2025-04-11 Annual Wrangell Haul out

Every year in mid-April I run the boat the approximately 85 miles up to Wrangell for haul out and annual maintenance tasks.

Here is a map snippet from my InReach that shows a one-way track for this voyage. I run the exact same route up and back. It takes me about 10 hours to run one way. Sometimes I stop at Meyers Chuck along the way for an overnight, but this year I went all the way through without stopping enroute.

The first 35 miles or so of this route from Ketchikan to Wrangell are exposed in Clarence Strait. I watch the marine weather forecast pretty closely. We have much better weather apps now than we used to, so I am usually not surprised by the weather.

There won't be many if any scenic shots on this post as this was a maintenance run, not a pleasure trip. The weather was OK but not the best for picture taking.

Some "non-boaters" or "landlubbers" may wonder how I find my way 85 miles up to Wrangell. The navigation devices that we have now are so much more accurate and easier to use than just using a paper chart and a compass like we used to do.

Here's a shot of my primary navigation device, a Garmin 7612 xsv GPS chart plotter. This photo shows it in active navigation mode, navigating on a "route." I build all my routes on my laptop using a different navigational app and then I migrate those routes from my laptop over to the Garmin device. Of course, you can build routes directly on the Garmin device, but I find it easier to build them on my laptop where I can use a mouse.

I will explain what all the numbers mean, so if this is too technically boring for you, feel free to scroll on past this section.

The first thing to note is the boat symbol, circled in blue. That represents the position of the boat in relation to the navigational chart. That bold purple line is the graphical representation of the intended route. On some boats the auto pilot is interfaced into the chart plotter, and so when navigating on a route the auto pilot will keep the boat right on course. My auto pilot is not interfaced to the chart plotter, so I have to manually adjust it from time to time to keep us on course.

The depth readings that show on the chart plotter are listed in feet (rather than fathoms) and I think they are the expected depths at a zero-tide level. Most of the time they are reasonably close to the actual depth, but sometimes they are way off.

Now to explain the somewhat overwhelming array of numbers on the right side of the GPS chart plotter. This is the technical boring part.

The number at the top, "Dist.to Dest." is the distance still to go the get to the intended destination.

When I took this photo, we still had 48.2 nm (nautical miles) to go. This route runs from Wrangell to Meyers Chuck. And then I activate a different route from Meyers Chuck to Ketchikan.

The number below that, labeled "Arrival" is the estimated arrival time, in this case 11:17 AM. The route I was following at the time of the photo was from Wrangell to the little community of Meyers Chuck, on my return run from Wrangell to Ketchikan. That estimated arrival time is based on the assumption that you remain at the same speed for the entire journey. If you speed up or slow down, or stop, that estimated arrival time will change accordingly. It's great to have on a long journey with a wife, or grand kids who always ask, "When will we get there?"

The number below that labeled "Off course," shows how far to the right or to the left of the intended course you are. In this case I was 359 feet to the left of the intended course. When using an auto pilot that is not interfaced to the GPS chart plotter it is virtually impossible to stay perfectly on course. So, I am always a little to the left or the right of the course. When the distance off course grows too large, I adjust the auto pilot a little to compensate. In most cases, depending on where you are, it doesn't matter if you are a bit off the intended course. If I was in a position or situation where it was necessary to be exactly on course I would steer manually and not use the auto pilot.

The number below that labeled "Bearing" is just the compass bearing that the boat is on. At this time, it was 157 degrees. I have two Garmin GPS chart plotters, and a Furuno auto pilot, and an old-style magnetic compass, and they all show slightly different bearings. It's annoying but it is what it is.

The next number is labeled "Dist. to Next." This is the distance in nautical miles to the next waypoint, the next course change. At this time, it was 8.48 nautical miles.

Below that is "Time to next." That tells me how long (in hours & minutes) before I have to make a course change. In this case it was 1 hour and 3 minutes.

The next one is "Wpt. VMG." This is "Waypoint Voyage Made Good." I don't really understand this one. It just seems to show my current speed, so I ignore it.

The number at the bottom is "Next Turn." It shows what course change will be required to stay on course at the next waypoint. In this case it is showing a 13 degree turn to Port will be needed at the next waypoint.

That column of numbers only displays when I am navigating on a route.

The column of numbers to the far right are there all the time (on this screen) whether I am navigating on a route or not. I'll go through those numbers as well, just in case there is anyone still reading this post.

The top number is "GPS Speed." I was going 8.50 knots at the time. This is actual boat speed, regardless of current & wind.

The next number is "GPS Hdg (COG)." "COG" is Course Over Ground. Basically, it is my compass heading.

My GPS chart plotter does not have a water temperature sensor. Some do.

The next one is pretty clear, water depth. A very important number. You can see that it is also displayed in the lower left corner. That is because the chart plotter has many different screens available for different functions, but they want to make sure you can always see the water depth regardless of what screen you are on.

Below that is the compass heading (COG) again.

And then finally at the bottom are the latitude & longitude values. These of course change constantly as the boat moves.

Whew! That was a lot. But that should explain why it is almost impossible to get lost these days. And since I have 2 completely independent GPS chart plotters if one fails then I have a backup.

So needless to say, I found my way to Heritage Harbor in Wrangell.

Heritage Harbor has two very long transient floats for visitors. At this time of the year, they are usually pretty empty. Later in the summer the transient boats are far more numerous. Faraway is circled in blue way out there on the farthest float.

Note the little white bucket on the right side of the photo. They have these placed conveniently all along the floats. They are there for pet owners to sluice down any "deposits" their pets may leave on the floats.

I got there on a Friday afternoon, and my haul out was scheduled for Monday morning, so I had some time to kill. But I don't mind hanging out on the boat. It is very comfortable, and now that I have WiFi it is even better.

From Heritage Harbor it takes me about 30 minutes to walk to town. It used to take less time but I'm an old man now and everything just takes longer. They also have Reliance Harbor, which is much closer to town. But it is older and doesn't have as robust electrical power connections. I don't mind the walk.

On Monday morning at the scheduled time, I ran the boat a couple hundred yards over to the channel where the big travel lift lowers its slings and picks up the boat.

Note that they only have 2 slings in use. Mine is one of the smaller boats that they haul out here. For some of the bigger boats they have to use as many as 6 slings. And this is the "small" lift. They have a larger one that has tires that are taller than I am.

The first thing that is done when the boat is out of the water is that it is pressure washed.

There is a crew of people that work on the boat when I am there. I do very little of it myself.

After pressure washing the boat is taken over to one of the open spots and "blocked." Sometimes they use large wooden blocks but this time they used concrete blocks. They also use metal "jack stands" on the sides to support the boat. The yard requires that tarps be placed under the boat to catch any paint or other stuff that might be dropped.

The pressure washer they used was very powerful and also had one of those "turbo" tips on it which spins. It took off a lot of the old bottom paint.

That small hole in the hull that is visible near the front is the bow thruster tunnel. It's a small electric motor with 2 small propellers that can push the bow to the right or to the left when maneuvering in tight spaces. I don't use it much, but when I do it is very helpful to have.

You can see my shore power cord is plugged into a power receptacle. That allows me to keep my batteries charged while on blocks, and also to run electric devices such as space heaters. Of course, nothing is free, so if you plug into power, they charge an additional daily fee.

The City of Wrangell harbor department operates the shipyard.

While the boat was being worked on there was not much for me personally to do, so I had some dead time. I walked up to the Wrangell Mariners' Memorial, which is located on the waterfront near Heritage Harbor.

This is their sign, I guess you'd call it. The whole memorial is made out of these massive sheets of curved metal that are set in a base of concrete. Last year when I was here the identifying sign wasn't done yet, so they just had a wooden one in place.

This is what it looked like last year.

These big, curved sheets of metal have plaques on them for each mariner that has passed away. I don't know these people, but I assume that they were from Wrangell. The plaques have information about them and then each one has a little saying or a quote from the person or about the person. Some are intended to be humorous, and others are more somber.

In Heritage Harbor there are several houseboats. I assume people either are or were living on them, but I rarely saw anyone in or around them, so perhaps most of them are vacant. Some are more impressive than others.

Note the Starlink antenna on this one. I have to say that looking at all the boats in the harbors and also in the shipyard, if you look closely enough you see a Starlink antenna on 95% of them.

Some of the houseboats are set up for propulsion, in that they have engines. But others have no propulsion, so if they need to be moved, they must be towed.

This last one is my favorite. I've never seen anyone in or around it, but it has been here for many years.

Now let's talk about anchors. You know, those chunks of metal that we drop down to hold the boat in place. We expect the anchor to hold us solid as a rock, even with strong winds, shifting tides and currents. But, when we want to leave, we expect it to release immediately. That's a lot to ask of a chunk of metal.

Most non-boaters think that the weight of the anchor is the most important part. Obviously, weight is indeed important. But, it is not the only important part, and may not even be the most important part. The design of the anchor is extremely important. The anchor is supposed to dig in to the sea bed, and to do that it needs flukes of some sort.

The other aspect of anchoring that is very important is "scope" of the anchor rode. The "rode" is the rope and/or chain that connects the anchor to the boat. Some boats have all chain and some have a combination of chain and rope.

If you are anchoring in 40' of water, you don't let out 40' of anchor rode. Most anchoring books recommend a 7:1 scope, but most of us don't carry enough rode to accomplish that. My anchor recommends at least 3:1 scope, and no more than 5:1 scope. A 3:1 scope in 40' of water would require 120' of anchor rode.

The more scope you have, the more the anchor tends to pull horizontally across the sea floor, allowing the flukes to dig in and hold the boat.

And of course, unless you are a sadist with a strong back, you need some sort of winch to haul the anchor and chain up.

As I walked the harbor I noticed many types of anchors. Most of the commercial fishing boats seem to favor the ForFiord brand of anchor. (Not sure I spelled that correctly.)

Here are some of the anchors I noticed as I walked the harbor.

Some larger boats carry two anchors. Check out these stainless steel anchors I saw on a large cruising sailboat.

There are a lot of commercial fishing boats in the harbors as well as pleasure boats. Some years ago, I asked one of my buddies who has a commercial boat what the funnel shaped webbing was that I see in the rigging of many commercial fishing boats. He told me it was a daytime fishing marker. It is supposed to let other boats know that the boat that flies it is engaged in fishing and has, or may have, a net in the water. With some forms of commercial fishing, most notably gill net fishing, there is a long net extended behind the boat. It has small floats at the top but depending on the sea conditions it may be difficult to see them. I don't know if the boats are supposed to only fly the daytime fishing marker when they are actively fishing, but most or all of the boats just seem to leave it up there all the time.

At night they are supposed to have a red light at the very top of the highest mast to indicate that they are fishing and may have a net out.

A few of my boating buddies have asked what exactly I had done during this year's maintenance period, so here is the complete list.

It was pressure washed immediately upon being lifted.

Fresh bottom paint was applied.

All exterior zincs were replaced.

The pencil zinc on the generator was replaced.

The pencil zincs on the transmission coolers on the main engines were replaced.

These are the small pencil zincs that have to be cut down to fit.

Because they are so small they break down faster and have to be replaced more often.

The impellers on the main engines were replaced.

The impeller on the generator was replaced.

The 10-micron fuel filter elements in the Racor off engine filters were replaced.

We did not replace the on-engine fuel filters this year because I only replace them every other year.

The on-engine fuel filter for the generator was replaced.

We did not replace the off engine Racor fuel filter for the generator this year because it was replaced last year, and the generator does not get used that much.

The macerator was replaced as well as most of the hoses to and from it. 

The 1500 GPH bilge pump that is in the area near the macerator appeared to be non-functional, so it was replaced as well.  The float switch was confirmed as functional.

The 2 thru-hull fittings for the toilet were replaced.  This is the inlet and the outlet.  The thru-hull portion and the valve portions were all replaced.

The service kit for the toilet was installed.

I replaced the wiper blades on the starboard & center windows.

I installed the retractable cleats on the swim step.

The sea strainers for the mains were cleaned and the O-ring seals were replaced.

I had intended to have Pat replace the cutlass bearings, but Pat said it was not needed at this time, and he advised waiting. 

The props were buffed until they were shiny.

The gear oil in the bow thruster was replaced.

The bow thruster props were removed and cleaned.

The bow thruster tunnel was cleaned thoroughly as was the power shaft coming down from the motor.

The hull was cleaned, buffed, and waxed.

Here is Faraway after all the maintenance was done, ready to be dropped back into the water.

Doing all this work is not cheap, however I feel it is necessary to keep the boat safe and comfortable. I have many trips planned for this summer including a run up to Glacier Bay with several guests on board. I want the boat to be fully functional, with no systems not working, and I need it to be safe.

They dropped me back in the water at about 10:30 AM on Friday 4/18. I could have headed for home right away but the weather in Clarence Strait was better on Saturday, so I decided to spend the night at Heritage Harbor that night and head out in the morning.

On Saturday I pulled out at first daylight, about 5 AM. It took me almost exactly 10 hours to make the run back down to Ketchikan.

Misson completed for another year.