't have to also call the Vessel Traffic Service. I told the Coast Guard that a tow was dispatched. They asked me to check in when under tow and when I arrived in port. I had thought I was prepared with spare parts for most emergencies but had never considered that sea conditions could prevent me from making repairs. If help hadn't been available, I could have made repairs but it would have been a real ordeal and would have taken hours - a danger if conditions got worse. Tied up to the dock, it did take me several hours to replace the fresh water pump belt. The raw water pump is fastened to the crankshaft pulley, its hoses had to be disconnected and the fresh water pump pulley taken apart. Belt tension is adjusted by installing shims between the pulley halves, making the pulley wider or narrower. A fiddlely job putting together, taking it apart, adding or removing shims until the tension is correct. Since the belts were new, I'm not sure why they disintegrated. I assume one belt broke and got underneath the other, breaking it too. Rubber dust showed that the belt was being ground down. When I got the belt, rust on the pulleys had caused this. I had spent some time sandpapering the crankshaft pulley grooves on the engine and the water pump pulley halves when they were removed. Even though there are still pits, the grooves felt much smoother. I have since been told that even smoothed pits are a problem. Also I discovered that the alternator mounting was very wobbly. The mounting hole at the base of the alternator had been worn into an oval shape around the mounting bolt. This was probably caused when the engine vibrated excessively when operated with a broken motor mount. I have now drilled out the hole and used a larger mounting bolt. Also replacing the regulator with a 3-stage regulator means the 65 amp alternator is now working harder. It now charges at up to 40 amps. I will try new belts and will monitor their condition closely for a time. Perhaps the pulleys will have to be replaced or machined smooth. Handheld VHF Radio Earlier during the cruise I found that my main VHF marine radio was receiving but not transmitting. I was sure glad to have a handheld radio as a backup. And I was glad to receive an AA battery holder as well as a NiCad battery pack. The Coast Guard heard the handheld from the straits and from Port Townsend. (The handheld radio was received as an incentive to chartering a sailboat in the Kingdom of Tonga during the off-season. We were only able to cruise for half a week due to a local typhoon, another story.) I tested the main VHF radio, found that it had 25 Watt output and negligible VSWR but no modulation. I took apart the microphone and disconnected it from the radio. Finding no discontinuities I put it back together and now it works! The good news is that it works, the bad news is that I don't know why. Apparently microphone connections are the most prevalent problems on marine radios. Listening to a Mayday Just when I went to call the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard started responding to a Mayday from a 36' wood boat four miles away from me in the straits which had water over the floorboards. The Coast Guard broadcast a request for nearby vessels to respond and dispatched a helicopter with a pump. The boater was first trying to bail out the boat between talking to the Coast Guard and then abandoned ship in the dinghy with his wife. Seeing that the boat wasn't sinking immediately he left his wife in the dinghy and reboarded to resume pumping. The last I heard, the Coast Guard was dropping the pump, other boats were alongside and the passenger ferry and other commercial vessels were told to stand down their response. I hope he made it. During a lull I was then able to inform the Coast Guard of my status. Inverter/charger I installed a 1 KW Heart inverter/ 50 amp charger and Link 10 battery monitor. I am quite happy with the setup. The batteries don't loose much water sitting on the charger, the battery monitor helps monitor charging with the alternator and having 110 VAC is useful for a lot of household devices (coffee grinder, fluorescent trouble light, vacuum, etc.) The only minor problem was getting the inverter to turn on when using the 110 VAC laptop power supply. I often had to turn on something else to get the inverter started. Since the laptop uses 19 VDC, one project is to make a 12 VDC - 19 VDC converter power supply. I have a kit of parts for it made by a ham radio operator with consideration for reducing RF interference. Autopilot This has been my first experience with an autopilot (a Wagner with a big steering compass). It is really helpful. I can move around underway, look astern and all around and essentially pay more attention to what's going on instead of staring at the GPS steering display. But with all the junk floating in the water here including deadheads, you really have to pay attention to what's in front of the boat, especially when going through tide lines. I had to discipline myself not to fiddle with the VNS software when at the helm but to wait until relived by my wife. At one point, the autopilot started steering to starboard but not to port. When I started to unscrew the mounting screws to take the control unit out of its case, it started to work. Flexing the PC board showed intermittent operation. I was quite proud of myself when I found and resoldered a broken solder joint on a power transistor lead. By then I was used to the convenience of an autopilot. Demand water heater Somebody on the list was complaining that a demand water heater was running hot and cold. I don't think anybody mentioned installing a small pressure tank on the cold water line. That smoothes out the water pressure and reduces pump cycling which is much easier on the pump. Phil Keys "Kathy K" Sundowner 30 tug yacht Port Hadlock, WA 98339