Archive | M/V Starr RSS feed for this section

Last Landfall

By Trawlers on November 13, 2016 in M/V Starr

Last Landfall November 13, 2016 – Approaching Diamond Head-10nm ahead Day 18 Lee Hillman Brown Starr is one hour from Honolulu after an eighteen-day passage from Seattle. For me and Lee this will complete our last voyage together. For me it has been a trip of intimate memories: of other passages, of night watches, of the night sky and “our” constellation, Casseopia, and of just the two of us sailing Wings together, watch on and watch off – partners, intimate. Now we are coming to ou…

Sea Hunt —- This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using GMN’s XGate software. Please be kind and keep your replies short.

By Trawlers on November 12, 2016 in M/V Starr

Sea Hunt November 12, 2016 –Almost to Honolulu Day 17 Duke’s Mahi If truth be told, I am not a killer. Maybe my parents taught me to respect living things, she a microbiologist and nurse, he a pediatrician. A little fishing with Dad as a boy was done but there was no hunting or guns. Compared to me, Brownie is a trained killer, a crack shot and a harvester of the wild and the deep and there is probably no better descriptor of Don than ‘equipped.’ He’s got everything. Tools, large and small, …

Cassiopeia and Time and Shame

By Trawlers on November 11, 2016 in M/V Starr

Cassiopeia and Time and Shame November 5-6, 2016 – In the Great Pacific Ocean Days 10 and 11 Sunset November 6 Brownie’s Post – Early Morning of November 5 Cassiopeia As we make our way on a vector from 31 to 21 North and 129 to 158 West, on the midnight watch you can lean out either of the wheelhouse doors and see the brilliant stars free from obscuring pollution. To port is Orion’s Belt and to starboard, Cassiopeia. In my life with Lee, Cassiopeia was our constellation. Five bright star…

In the Great Pacific Ocean

By Trawlers on November 6, 2016 in M/V Starr

Fish On, Sneaking Out the Window and Reefer Madness November 4, 2016 – In the Great Pacific Ocean Day 9 Concordia Moon, night of November 3 Doug’s (D2A) Post (Don’s Catch) Fish On! As the sea temperature has risen above 70 degrees, the sea hunters have stirred to battle. It is an unfair fight with Don and Brownie marshaling their considerable collective fisherman experience in the quest for dorado and tuna. In terms of armament, few vessels are as well equipped as Starr. Proper pol…

Some Thoughts about our Passage (so far)

By Trawlers on October 31, 2016 in M/V Starr

Some Thoughts about our Passage (so far) October 31, 2016 – Coos Bay, Oregon Day 5 Sharry’s Notes: I have asked each of the four of us onboard to write a short Blog entry regarding thoughts about our passage, so far: We arrived in Coos Bay early Sunday morning Oct. 30 at 0300. We were running ahead of a storm and were very happy to be in a safe harbor. We will be departing tomorrow morning, Nov.1, at 0500, again running ahead of multiple storms, and hope to be able to past San Franc…

Starr Passage from Seattle to Honolulu – October 27 – Day One

By Trawlers on October 28, 2016 in M/V Starr

Starr Passage from Seattle to Honolulu Day One: October 27, 2016 Departure Salmon Bay Marine Center: 0500 Arrival at Neah Bay: Our two friends Mike (Brownie) Brown and Douglas (Duke) Adkins are our “Fresh Crew”, joining us for our passage from SBMC to our alternative homeport in Honolulu. Both are experienced passage makers and CCA members who grew up sailing in the Pacific Northwest. Brownie was, for a time, a commercial fisherman and charter boat owner before embarking upon a distin…

Messing about in boats – updated. Twin rudders, July 2016

By Trawlers on July 9, 2016 in M/V Starr

I am going to do a series of blog additions about some of the fun things I have done on Starr. MV Starr My brother-in-law reminded me of a time when I was about 10 years old. I took a 4×8 sheet of plywood, nailed 2 x 6 sides on it with a slightly raked bow, and then put a five horse Johnson outboard on it and that was my hydroplane. We have now had Starr for 16 years and I still am having fun cobbling up gadgets, tools, and devices to make cruising on Starr more fun. I m going to post som…

Messing About in Boats 6/18/2016 09:16

By Trawlers on June 18, 2016 in M/V Starr

I am going to do a series of blog additions about some of the fun things I have done on Starr.

MV Starr

My brother-in-law reminded me of a time when I was about 10 years old. I took a 4×8 sheet of plywood, nailed 2 x 6 sides on it with a slightly raked bow, and then put a five horse Johnson outboard on it and that was my hydroplane.

We have now had Starr for 16 years and I still am having fun cobbling up gadgets, tools, and devices to make cruising on Starr more fun.

I’m going to post some of the changes I have made since we purchased Starr in September 2000.

– Sub-Zero Door closing controller-2016
– Combination Dive/Swim/Fish Cleaning Table with – Audible Fish-on-the Line Alarm – 2015
– Top Deck drain modifications – 2014
– Stern Swim Step extension – 2013-14
– Top Deck extension – 2014
– Novurania Cradle and Storage Unit – 2002
– Kayak Lifting and Storage Rack – 2001
– Twin Rudders on a single screw – 2000
– Small Tool Devices- 2000-2016

New projects under consideration:

How to design and install ultrasonic distance measuring from starboard and port aft-quarter to floats/docks and the Ballard locks wall.

These distance measurements will optimally show up on my existing Axis starboard and port side deck cameras.

A simplified at-anchor flopper-stopper launching and retrieval system. The process that Sharry and I currently use is not safe. I am following Ken Williams current addition of active TRAC at-anchor stabilizers on Sans Souci, and if he’s happy with them then maybe we would add them to Starr…..?

Start your own blog now! Free!

Messing About in Boats 6/18/2016 09:16

By Trawlers on June 18, 2016 in M/V Starr

[MVStarr] We Are Back Home at SBMC

By Trawlers on May 8, 2016 in M/V Starr

Starr departed Kaneohe, Oahu on Friday April 10 and Arrived home at Salmon Bay Marine Center on Saturday morning April 23.

Details of the Passage: 13 days
Distance – 2430.nm
Hours running time: 313 hrs
Genset hours, 169 hrs
SOG average -7 .75 kn
Fuel – 1.15 g/nm
(This is higher fuel consumption than normal. Our standard cruising speed is 1450 rpm; 5 of 13 days,we ran at 1600 rpm in order to help drive into heavy head seas.)

Part I – Fixing Things: We hurried home in order to be ready to host Suma Yacht Club for Opening Day at Seattle Yacht Club on May 7, but we had some work to do to get Starr ready.

1. Locate and repair the water leak into our main guest stateroom:

Lexan Cover on Portlight

Don built a dam against the stateroom’s port light and flooded it slowly with a hose until the source of the leak became apparent.

Don built a dam

Port light pad eye that caused the leak

The water test showed that a stainless steel pad eye was poorly bedded. When we did the refit, we used Sikaflex 291 bedding rather than 3M 5200.

We had also used fine threaded screws that were too small. After the water test Don removed all 14 pad eyes, cleaned them off, roughed them up with course sandpaper to give more tooth, re-bedded them with 5200, and then used #12 self tapping screws.

When Don turned the boat around to re-bred the starboard pad eyes he found that we were missing the 5 ft x 1ft x1/2 inch Lexan port light storm cover. YES, we had it on when we departed Kaneohe, Hawaii.

Missing the storm cover and 4 of 6 padeyes on the starboard portlight .

There is a 6-inch vertical scratch just below the front of the storm cover which suggests that we might have hit something that caused us to lose the stormcover.

2. Diagnosis of unfamiliar noise coming from the prop shaft:

While turning the boat around Don noticed a noise from the propeller. Upon inspecting the propeller and shaft, we found that the Spur F2 line cutting V block was torn apart. http://www.spursmarine.com

We had picked up nets in the prop twice on our passage home, but what is confusing is that the cutting blades on the Spurs don’t have any nicks nor do they show any other damage. We identified the problem, but will have to replace the broken holding block and the spur assembly when we haul out in the Fall.

Spurs