Sun Jun 12 2022
Late on that Thursday afternoon (2 Jun) I went looking for a talented welder to either repair or fabricate a new top cap / plumbing connection assembly for Sunset. I looked at the list of vendors provided by the marina office then wandered into the yard to see who I could find. Spying a small building with a guy turning square pieces of wood into hexagonal ones, I waited until he noticed me then presented my sewage appliance and asked about stainless steel welding services. He kindly looked at me, likely thinking I was an idiot given that he was shaping wood, but then commented that a fellow named Jim Pritchett was the best welder in the area. “He’s working on that boat over there”, he noted, pointing towards a large WWII barge that had been turned into a fish tender. Away I went to try and find Jim Pritchett but nobody was in shouting distance and one simply doesn’t board a boat without permission, regardless if it’s in the yard for heavy maintenance or in the water. Wandering along until I found another soul, I asked where Mr. Pritchett’s shop might be, and the fellow pointed, also noting that Jim drove a Dodge diesel dually pickup truck.
Wandering over there I discovered a shop full of interesting fabrication tools and equipment but no humans, so back towards the fish tender I went and voila, there Jim was. Approaching him while brandishing my formerly sewage laden corroded assembly, I asked if he might be able to repair it. A brief inspection yielded a comment of “wow, look at that galvanic corrosion”. Noting that nothing conductive contacted that assembly, my observation was that evil human emissions over 33 years must be to blame. In any case, could he repair or make a new one? Jim noted he was extremely busy with his current project but after some prodding commented that he might be able to get to it tomorrow. Friday suited our schedule desires as we simply wanted to get to Petersburg over the weekend and the Wrangell marina was dirt cheap anyway. Jim took possession of the corroded assembly and I returned to Sunset to announce triumphantly to Isabel that the problem would be solved within 24 hours and that we could proceed to Petersburg on Saturday morning. Happy wife, happy life.
As anyone with an IQ higher than a toaster oven would expect, Jim’s Friday simply slipped away with all his responsibilities and didn’t even get a start on the project. Finally tracking him down towards the end of the day, he admitted that he probably wouldn’t get to it on Saturday either. I reluctantly took the part and moped back to Sunset to inform my wife of my failure to achieve. Along the way I met the co-captain of the fishing tender under repair, and she almost begged me not to distract Jim Pritchett so he and his crew could complete the job and the tender could be ready for the upcoming salmon season. Wow. I smiled and promised to go away, but she really was very friendly about it all.
Aside from my poopy project, Wrangell was a decent little place. The public library wasn’t as impressive as the one at Ketchikan but it was nice and had great free wifi. There was a section of beach with some very interesting petroglyphs, a well stocked NAPA store and general store, two decent grocery stores and a nice little bakery. There was no locals watering hole to match the Asylum in Ketchikan, but we were happy to get silly aboard Sunset if the need arose. Wrangell was OK, and we departed Saturday morning to move on to Petersburg in the company of Harborlark, Sea Esta having departed a couple days earlier. Harborlark had investigated getting a hull repair but the yard couldn’t schedule a haul out for weeks, so they struck out on their repair project too.
We chugged out of Wrangell and proceeded up the Wrangell Narrows to Petersburg. We saw so many small fishing boats we lost count, and did a kabuki dance or two to avoid them in the main channel. Petersburg hosts a major commercial fishing fleet as well as a bunch of smaller sport fishing boats. Darned if Jimmy Dawson’s little cruise ship wasn’t anchored in front of the marina, but he was back on board and texted that it was too big a pain in the ass to go ashore in the rain in what appeared to be the ship’s 10 meter RIB. The harbor master chatted with us over the VHF and assigned us a slip that turned out to be adjacent to Sea Esta. Harborlark was behind us in the queue and ended up on a different pontoon, but soon we were all saying hello to one another.
Isabel and I wandered off to explore the town and check out the public library - a really nice one and a bit bigger than Wrangell’s, even a seating area by a fake fireplace. We explored the dining options, and the following day after walking several miles around the “great loop trail” we joined the crew of Harborlark for dinner, Sea Esta having departed that morning. The venue was a food truck like thing, but had a nice covered area with portable fire pits and plenty of chairs and tables. The lady that owns the business is from Thailand and the food was great. Wine was served in canning jars (a nice homey touch) and the four of us had a nice evening, gobbling up various items including Pad Thai for me and a halibut taco w/ fries for Isabel, and between the 4 of us 3 bottles of red wine disappeared. It’s fair to say a good time was had by all.
We ended up remaining in Petersburg for 3 nights altogether as the forecast when we had planned to leave looked a bit ugly. To get to our next destination we would have to travel through a large channel with a reputation for rough water in the right conditions, so we erred on the side of caution and remained. This created the opportunity for me to repair the sewage assembly using fiberglass, a Rube Goldberg method that should actually last years. Given that a new assembly would have cost nearly $1000 I reckoned that was a big win.
We launched early in the morning of June 7th during slack tide, making maneuvering in tight quarters a lot easier, and began making our way to Pybus Bay. More about that next time.
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