KK Circumnavigation – Dauntless at Sea

Where is Dauntless Now?

That’s a question I get a lot these days.

Dauntless in Blain, Washington, with an admirer

And I’m writing this to thank all those who have followed our adventures over the past 9 years, either through my blog, DauntlessatSea.com or on Trawler Forum. I learned so much thru Trawler Forum in my formative years, so I wanted to post this also on TF.

The decision to move on to new challenges and sell Dauntless was really just the “other shoe dropping”. When I lost my partner in life and cruising mate in 2016, the writing was on the wall, I just couldn’t see it. Julie, my-ex, was as critical to the Dauntless adventure as I was. Removing that half left me less than whole.

By 2017 I had become an experienced cruiser, but I started making poor strategic decisions and even poorer financial ones. I was lacking my mind partner and it showed. I should have sold Dauntless then, my heart was not in it anymore, I was a delivery captain, but moving my own boat from A to B, B to C.

But I trudged on for another four years. I hated cruising alone, but I saw no alternatives, another indication of my tunnel vision when being alone. So, this past summer 2021, when my dear friends in Austin, Texas, made Ti and I an offer we could not refuse, I knew the next step was to sell.

That has unleashed the last and most unpleasant experience of putting Dauntless up for sale.

Moving Dauntless in the fall from Alaska to Seattle, was a hard, 14-day trip through a quarantined Canada in crappy weather to an expensive marina pretty much sums up the last three months. A lot of work, cleaning up the boat, taking 9 years of memories and household goods off, even throwing away the spices that the previous owner had left was a times heart wrenching for me. We took thousands of pounds of stuff off the boat. When we finally left her, Dauntless hasn’t never looked so good in a half dozen years. But she was also showing signs of normal wear and tear.

For 9 years, it was always about the cruising and the systems that needed to run reliably to make that happen. Mechanically, I kept her in perfect functional condition, meaning, I would cross the Pacific with her tomorrow if the occasion arose. But cosmetically, the little touch-ups that I knew I should be doing were always too far down on the list of things to do.

Therefore, this fall, I was hoping to find the right buyer. Someone who cared about cruising, planning on continuing the circumnavigation that I had started, but unlike me, would also have some skills in getting her back in shape cosmetically slowly but surely. Someone who would spend the time to learn her and figure out what they liked and what needed to be changed to continue the adventure. Maybe take her down to Mexico, where the paint and woodwork could be done quickly and efficiently. By then, they would know her better, understand why I had installed that thing there. Appreciate the inexpensive and practical solutions I had come up with over the years. Eventually, I’d hoped to see her in some far-off Asian port or South Pacific Island.

Dauntless had been a dock queen when we bought her in 2013. With a lot of money, sweat and learning thru experience, we made her into a true passage maker. I was/am extremely proud of that accomplishment.

And that’s the rub now. The buyers that I’ve run across have in actuality wanted that dock queen of years ago. It’s no surprise to me that the side decks are wet. She’s been sitting in the rain for the last two years. I’m sure the fly bridge is wet too. But a few months in the sun would cure al that and then the stanchions on the fly bridge could be re-bedded, as well as the bungs in the teak deck. Beyond that I would leave it alone. In fact, the foredeck, which had been replaced by the previous owner is griddle hot in the sun, the teak side and aft decks are blissfully cool in the same sun. The boat is the way she is for a reason and as you can tell even from this post, my patience has worn out.

So that’s why just a week ago I listed her with a broker, Pop yachts. Let them manage buyer’s expectations.

We do have a contract on her, with another survey and inspection to take place February 4^th. I think this buyer is serious, but if not, I will leave her in Blaine, where she rests now, and wait until the right person comes along, but this will be my last trip to Dauntless in any case.

Thanks for reading and your support these past 9 years.

Richard, ex of Dauntless, now in Texas Hill Country amid the Live Oaks.

Wanna Go to Mexico? Or the Caribbean?

The new year has brought new challenges. Dauntless is still in Blaine, Washington, waiting for winter to end or for me to get off my ass and sell her. While Ti and I are in Texas Hill Country, that beautiful area of rolling hills, limestone karsts, Live Oak trees and garden eating deer.

Dauntless in Blaine under afew inches of snow

We like it here; I’m in nature, the closest house more than a mile away. But it also gives me more responsibilities. We’ve become the caretaker for house, land, and equipment. It’s a big house with a lot of equipment and vehicles. Yesterday, I finally diagnosed the problem with the Hayward pool pump, which turned out to be what is called the centrifugal switch on the motor. Who knew?

The “V” looking thing is the switch whose contacts were not making contact

But it’s a big responsibility. Keeping Ti happy is also a big responsibility. After all these years, yes, I’ve finally figured out (I think) that a happy wife makes my life happy, and conversely…

Besides spending 12+ hours a day on her various YouTube channels, Ti wants to buy a house. That can’t happen until we sell Dauntless. Add to that that Dauntless costs about $600 per month for dockage and insurance. With her hard work every day, I feel a lot of pressure to alleviate the burden.

Even writing those words, equating Dauntless with a burden, is hurtful. She has brought me 30,000 miles of travel and adventure, at reasonable cost, safe and efficiently. I could not have done that with any other boat. The KK42 is so efficient, inside, and out, it made long distance cruising affordable for a person like me without a hoard of cash and safe in any sea state.

Which gets me to the kind of buyer I evidently need to find. The previous deal we had fell through when the buyer’s surveyor thought the side decks were 50% wet. I’m sure they are, the boat sat in the rain in Wrangell for two years.

The North Atlantic in the end of August. This KK42 took it in stride like everything else

When I bought Dauntless 8 years ago in Florida, she was the perfect dock queen. Her paint and varnish were in perfect condition, as were her basic mechanicals. Though I’m sure her decks were leaking then, as it took me a while to figure out the bilge pump went off once a day if was raining. And that is what most buyers and surveyors look for. What I did not fully understand at the time, was that she lacked a lot of systems, both large and small, that would make long-distance cruising both doable and easier. I spent a lot of time and effort putting those systems in place. I cringe now when I’m told that I should remove the “clutter.”

Systems like paravane stabilizers were an obvious need, but it took me a few years to also add little things like those inexpensive digital voltage gauges, which allowed me to keep track of the battery voltage whether I was sitting in the salon, on the pilot house bench or even sleeping. Why it took me so long to add that last meter in my cabin I can never explain, but once done, it eliminated that middle of the night trek to the pilot house to check battery status. At a glance, I knew if everything was working as it should.

In the last month or two, all of Dauntless’ faults have been made clear to me. She needs paint inside and out. I thought the insides looked pretty good, but it’s never been repainted since new and there are some cracks in some seams of the wall. That was never on my priority list. The outside teak needs a lot of work. One of the fashion plates need to be totally replaced and the swim platform and bow pulpit need work. Engine room could use a paint job, or at least a touch up.

And now the “wet” side decks. I’ve known since forever that the side decks leak some water into the engine room. I always looked at it as somewhat normal. Never happened when the boat was in Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean, or Mexico. I wonder why? In any case, what does a wet die deck really mean? Maybe it won’t support a few thousand pounds, but it would be hard to get 100 people to fit on that small deck. Probably will get worse in 20 years; I’ll be 90 then.

What to do?

I’m going to put an ad on Craigslist and will also post it on the FB group. She needs a buyer like me, who wants to cruise more than polish varnish every weekend. Also, it would help if they can do at least some of the painting, woodwork, and fiberglass themselves. I certainly can’t. She needs someone who also understands the mechanicals. Her Ford Lehman SP135 engine has 7,700 hours; I don’t know of any SP135 that needed to be rebuilt before 15 to 20k miles. I doubt any new owner will put another 8,000 hours on her like I did in their lifetime.

Also, she has tons of spare parts that I’ve never needed and some expendables. If Ti were into it, we’d be ready and able to cross the Pacific as soon as the weather allowed, only needing to replace the seals on the Katadyn Watermaker.

If I were keeping Dauntless, I know exactly what I would do or for a new owner, here is what I would suggest based on my experience:

I’d cruise her in the Pac NW, even Alaska this spring and summer, while I determine what I like, need, or needs to be changed, fixed, or added. Then I’d head south for the fall and winter, Mexico. The Sea of Cortez is a wonderful place to spend the winter. There in La Paz, there are plenty of boat yards that can do the needed work at a great price, to get her ready for more long-distance cruising. Then after a year or two there, the decision will be to go west through the South Pacific to the western Pacific, or head east, back through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean and eventually Europe?

Dauntless has her Panama Canal inspection done, so there is some saving so of money there for that passage.

Ti wants her house, sooner rather than later. I understand her needs. If a buyer comes along, with check/cash in hand, and wants Dauntless “as is, where is;” I’d be hard pressed to say no, since at this point, I feel I’m between and rock and a hard place. I’m not saying which one is Ti.

Thanks for reading.

For more information, email me at DauntlessNY@gmail.com and we’ll talk.

Here is a link to some pictures: Dauntless Today

Returning to Dauntless; Dream or Nightmare?

Coming back to a cold, dark boat after a couple of months can either be a dream or a nightmare. In 2014, when Dauntless was in Waterford, I still remember getting back to the boat in late afternoon.

It wasn’t even 5 p.m. but it was already dark.

And cold, the temperature about 38°F (The weatherman in me remembers this, but not what I had for dinner yesterday!). As I dragged my suitcase over the cap rail, I was careful not to let it fall in the water again like I had done while leaving the boat two months earlier.

As I got inside and turned on some electric breakers, I fumbled through the boat to turn on some lights. In those early years, if the batteries were fully charged, I was happy. But the boat was cold, and I was exhausted having left New York 24 hours ago, with little sleep in the meantime.

Dauntless did not have the Wallas forced air diesel heater at the time. Dauntless did and still has the two main A/C units, one with a heating element, the other with a reverse cycle heating option, but at these temperatures, neither is very efficient and often they would trip the shore breaker with its meager power.

No hot water yet, it would be hours before I had hot water and it never occurred to me to just heat up a pot of water.

Again, I vividly remember crawling into bed and my first thought was that I had a leak over the bed, as it felt wet. This had happened before, when the water channels overflow because the drains are clogged with debris in the bow deck locker.

I felt the ceiling but found no water. I got out of bed to try to determine where the bed was wet. From top to bottom, I could find no discernible difference. Maybe it wasn’t wet, just cold?

After 15 minutes of examinations, I resigned myself sleeping in a cold, damp bed.

By morning, the bed was warm, and the cabin was warm thanks to a little electric heater. Hot water was also plentiful. Life was returning to normal. I now took the time to check the rest of the boat and like always, then, and now, the bilges were dry, and the boat had no smells.

A smelling boat has always been an issue for me, since I don’t hear very well, don’t see very well, but my sense of smell is great. So, I’ve always been meticulous sensitive to smells. In my search for the boat that would be Dauntless, there were some boats that in the first 5 seconds, I knew that this was not the boat to be, because of how it smelled.

So, I’ve always been sensitive to what can cause those smells. On boats, it’s usually dampness, sanitation system and sometimes cooking. On Dauntless, my storm windows, had the effect of stopping virtually all condensation on the inside windows, a major source of dampness in a boat. I am also fanatical about the sanitation hoses. In normal use, I would flush the two Raritan toilets a few extra times per day, just to minimize the waste sitting in the sanitation hoses. If leaving the boat for any length of time, I had a specific process. I would run hot water and bleach through each toilet for 5 minutes to make sure there was no waste in the hoses nor the Purisan processing tank. Additionally, I always keep water and bleach in the holding tank when not in use.

I also put a small aquarium water pump in the forward bilge, so I can pump out any water that the larger bilge pump can’t get. It’s worked well in keeping the forward bilge dry, though it will never be bone dry as it is connected to the chain locker.

Fast forward to today and Dauntless is now much easier to return to.

As before, no smells like normal, but now, she’s easier to bring back to livability.

For one, when I turn on the electric breakers, all the lights also come on, as I have everything on when shutting down, that way I can also check that all power to boat lights are off, as we leave. So immediately, the boat is fully light. I also added a light to the panel, so I can actually see what I am turning on/off in a dark cabin.

Salon Electrical Panel also has a light so I can see what I’m turning on or off!

The Wallas heater is easy to start. Turn on the breaker and hold down the on button. We’re good to go. Now, the boat won’t get hot right away, but like the water heater, by the next morning, it will be good.

The water heater is now a 20-gallon water heater, which was great for the three of us. It will take a few hours to get hot water, but now I know to just make a kettle of hot water to wash of the evening.

For the last three years, we also had an Ivation dehumidifier. This is critical to keep dampness and moisture out of the boat for liveaboards and this type works well in cool temperatures.

I’ve saved the best part for last. The warm bed. Since the Ireland days, I’ve gotten a heated mattress pad. Everyone north of the Bahamas, should have one. Last night, I turned on the heating pad and by the time we were ready to go to bed an hour later, the bed was warm and toasty. Since the Wallas heater will take a while to warm the boat, this heated mattress pad allowed us to sleep nice and cozy in a relatively cold cabin. A must have in my opinion. By the way, in the last 5 years, I’ve had three different pads, the first one was 12 volts, was great and lasted 3 years. But it’s replacement, from the same company, only lasted two months. So, I switched to a 120-volt pad two years ago and it has worked flawlessly, with no transformer issues like some 120 volt pads and why I stayed away from them initially. The current on is a MaxKare Heated Mattress Pad from Amazon.

So, dream or nightmare. Clearly a dream, having learned what to do and how to do it, in the subsequent years, since the nightmare.

And I’ve yet to whack my elbows or shins yet, but I still have time.

Thanksgiving on the Hard in Texas Hill Country

I’ve had a revelation. Life is easier on land! Who knew😊

I still have many things to do, some things to fix, some things to maintain, but I’m not whacking my elbows and shins to do so.

Turning the page.

As Dauntless sits in Seattle, under contract with an excited couple who may even finish the circumnavigation that was started 7 years ago, Ti and I started a new chapter. We are living in Texas, about 25 WSW of Austin, in Texas Hill Country, whose topography is dominated by rolling hills, Live Oak trees, some Cactus and Agave plants. It’s beautiful and with no other houses around, it feels as nature filled as Alaska did.

When we want the advantages of smaller towns, Marble Falls is about 20 miles to the NW, with a great Walmart and Home Depot, while Austin offers all the rest like Costco, H-Mart (a Korean supermarket) and a really nice, large Vietnamese supermarket. Even the day before Thanksgiving, the stores while crowded, were not unreasonable.

The people are also great, and I’ve found them more helpful than in some other places I’ve lived.

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. If you are interested, here is a link to the video Ti and I made of our Thanksgiving dinner. And if you are wondering how we made this video so quickly today, let’s just say it’s the miracle of time displacement.

Making a video like this is very time consuming and is Ti’s main work. She loves cooking and showing people what she does. I can honestly say, she has a cooking skill that I’ve never seen before. In our early days, when I was still cooking a bit, she would just watch me cook, without really asking any questions. Then, some days later, she would surprise me, my making the same dish I had made the week before and it was always as good as mine ever was.

Then in subsequent weeks, she would do it again and it was better than I ever did!

She’d do the same if we out to eat. We hardly go out anymore because even I feel it’s a waste of money (she pretty much always felt that way).

For her, the YouTube gig gives her the ability to do what she really likes and still be flexible with her time, allowing us to travel. I didn’t retire to sit in the house!

Once you understand the YouTube algorithms, it is clear why vloggers are always asking viewers to Like, Comment, Subscribe and Share. Those four actions make a big difference in overall viewers since the key to success is how YT recommends the video to others.

Thank you for Reading & Watching. Here is the YT video that we made: Click here to see our Thanksgiving Dinner

I’m Such a Coward

I must say.

We’re back on the ranch, after our two-month odyssey that consisted of:

dropping Thien off at Oregon State,
flying to Wrangell to Dauntless,
the 15-day cruise of bringing Dauntless down to Seattle,
unloading Dauntless,
getting all our personal stuff off,
Cleaning her
Packing the truck for the trip back to Texas
The 2,000 mile, 6-day drive from Seattle, via Corvallis to Austin

It’s been a busy two months. The easiest part was the drive back to Texas, in part because all the other stuff was already done. And I think we only lost one container of who knows what on the trip back!

I admit I came to tears a few times on Dauntless. Here is a link to the latest pictures and how she looks now: Dauntless Today Insides

Was I giving up my dream too soon? Was I not strong enough to fight for what I believe in?? Was I just being a coward, like other times in my life when I ran away???

I quite enjoyed the drive from Oregon to Texas. The most direct route is mostly Interstate-free which I strive for anywhere west of Chicago. Out west, I’ve found that the old US highways are not only more interesting in that they actually go thru towns and don’t have the 1/8^th of a mile set-backs, than the Interstates, but they are not significantly slower. They have 10%, if that, of the traffic on the Interstate and almost no police presence, so one can set their speed as conditions allow.

The route I took was the blue and light blue thru “B”

Clearly, for someone who is willing to cast off the lines and be on the open ocean for three weeks, I like travelling be it by car or boat. It allows one to see the scenery go by, as opposed to flying which has become such a chore from the first security checkpoint to wondering when your bags will show up on the baggage carousel.

Yes, I love travelling. In certain aspects, I like driving even more than cruising, at least in the sense that while driving the scenery does change if not by the hour, at least by the day. Cruising on Dauntless on the other hand, once you are 30 miles off the coast it looks the same until you are 30 miles from the next continent. But, it also has the advantage that one is cruising from their living room. I loved living and cruising on Dauntless. How else can one move from one spectacular view to another, all the while living, eating, and sleeping in nature!!

The downside for me of driving is the reflection time it forces upon me. Unlike cruising, I can’t do anything else. I can’t cook dinner nor watch a Korean drama. I must keep my attention at the highest of levels for whatever time I am at the wheel. Back in the day, when I was driving my Alfa Romeo Montreal from Germany to Italy every two weeks, to see my Italian girlfriend, I can still remember arriving in her parking lot after 8 hours and 550 miles and having to peel my fingers off the steering wheel. Averaging almost 70 mph for 8 hours through cities, mountains and fields was not for the faint of heart. But just as now, I liked pushing myself.

One time due to breakdown in the Italian train service, I ended up driving to Milan just to pickup my girlfriend from the train station and turn around to head back home since I had to work that day. It was an overnight trip thru the Alps of Italy and Switzerland. I even came across a broken down car that was stranded in the middle of the St. Bernard tunnel and towed him out of the tunnel. That thankful driver rewarded me with a bottle of Slivovitz.

The best part of the whole trip as when it was over my girlfriend turned to me and told me she never realized how hard the trip was for me to come see her and how much she appreciated it.

I miss those days, mostly because I miss Europe. Europe has changed. It’s not the car friendly place it was 40 years ago, but in many aspects, it’s still great and offers a variety of conditions in relatively small distances.

The only downside of all this driving is that I end up laying relentless Do-Loops, of what I should have, could have done in every aspect of my life. From leaving good jobs for bad ones to investments bought high and sold low. My only solace is that I can’t be the only person who managed to lose money on Amazon, Tesla, and Microsoft, when they were 1/100^th of todays price. At least I tell myself that.

The worst aspect of this constant self-reflection is that there are really no solutions. In particular I think of a couple of women that I should have held on to as hard as they were holding me. I hurt them because I was a coward.

I avoided conflict, even minor conflict. Other men would “go out for cigarettes;” I’d start a whole new life over minor conflicts that would be forgotten in a day.

Which brings me to Dauntless. Am I treating her like I treated these other past loves? I can see why people don’t mind paying the 10% broker fee, so they don’t have to answer those mundane questions that I end up taking so personally.

I have a couple of people really interested in Dauntless in the last months. I need to be less of a coward when it comes to talking about her and what I’ve done or not done. I also need to remind them that as I wrote the blog, there was some dramatic effect involved. I’m not saying I exaggerated events or crises, but I often did not mention how easy the solution was or how few issues I really had.

I am going to try to continue this blog. I’ll just be writing about different types of travels. I would also like to start filming these car trips, since there is some interest in that.

On that note, here is a glimpse of my new life this morning.

Thanks for reading.

She’s Not My Baby; She’s My Mother

The clean up has been going better than expected. Even stains that I thought would never be gone have disappeared with a little elbow grease and pressure wash. I finally took down the large, Lexan storm windows that covered the 7-foot salon windows yesterday. They had been in place 7 years, 3 months, and 4 days, buts whose counting.

I also removed the newer 1/10” acrylic panels over the pilot house windows. Getting up this morning, the boat is noticeably cooler. While I never needed the storm windows for storm or wave protection, this boat is designed too well for that, as insulation, they were great, stopping all condensation on the inner windows no matter how much cooking was going on, as well as keeping the boat warmer, allowing us to keep the Wallas diesel heater on minimum pretty much all the time when it was on at all.

As I thought about how the “storm” windows were never needed for their intended purpose, I was reminded of a story Thien (our son) related to me about a talk he had with his mother who had been terrified of the first waves (2 to 3 feet) she had encountered on Dauntless. He told me that in trying to comfort his mother he had cupped his hands together and rolled them back and forth, pointing out to Ti that his hands represented the boat, and we were nestled inside. That rolling of the boat was how the boat protected us from the seas and the boat was like our mother protecting us from the dangerous things in the outside world, just as she had protected him growing up.

Just as our mothers protect us, Dauntless does the same.

And maybe sometimes we get a kick in the ass.

As I was finishing taking pictures of the outside yesterday and most of the inside, since I had promised pictures to one and all, I slipped on the swim platform, which is about two feet from the dock. Into the water I went, cell phone and all. I wasn’t worried about getting crushed by the boat since I had tied her in a way so that she could not move further back (or forward for that matter). TI came out and pulled my cell phone from my pocket and then helped me out.

In the eight and a half years of having Dauntless, I have never fallen in the ocean. Never. Too many times to count, I have ventured out on deck to take a comfort break, holding on for dear life literally.

Once out and clearly uninjured the only damage having been done to my 3-month-old Samsung S21 which is now DOA, Ti spent the rest of the day muttering to herself in Vietnamese as to what a stupid husband she has. No translation was needed. She had told me numerous times this week not to get on or off that boat

So here I am waiting for daylight so I can take pictures again with Ti’s phone, which I am normally not allowed to touch.

Wish me luck.

She’s Not Pretty; She’s At Home on Any Sea

Dauntless is On the Block

Sad to say, not being blocked ashore, but literally, on the auction block.

Last week I attended the Pacific NW Kadey Krogen Rendezvous. At great time was had by all. It was really nice being around a lot of down to earth & friendly KK people. I will continue my association with that group, as I truly enjoy being around people who understand the capabilities of our marvelously designed and built boats.

And I found a connection to Burl Ives, that I would never have guessed as I watched him 60 years ago on TV that our lives would one day be linked. Here is a little summary I found someplace:

Naval Architect, James S. Krogen (1928 – 1994) followed a design trail that was off-the-beaten-path when compared to the general evolution of contemporary yachts. For example, in the mid-1960s, Jim Krogen designed a Navy whaleboat-to-motorsailer conversion for folk singer-songwriter-actor, Burl Ives. The relatively small yacht was the epitome of utilitarianism and set a philosophical undertone for what was to follow.

Overall, Krogen yachts exhibit an unabashed commitment to the principle that form should follow function. They are known as no-nonsense, able cruising yachts of a type that is today in serious danger of extinction.

Following the formation of a partnership between naval architect, Jim Krogen, and Florida yacht broker, Art Kadey, in 1976, Krogen yachts became known as Kadey-Krogen. By 2014, the 600th Kadey-Krogen had been built and delivered.

One of the earliest yachts produced under the Kadey-Krogen partnership was a 42-foot, full displacement cruiser that was powered by a single 135-hp Lehman diesel which drove her at an economical cruising speed of 7 knots. With 700 gallons of fuel aboard, her range was in excess of 3,000 nautical miles. And if her speed was dropped to 6 knots, her range was extended to almost 5,000 nm. Because the Krogen 42 was intended for offshore passagemaking, she could be fitted with paravane stabilizers.

The Kadey-Krogen signature profile has a swept, unbroken sheer that rises from moderate freeboard aft to a very high bow in the tradition of commercial offshore trawlers. This also meant even in large seas, no waves break over the rails.

The Kadey-Krogen trawler-yacht hull form is a genuine round bottom (or soft chine) full-displacement form that is both soft-riding and extremely efficient, averaging about 1.6 gallons/hr. at 6.8 knots (with Dauntless’ 4 bladed prop).

Below decks, the layouts of Krogen yachts are generally practical and usable, without any attempts to squeeze a quart of contents into a pint jar.

From the very beginning and continuing to this very day, Kadey Krogens of any size have been about efficiency, both inside and out.

This is how this efficiency has manifested itself for our last 8 years:

Inside Storage. This past summer, thinking it was time to “declutter” Dauntless, we shipped 1,000 pounds of stuff in 15 boxes on a 4’ x 3.5’ pallet stacked 6 feet high. When we were done, Dauntless looked as cluttered as ever. A testament to the vast amount of out of sight storage available on this KK42.
Running Costs. With fuel averaging $4 s gallon for me the last 8 years, with almost 30,000 nm under the keel, we have averaged $1 per nautical mile in total running costs (fuel, oil, expendable supplies). I would be very happy to compare this Kadey Krogen’s running costs with any other motor yacht out there. I believe our costs are half of the major competition. I wish this was a better-known fact. I’ve kept meticulous records from beginning to end, here is a summary of the first 4 years and 4,000 engine hours:

Year	Summary of trip	Avg Speed (kts)	Eng hrs	milage (nm)	Fuel (gal)	Gal/hr	NM/Gal
2014	Cape Cod to Ireland Via Azores	5.68	638	3624	1013	1.6	3.6
2015	Ireland to Finland & return	5.19	860	4387	1206	1.4	3.6
2016 -2017	Ireland, Scotland, Fr, Sp, Morroco, Carrib, PC, Mexico		1608		2801	1.7

	Summary of 2014 to end 2017		3106		5020	1.6

The table above reflects the number of engine hours, fuel use and distance travelled for each cruising season. Thus, The first Atlantic Passage from Cape Cod to Ireland via the Azores, took 638 engine hours, 1013 gallons of diesel and was 3624 nautical miles (nm) for an average of 1.6 gal/hr and 3.6 nm/gal.

From Gibraltar to Martinique, a distance of about 3,500nm required only 700 gallons of fuel and 6 gallons of oil costing me less than $1400. Now I know 99% of Krogen owners will not make the trips that I have, but at least they have that option. On the other hand, if you have a boat that is not as efficient, a $10,000 ocean passage becomes truly daunting.

While I have a written log of every event on the boat, as you can see from the above numbers, they were consistent enough, that I got lazy and stopped entering every day into my spreadsheet from which I obtained these numbers.

As for other information on the boat, I know what temperatures everything runs at: Engine coolant tank, as measured at top of tank 158°, oil filter 161°, transmission 131°and stuffing box 100° (this depends on sea water temperature and is normally 15° above sea water temperature).

So, my reality has been that over 8 years these numbers vary so little, I am able to spot issues immediately, should they arise, which they never do.

Related to all of the above is my hoard of spare parts for Dauntless. Basically, all they did for me was take up space in the engine room, but they did give me piece of mind and have pretty much been untouched for 8 years. My boat maintenance has been for the routine stuff, oil change every 200 to 300 hours, fuel filters every 50 hours unless a problem is noted. The Ford Lehman SP135 does not eat impellers nor do anything else. It just drones on until not needed anymore. I had 4 or 5 impellers when I left for the first passage and have needed none. I do change them every couple of years, but the old ones look as good as new. The engine will drone on and on for weeks on end with never a hiccup. One realizes how comforting that is when occasionally miles from land, I would reach for something on the helm and inadvertently hit the throttle causing a dip in RPMs. Your heart goes to your throat for that instant before you realize that it was just you. Readers of my blog will know that virtually everything that has broken on the boat was broken by operator error, me!

Lastly, James Krogen designed and built a boat that could handle the North Atlantic. In hindsight, I love this boat more than ever because she kept me safe and sound in spite of some of my dubious decisions. Look at the fishing boat in Ireland next to Dauntless. Our lines, roof, bow rise, etc. are within inches of each other. James Krogen knew how to design and build a boat that would keep you safe no matter what or where. We ended up with a safe, secure, and cost-efficient boat.

Docked next to a fishing boat in Ireland

15+ foot seas Mid-Atlantic, August 2014. Waves this boat would just laugh at; me not so much!

While I have been meticulous in maintenance, my attention to her cosmetics have been lacking. My focus has always been on cruising, but I know a new owner will want a pretty boat. So I will discount that in the price, so the new owner can make her look as she should. On the other hand, should the new owner be ready to cross the Pacific tomorrow or go down the coast to Mexico, she’s willing and able to do so right now.

She’s not pretty, she’s fucking gorgeous, because we can actually afford to go places.

Coming up.

In the next week, I will post Dauntless for Sale here, with a list of equipment, some pictures (though most new pictures will have to wait until we get to Seattle, and we can get all our stuff off the boat and clean her up). I would love to sell her to someone who at least dreams about crossing oceans. I would also be happy to help in any delivery anywhere, I’d love to return to northern Europe one more time!

If you are interested in an iconic ocean crosser, contact me sooner rather than later, as I am willing to discount for the outside paint that must be redone, the teak on the gunnel which has not been touched since I bought her and the savings from sale by owner.

Dauntless in Horta, Azores on the one day of the year that the moon rises directly over Mt. Pico

The End Plan

This ain’t Afghanistan, we need an end plan.

Don’t look at the crabs, or Ti, look at that ugly gunnel teak.

Everyone says that it’s best to return the boat to as close to original, especially when it comes to electrics, for a good survey. But I’m not sure I can do that.

We are cleaning her bottom as Dauntless is out on the “grid” in Wrangell

No, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to do that. Why? Because this boat has gotten me where we are as she is. She’s been nothing but reliable. Many of my additions are just to make my life a little easier.

For example, when I upgraded the fridge/freezer in 2014 to the Vitrifrigos, they were very professionally wired and installed. They can use any voltage and frequency, from 240v/50hz, 120v/60hz to 12v d.c. While the 120v power goes through a breaker on the salon distribution panel, the 12v power came directly from the engine room distribution panel. I had no easy way to totally isolate the fridge or freezer. So, I added a 4-gang switch, with circuit breakers, so I had an easy way to turn off the power if need be.

Now, in the four years since I did this, I’ve probably only turned the 12v power off two times, the last one being a few months ago, when I was trying to determine my mysterious electrical draw (See Sense of Smell). So why undo something like that? Does that really increase value?

But there are a lot of cosmetic things that do need to be taken care of. Truth be told, as I’ve cruised up and down the east coast, across the Atlantic, through the Baltic and North Seas, back across the Atlantic and the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and the long, hard slog up the west coast of North America, I didn’t find much time to do those cosmetic jobs that make boats look so pretty.

The beautiful grey paint job that I think makes Dauntless lo so determined is now five years old. Time for a refresh. The cap rail in particular looked great for two years, then showed the first bubble (it’s hard to paint teak no matter how good the preparation) at year three and looks really bad now. I may try AWL wood.

Also, the inside walls have too much evidence of botched jobs, etc. So, Dauntless needs some of that tender care that I have been so negligent in giving her over the last 30, 000 miles.

But I love her. She has been such a reliable vessel, The $10+ value of spares in half a dozen containers of spare parts have almost never been opened. All that money! But I was preparing for cruising the world and I was as afraid of getting a required part through customs in a timely manner or actually needing those spare injector tubes in the middle of the Atlantic.

As I’ve said, I never needed any of it. Even the two long term cruising spare kits from American Diesel went unused.

But the teak on the gunnel looks like hell or in reality, just untouched for 8 years! What can I expect? Eek

Right now, the plan is sort of tentative. It depends on where in Washington state I find on the hard storage for the winter. I also want to be able to do some work on her to prepare her for sale. If I can’t do that because of restrictions on working on the boat, then does it make sense to bring her down for the winter? Maybe wait until spring??

Let’s see what I learn a the Northwest Kadey Krogen rendezvous. Umm, maybe this is starting to look like Afghanistan.

Dauntless as a Depreciating Asset

It is. I can’t refute that. Basically, we each see Dauntless in a vastly different light.

My light started in 2011, when my then wife (Julie) and I first saw the Kadey Krogen that would be renamed Dauntless two years later when we bought her.

Julie and I talked and planned for four years before even stepping on the decks of Dauntless. We had a single vision: being able to travel anyplace, affordably, and safely in our own boat.

As a reader of this blog, you know the story, the mission I have been on for the last 10 years, so I don’t need to repeat it here, but without Julie, there is no Dauntless, no Atlantic crossing, no nothing.

In 2014 we planned and even a map, showing our route for the next four or five years, ending in Korea, a special place for both of us. Our planning gave us a confidence that enabled us to leave Cape Cod one morning in mid-summer and head due east into the unknown.

Both of us were explorers with the curiosity that comes with seeing, doing new things. We weren’t fearless, far from it, we both could and did get scared in the dark. But being in the cocoon of Dauntless somehow made us not fear the darkness, the ocean or anything else.

We both decided that we would fear what we could see. Thus, full AIS to avoid getting run over by a big ship, but don’t worry about the semi-submerged container that we can’t see in the middle of the night. The seas of the North Atlantic at summer’s end are still tame yet will show us why we don’t do this in October. It also gave us the confidence by seeing how well we did in 15-to-25-foot seas for days on end.

When we looked at Dauntless, we saw Adventure & Travel, in a safe, economic package. A boat that we could afford to run across oceans and that was truly at home in any sea. The Kadey Krogen was the prefect boat for us.

Now 30,000 miles and a couple of oceans later, we could not have found a better boat, no matter the budget. This story sums up my feelings well. https://dauntlessatsea.com/2019/09/19/leave-the-dance-with-the-one-you-brung/

When my life’s path changed in 2016, with our divorce, I kept going on the momentum of the plan. But the cruising became less and less fun. It became more of getting from point A to B. For the slog up the west coast, I had the help of some good friends who came to help at various times. That made it tolerable, but the fun and adventure were missing in action.

I didn’t really understand this as well then as I do today. My mission had changed or more likely, I had added another mission. In 2017, while Dauntless was in Costa Rica I went to Viet Nam for the first time. Military history has always been a passion of mine, especially after my first tour in Europe when I joined the USAF. So, I knew more than most our squalid history of the Viet Nam war. While I did participate in one march against the war in Seattle in 1970, it was also clear to me, unlike others, that Jane Fonda was a propaganda tool of the North Viet Nam government.

But I had learned a lot more since then and was looking forward to this new adventure. Having been in a virtually every country, except Hungary, in Europe over the last 40 years, I knew Americans were liked more the further east one went. In other words, ex-communist places appreciate the USA more than most and far more than is portrayed in the American press.

Long story short, I loved Viet Nam and I have never been in a country where Americans were loved more. When a store would want to promote a new product, they would display a giant American flag, or better yet just paint the wall of the store with the stars and stripes. With Ti and Thien in my life my mission had changed.

Trump on cover of school notebook (blank). Yes, He is more popular than Lincoln. Why? Because he stands up to the Chinese, unlike Lincoln. !

This explanation is to let you, the loyal folks who have followed my travels for so long, in time and distance, understand that this is not simply because my current partner sees Dauntless differently, as a depreciating asset.

And to be clear, once and for all, our divorce was not because of the boat, but simply because Julie had started a school and that school needed her more than Dauntless or I did. It was a sentiment that I fully understood for I lived by the same creed. Whether it was the USAF or the NYC DOE by job, my mission came first. I could expect Julie to do no less and I always loved her and respected it for it.

That was five years ago. As I said, the momentum of the plan got me back across the Atlantic and into the Pacific Ocean. Two years of a sedentary life in Wrangell have helped me to understand that Dauntless wasn’t made to sit. She likes going new places and seeing new faces. I’m also not suited to be a snowbird. I’m a gypsy. In Ireland, gypsies are called ‘Travellers”. that’s an apt name, maybe even a better name, since gypsy implies homeless, while traveller, which brings to mind, Lee Marvin’s hit song from Paint Your Wagon, https://youtu.be/-jYk5u9vKfA

As said in my last blog, we’ll all three be heading to the PAC NW next month, while Dauntless is in Wrangell with my brother, who will take her out on his own over the next two months. I’m looking forward to the Northwest Kadey Krogen rendezvous. I’ll meet a bunch of great people, some of whom I have known only by email in the past years.

I’m also planning for the winter and getting Dauntless ready. I’m thinking now of bringing her down to Seattle. But if I do that, it’s backtracking and that means it will be a one-way trip.

If you are interested in the Viet Nam war, two books and lectures you may find interesting are:

https://www.amazon.com/Two-Cows-Aint-Half-Bad-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B01N6ES1VA/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=For+two+cows+I+aint+half+bad&qid=1629214349&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Dereliction-Duty-Johnson-McNamara-Chiefs-ebook/dp/B004HW7834/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KNBHNHL86QD3&dchild=1&keywords=dereliction+of+duty+by+h.+r.+mcmaster&qid=1629214408&sprefix=diretliction+of+duty%2Caps%2C246&sr=8-1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPcEPdfEGto

Mutiny on the Dauntless

In 2018, I moved to Alaska, then a year later, I brought Ti and Thien to join me for our Dauntless in Alaska adventure. Those regular readers of this blog and my friends who follow just to keep up, know I like to keep it simple.

Dauntless in Horta, Azores with the moon rising over Mt. Pico

Make the Plan; Do the Plan.

For the past 10 years, the plan has been simple, keep moving forward:

In 2011, it was to acquire an affordable ocean crossing boat, which meant a Kadey Krogen.
In 2013, we acquired Dauntless and outfitted her to cross oceans and gain experience to do so.
2014 was the first Atlantic Passage, England to Ireland via the Azores,
2015 was the Baltic & North Sea adventure, showing the flag from eastern Finland thru Scotland,
2016 exploring the west coast of Europe, from Scotland to NW Africa, coming west again at year’s end
2017 the Panama Canal, Central America, Mexico and finally,
2018-2019 the long, hard, never to do again, slog up the west coast of North America to Alaska.

But it’s now 2021 and Dauntless has become restless. Two years in the same port is not something we are accustomed to, though Alaska is a great place to live and boat.

Looking back at the original plan of 2013 and 2014, would have put Dauntless in Korea by now. That was always the near time goal from the inception of the idea to its realization. Having done the hard work of coming north along the west coast, it would be relatively easy to head west into the Aleutians. Then, it’s a short step, 1200 miles, 9 days to Japan. So close and yet so far.

But the air smells different.

Last summer, my brother, a long time Alaskan, who retired to Las Vegas a few years ago finally realized the fishing sucked in Vegas, at least for the aquatic kind. So, he came up with the idea of joining us on Dauntless for the summer 2021. Now, I love my brother, I grew up with him, so the idea of spending months with him, left a lot to be desired.

Thus, I figured it would be a perfect time for a vacation away from the boat. We planned for this summer and fall. He would be on Dauntless, while the three of us, would be visiting our friends in Texas on their beautiful ranch about 20 miles WSW of Austin. Texas Hill Country.

We spent June showing him how to run Dauntless without hitting anything. It also gave me the opportunity to go through all the boat systems to make sure everything would run smoothly for him. Other than the watermaker and bow thruster, all systems were doing well. I made a few check lists for him, or I think I did, or at least I thought about making some checklists, but as I sit here, I am not so sure.

We ended up flying down to Texas the very end of June. We are doing an opposite “Snowbird” (many “Alaskans” fly south when the first snow flies in October until May).

Thien will be going to Oregon State University this fall. Ti and I will drive him out to the PAC NW in September. We’ll also visit friends along the way and in Seattle. Then at the end of the month, I’ll attend the Northwest Kadey Krogen rendezvous, a first for me. I’m looking forward to meeting a whole new bunch of Krogenites.

But in the meantime, the air smells different, I smell dirt!

But now I have a mutiny on my hands. The plan was to stay here until Thien goes off to school this fall. My brother would be on the boat in any case, so no worries there. But now, Ti likes it here and says there is more opportunity for her here (That’s certainly true). Best of all, she loves the kitchen in the very big house.

For when it comes to Dauntless, Ti can only see a “Depreciating Asset”. Now, I love Ti and the Vietnamese in general for their hard work, pragmatism, and ingenuity, being able to make do with what they have. But Depreciating Asset is a bit harsh.

Thank God for Small Favors

Bringing Cari, a KK42,from Bodega Bay CA to Gig Harbor, WA Part II

Cari docked in her slip (second boat from right). the finger is on the starboard side, with a sailboat on the port side.

After that first 24 hours, winds and seas became more southerly and lessened in strength. So, the rolling slowly subsided over the next four days until we rounded the corner for the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We have about 15 hours left to Gig Harbor, but this would be our last night out. It did cause a little excitement for me.

On Dauntless, I understand my Raymarine E-80 radar very well. Since the first day, back in March 2013, when I turn on the engine, I also turn on:

Radar,
Navigation lights,
VHF radio,
AIS transponder,
Horn,
Auto pilot,

I’ve just found it best practice to always have all equipment powered and running when underway, day or night. This precludes forgetting to turn on Navigation Lights when it gets dark and most importantly, allows me to always see what the radar sees in good visibility and even more critical, to investigate items it’s not seeing (no returns), but are obvious enough looking out the pilot house windows that there is an object I certainly want to avoid.

When that happens, I just re-adjust the radar’s gain and filter, so that it shows me what it should for the current sea state.

This allows me to have total confidence at night and in poor visibility situations. Obviously, on a different boat, with a different radar, that is not the case.

So far on this trip, I found the radar somewhat typical, in that it seemed to work pretty well, but at times, it either showed too much sea clutter or not enough. Something to keep in mind.

Thus, that last night, being off the ocean and now in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, there was other traffic, navigation markers, etc. to deal with.

As we passed as few miles off of Port Angeles at Oh-Dark-Thirty, I saw a white light ahead, seemingly very close. I checked the chart, there should be nothing ahead for three miles, more than 30 minutes away. But there was a note about log booms in the Port Angeles harbor. We were near the harbor entrance, could this light denote a log boom?

Looking at the radar, I saw nothing, but as I said, I did not trust this particular radar that much to rely on it. That left my eyes and brain. As we know, our eyes and brain coupled with a vivid imagination, can do wonders at night. In particular, almost everything looks closer.

My brain was telling me that this flashing white light was close, almost too close.

Being responsible for someone else’ boat, made me even more cautious than usual. I decided that caution was called for and turned the boat 90° to the north. At worst, I’d waste a little time, but at best I would avoid imminent disaster.

After turning and heading north for 5 minutes, as I watched the light (that I had turned to avoid), its bearing had hardly changed. Umm, that meant that this light was not close at all but far way. Confirming what the radar had been telling me all along. I felt a bit embarrassed, but there were no witnesses and I felt good that I had chosen the safer choice, even if I wasted some time.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. Our ETA to Gig Harbor was about 13:00 and we decided that I would pilot the boat into the harbor and dock her, since I had a few dockings under my belt.

I decided that this was not the moment to recount the story of my first docking in Poland, where after docked, my friend said to me, “It’s a rub rail, not a crash rail”.

I was a bit nervous, never having seen the slip before and knowing it would be very narrow, at the almost end of the channel, leaving one with few options in case of a missed approach.

As you can see from the attached pictures, one from land looking at Cari in her slip, with a sailboat on her port side, the finger pier being on the right or starboard side and the overhead google shot, it is a narrow fairway.

Overhead Google view of Gig Harbor and I have put pin over the spot we would dock in

In spite of my nervousness, I decided I just had to dock as if it was Dauntless. I stayed to the right as we entered the fairway, trying to give myself as much room as possible for the left turn into the slip. I knew there was a sailboat docked on the left, with the narrow finger on the right.

With the Kadey Krogen’s high bow rise blocking the near forward view, I knew I had to trust my instincts. As I turned sharply left, I put her in neutral to reduce our forward speed of 3 knots. Seems fast, but steerage below two knots becomes problematic. The KK will turn very sharply, with a single screw and even without bow thruster. At full left rudder the bow pulpit was swinging over the finger. I knew to let it go well over the dock, in spite of appearances. Finally, with about 10 feet to spare forward to the dock, I put her in reverse and gave her a shot of power to kill our forward momentum. This also adds a kick to the stern to the right. The KK42 has a left-handed prop, so the stern is always trying to walk to the starboard, whether going forward or reverse.

Normally, I would have the person on the lines, put a line on the first cleat possible, then tie off at the midships cleat on the boat. Then use that with full left rudder and forward gear to push the stern against the dock finger. But in this case, it wasn’t needed. The surge of reverse, put the stern again the finger, stopped our forward way and the boat was perfectly parallel to the dock as it came to a stop, with the bow 6 feet from the forward dock. We hadn’t touched the sailboat to the left, only a few feet away and we hadn’t bounced off the finger.

I was a bit astonished. As it was by far one of my best dockings ever.

Thank God for small favors.

I could finally relax for the first time in the days and weeks leading up to this trip.

Technology Can’t Replace Your Sense of Smell

I know I haven’t written very much, because not much has happened being somewhat stationary for the last two years and unlike the Discovery Channel, I can’t make drama out of nothing.

During the last dozen years, I’ve seen more and more cruisers adding a video surveillance system to their boats. Being able to see the engine room at all times from the pilot house, certainly looks attractive, but I feel it can provide a false sense of security.

My brother will be on Dauntless for the summer. Last week, we took Dauntless out to show him some of our favorite fishing sites. In getting ready for his arrival, we did a real spring cleaning. Dauntless has never been a smelly boat. In large part because the second owner replaced all the non-copper hoses on the boat’s sanitation system and engine. That makes a big difference.

But a Wrangell winter is an incubator for mold and mildew. We run an Invation Dehumidifier all winter, on high at night, it would warm the salon to high 60’s and lower the humidity to mid-30%. During the day, we run it on low. I plumbed it into our gallery sink drain, so I never have to empty the water container.

So Dauntless smells pretty sweet, even before the spring cleaning.

Thus a few days later, after my brother’s arrival, the boat was permeated by a new odor.

And no, I did not think it was my brother! Because it was clear that it was coming from the engine room. My first thought was that during the spring cleaning the previous week, we had even cleaned and organized the lazzerette. Because of a loose drain hose, there was a large container in the lazzerette that was full of water, maybe 20+ gallons of smelly water. To heavy to lift out, I decided to just empty it and it would run into the engine room and be pumped out. I then hosed down the lazzerette and really didn’t smell any thing foul anymore.

But now a week later, I was wondering if that smelly water, had found a space to fester. Also, the previous week, we had anchored in a place that while hauling the anchor, a significant amount of seaweed and kelp was on the chain. We pulled most of it all as the chain come up but didn’t wash the chain.

So, I wondered if the odor was being caused by organic material.

Between the stanky lazzerette water and the chain locker, I thought it was possible this was the cause. I ran all the chain out in about 15 feet of water int eh harbor. We also took soap and bucket and scrubbed the bilge and chain locker. While all the chain was out, I decided to also put a small plastic basket on the bottom, that once crushed by 500 pounds of chains, would still provide a few inches of clearance keeping the chain locker drain clear of line and chain. In 8 years of Dauntless life, our chain locker has never had a strong odor and wanted to keep it that way.

Half a day later, all done, the engine room did smell better, but the malorious odor was still noticeable.

We’d be going out the next day. Maybe the engine room just needed an airing out?

That next evening, while on the hook, the odor was back, as bad as ever.

The odor had a strange aspect to it, almost organic, like something dead, but also a bit like plastic.

This same evening, the first one away from the dock and shore power, I noticed a 5 to 10 amp draw that was unaccountable. I turned everything off, finally even going to the extreme of turning off the boat computer, something I never do while away from the dock, as it is provides my primary navigation, GPS and AIS.

With the boat dead quiet, nothing on, the current draw was now almost 8 amps, 96 watts. This meant that someplace on this boat, I had the equivalent of a 100-watt bulb burning and that produces a significant amount of heat. It should be noticeable.

Ah ha. I had it. I must be one of the house bank batteries. They were 5 years old and already shot. 90% of the house bank was powered by my one LiFePO4 battery of 200 amp-hours, while the three old lead acid batteries were providing about 30 amp-hours in total. So, it made sense to me that one of the batteries was bad, shorted out and pulling power from the good batteries.

This was confirmed when I checked the current draw with a clamp on amp meter and sure enough, I could see 6 amps coming out of the house bank.

With much anticipation, I was sure I found the problem. I got my IR temperature gun, opened up the two battery compartments and expected to see the problem.

First battery, the only one on the port side, sharing the box with the Li battery was 84°, that seemed ok, since the Li battery was warm as it was doing most of the work. OK, then it must be one of the batteries in the starboard box.

Opened the starboard battery box with even greater anticipation, both batteries were cool, only 74° and the current running thru each battery was less than one amp.

There is also a Perko switch in the engine room electrical distribution panel. This allows me to switch from the start battery to house bank to start the engine. I’ve never used it. And when I did switch it, the draw remained the same.

Stumped again.

There is also a similar Perko switch in the salon distribution panel. It allows me to switch the house bank source from the house bank to the start battery (a relic of the old system, which had no start battery, but used the house bank to start the engine).

Stumped yet again.

Back to the engine room distribution panel.

Using my trusty amp meter again, I noticed a 5 amp draw that ran to an isolator, then a 100-amp fuse. This isolator is not to be confused with the two 120-volt isolators I have on each of the 120 circuits. This was on the 12-volt system and frankly, I was unclear what its purpose was.

Returning back to Wrangell the next day, I was egger to call my friend and electrical genius and Kadey Krogen guru, Dave Arnold in Fort Pierce. He’d help me figure it out.

And he did.

I knew my start battery and house bank batteries were separated and sort of knew they were charged separately, but not was well as I had thought.

David asked me if I had checked the current in the negative start battery cable. I hadn’t. He explained to me that the 12v isolator was how I charged by start battery. In simple terms, it lets a small amount of power go to the start battery as needed, but won’t pull power from the start battery, no matter the state of charge of the house bank.

My 12 volt Engine Room Distribution cabinet

My start battery, installed by David in fact, was now 8 years old. It had to be the culprit. Simply put, it had an internal short and was draining the house bank at 5 to 8 amps continuously.

As I opened the battery box cover for the start battery, the heat and bad smell hit me. The battery top was 154°F. I disconnected it; we pulled it out and put it on the dock. Two hours later it was still 100 degrees.

Video surveillance wouldn’t have smelled that until it went up in flames.

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