Introduction

                  NEAR DISASTER FOR LANDLUBBERS

                         GOING FISHING IN ALASKA

       A BAD DAY OF FISHING IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT THE OFFICE

                                    BY

KATHLEEN VERA BROWN GUDGEL



INTRODUCTION BY DOYAL GUDGEL

Someone asked for something personal that might get us better
acquainted. This story might help. My wife Kay kept a diary in 1964
when I helped my brother Loyal, take his newly built boat "Honey Bear"
to the fishing grounds near Ketchikan Alaska. We lived in Seattle,
where our father who was retired, helped Loyal build his 50 foot boat
in his back yard. Dad put two nails or screws in when the plans only
asked for one. Dad said this was one boat he trusted. He also said
there were no square corners on a boat. Dad was a retired
carpenter. He had also been deep sea fishing off the California coast
at Monterey so had some experience with boats. However he had a lot
more before this trip was finished. We all had.

An interesting incident happened during the building when a
pilot in a jetliner would look down and see the progress as the boat was
built. Finally he could not stand it any longer and came over to the
house to see what was going on. Loyal lived near Seatac international
airport.Loyal had been in the Television sales and service business but wanted
a change so sold his business to me and then he embarked on this
fishing venture. A few people have read the story and some suggested she try to get it
published. I'm taking this opportunity to try it out on this audience. Except for 5 or 6 people you are the first to see it. Loyal
has not seen it to this day. This will become obvious as you continue. Our father also came along on the trip. to keep Loyal
company and to help him fish. Kay and I were to come on the maiden voyage and help him get it to Alaska. Then we were to return to
Seattle and resume parenting duties taking over from our oldest son Tom (jr) who was baby sitting his two younger brothers.
Tom turned 17 while we were on the trip. We've asked but never really got an answer
about what went on while we were gone.
   Dad used to sit out on deck on the way up and say that no place in the
world had he seen such tremendous scenery. He was well aware of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon having lived near Yosemite for some time. From Seattle up to Skagway boats take the Inland Passage to escape going out into the ocean. None the less this passage can be wicked for small boats when winds whip up. Passage is sheltered except
for Queen Charlotte Sound which is open to the ocean for 40 or 50 miles. . You will read more about it in the narrative. Lots more.
Tour boats make regular tours in the summer from Vancouver BC. Due to
strange US maritime laws boats built or registered in foreign
countries can not sail between two US ports and pick up passengers.
Although my wife Kay was 4"11 ( now she has shrunk) she is adventurous
and was happy to come along and do the cooking. At least that is the
way it started out. But read on

May 4 Kays diary

Kay with Grand daughter Kristina

Going Fishing in Alaska

Kathleen Vera Brown Gudgel

May 4th at 2:20 PM Loyal Grandpa, and I left the Duwamish River dock headed for Alaska. We had gotten a couple hundred yards out in the River when Dad (Doyal Gudgel) looked down into the engine space at the rear of the boat.  Water was coming in an unused exhaust hole as fast as we were going over it.  Dad yelled at Loyal to stop .  They both got out and  stuffed rags and blankets into the exhaust hole to temporarily plug it up and we went on down the river. Loyal hadn't figured the hole would  become under the water line when under way and we were laden down with hundreds of pounds of canned goods, many tools of every description, even a garden shovel and hoe. Loyal discovered later so the boat sat lower in the water than expected. Note 1

When fueling up they had let air in the line and the engine wouldn't start until 5 PM. So the first night we anchored at Pt Madison off Bainbridge Island. Note 2

About 6PM they noticed water under the floorboards up to the flooring in the bow section. Again we got out the bilge pump and pumped it dry, not knowing where the leak was coming from. Again at 10:30 PM the same bow section was full of water. We pumped it out again through a hose to the kitchen sink and out the boat. When everyone quieted down we heard a trickle of water and traced it to the bow toilet which did not shut off.  The toilet was not put together securely and during one storm our boat rocked so much that the stove which is bolted to the concrete floor rocked so much that the stove started to sway  we had to put out the fire and brace it from each side with a table leaf and pieces of wood.  That scared me. 

The bilge pump in the meantime became stopped up. The oil cook and heating stove does not work well. It has to be  hand fed through a float on the front of the control box on the stove. Not enough fuel gets to it to cook.   This contrary stove caused much trouble during the entire trip and had to be taken apart piece by piece and put together many times. New valves were made leading to the fuel supply. Then we ran out of stove oil and had to siphon out engine diesel fuel for it. Half the time I cooked on a gas burner camp stove until we ran out of fuel for it too.

May 5

Breakfast dishes done by 7:30 AM. Grandpa and I re-arranged fresh food and cans in little used compartments. Ruth, Loyals wife, had already spent several days buying and putting away food behind sliding doors  because they were the only ones that didn't fly open spilling all the contents on the floor as did all the open cupboard doors 


Went to bed early with all my clothes on-very cold. Engine not running smoothly.  Loyal and Doyal worked on the engine for three and a half hours. 
                              May 6
Alarm at 5:30 AM.  I got up at 7:00. We had moved quite a ways by the time I served breakfast while underway. Weather is calm and sunny. Mountains with snow on the left and green land on the right.  I started taking pictures.  

Cooked beans with salt pork. Had lots of advice by people on how to do it. If they wanted home cooking they should have stayed home.  The fresh water pump doesn't work so we are using sea water for dishes, bath and hand washing with hand soap. Everything is sooty and grimy black. It gets cold here when the oil stove doesn't work and that's most of the time.


Boat died in the water several times today. Loyal finally looked at the oil in the engine.  It badly damaged the engine because of a leak in the engine casing.  From then on the engine used about 10 quarts of oil a day. 


During spare time I embroider pillow cases. (Finished one and a half on the trip.)

Next May 7. 

Seymour Narrows. Ripple Rock. Out of control.

In a day or two. When I get around to it.  

Note 1.  The original plans called for the exhaust to go out the rear of the boat.  Instead Loyal made it go up through the deck.  Unloaded it was above the water line.  He planned to fix it later.  

2 Just across the bay at an adjacent island.

 3 An added 10,000 pounds of ballast plus provisioning the boat put the toilet under water line.  As it was not tightly sealed it began to leak.  This is one way for a boat to disappear without a trace.  We would have been in our bunks with no way to escape if it had sunk suddenly while we were asleep. Puget Sound is several hundred feet deep here.   Ruth, Loyals wife, I don't think ever went out with Loyal again after their sinking off Vashon island. In fact he almost drowned us with the same boat in Useless Bay the day before.

My nautical experience consisted of two trips across the Atlantic.  Across on the Queen Elizabeth with 16,000 others and back on the troopship SS McAndrew.

  

Seymour Narrows, Ripple Rock May 7

Alarm 4:35 AM. Headed for dangerous Seymour Narrows and what used to be Ripple Rock before the Canadians blew it  up by one million pounds of TNT a couple years ago.  It's just a sea of frothy whirlpools in every direction and one wave meeting another boiling churning water in all directions. (Note 4) At 5:15 Doyal yelled for Grandpa and I to get up and out of bed as fast as we could.  The boat was out of control.  The boat was running  completely out of control.  It was impossible to shift to another gear and the engine could not be shut off.  Loyal scrambled down to the engine and worked around some relays and finally the engine died. We would have gone up on the bank of one side of the channel if we hadn't stopped. That would have ended it for all of us and the boat. This time was that the electricity had failed (the cable fell off the battery terminal Doyal ) and as the boat is electrically controlled nothing could shut the  engine off or steer it.  They temporarily repaired it with two spare batteries. 
It is so rough we had to put out the stove fire and not cook or keep warm. (in Queen Charlotte Sound)  Everything came out of the Cupboards.  You stand up holding onto anything steady with your feet three feel apart.  Most of the time. 
Note 4. We were off Vancouver Island.  It was dark and we could not see how close we were to the rocky shore. At Seymour Narrows you must go at ebb or flood tide.

Next May 8

Queen Charlotte Sound, Seasickness, Cooking in Seawater, Taking shelter behind ans Island, Steering problems

  Explanation 1.  Loyal had the attitude that it will be fixed right the second time.  That is the reason the battery cable just fell off the terminal. When he installed it he probably didn't have the right tool with him to tighten it up.  Same with lots of the problems that came up

Queen Charlotte Sound Friday May 8

Queen Charlotte Sound

Friday.  Awake before dawn every day. I add another item or two of clothes. Long johns, stretch pants, or ski pants plus quilted insulated sports jackets, and pants plus 2 wool sweaters. (Note 5) Hat and gloves for out on deck if it gets calm  enough to stand out there and watch the porpoise. They are pretty with white strips around their middle and tail edge. 
They leap in front of the boat and dive under the bow as you move along.


Queen Charlotte Sound.  Very rough.  I get seasick one day. The only time of the trip. Loyal said soda crackers and peanut butter were good  for seasickness.  So I did. 


Every time anything goes wrong or breaks Loyal always asks Doyal what he should do.  Or what suggestions he has on how to fix it. Same way with reading charts and following the compass. Loyal did not have the boat finished at all when we left.   He thought he and Grandpa could work on it at Ketchikan. or after fishing or something. Loyal also did not know much about navigation or following  the compass. He took a course in navigation once at the YMCA and reads yachting magazines about nice places to go sailing. This round bottom boat is a motor sailor not a fish boat, not an ocean going vessel. It doesn't have nearly enough ballast to keep it from acting like a cork. One boat builder who has seen it said it would capsize easily and we came close to it. Now to go on.


We cook boiled new potatoes  and carrots in sea water as it is just salty enough.  Very good. Very good meals. When the oven heated up enough we had cornbread or Bisquick. 


During this day, Friday,  the boat had troubles twice. The steering mechanism came apart and this meant stops in rough water to fix it. By now the main toilet seat is broken off and they store it in a cupboard below. Nuts!

Note 5.  A real teddy bear

Next  May 9

Finlayson Channel, Cold, Tolmie Channel. Mothers day.  Coffee makes in 1 hour.

    

May 9. Saturday Finlayson Channel

 Finlayson channel not enough visibility it's cloudy and raining. Past two days. Quite cold. I wear a sweater on my feet, ( I taught her that from WW2 around a sleeping  bag)  beside sox and long underwear, flannel nittie, sleeping bag and wool blanket. 
I put a coat of  resin on the new table and two chairs  loyal bought for the boat. Grandpa screwed  and glued them together while underway. 


Tolmie Channel, Right Sound very rough.  Grinville passage ok.

A short film of our trip before the camera quit

This oil stove takes up to a hour to make a pot of coffee. We rode until 9:45 tonight because it is still light. 
May 10 next. Mothers Day.

  

May 10. Mothers day

Loyal started getting breakfast this norning but not because it was that he remembered  it was Mothers day. None of them remembered  until I told them. Loyal was just hungry and today besides he doesn't like the way I cook bacon. He likes it raw. Just drug through the grease. 

Today the coffee took one hour to make and when it was done Grandpa was glad to get his  but  found out after he tasted his that it was made with salty seawater.  

So now we start on another pot but make it with the camp stove. If something on this ship doesn't start functioning properly this cook is going to mutiny. To get fresh water we flip a switch on a panel on the wall in living quarters run to the sink turn the faucet on (cold of course) and half the time you get air. When a spurt of water comes it is with such force it knocks the pitcher from your hand. then go turn off the water pump switch  again. (a leak in the line) Grandpa found his glasses finally. Nobody that lays anything down can ever find it again.  Because there isn't a place for anything yet. Loyal just skinned a large rock very close. He misread the chart. We brush our teeth in seawater too. 

Grandpa just found a two and half pound loaf of cheese in his belongings.  That's going to help out because we are almost out of all fresh things.  One egg left. It's so dark in the kitchen of this boat you have to look like MaGoo  to salt and pepper food or see if it is boiling.  

We had the generator working a couple times enough to get a 12 volt light bulb to burn for a couple hours and use the electric razor twice but they don't hook it up unless it's necessary so no light. We use candles to embroider and read. Since the stove is in the dark you cant do much if you try. To keep warm you sit by the stove. 

May 10 Continued

+

Short film of getting life jackets on during the story,




In Chatam Sound off Prince Rupert Island.  In the afternoon we were in Alaska waters and entered a gale which threw us around the ocean  like whip cream being beaten up. Loyal even got very worried and called for four life jackets to be brought up  to  the wheelhouse. Doyal and I put ours on even though we couldn't live more than 10 or 15 minutes in water like that. Too far to swim and the dinghy wouldn't hold us all. During the beating we took in this gale we tipped over so far to the port side that the 300 dollar electric generator was tossed clear off the walkway and over the handrail to the bottom of the ocean  The smoke stack worked loose and we lost the muffler.  The table, chairs, every dish and every piece of equipment came out of their places and onto the floor below us. Rudder was straining under the pressure and bent. We  finally persuaded Loyal (a mistake as it turned out)  to head for a nearby bay and wait out the storm which took two days of waiting. Meantime we had plenty of excitement like running aground. (tides do go out further than expected you know.)  The boat hit submerged rocks and we were in constant danger of being dashed on the rocky store where we had anchored. We only kept away by Doyal and Loyal using pike poles (note 7) Practically no water under the boat on one side although the depth finder said we had 15 feet. Thats how steep the shore was. Loyal had to get in the dinghy for repairs to the back of the boat. and straighten out the rudder under ice water.  Ice water, it was snowing of course. We stayed in three places.


The boat wasn't maneuverable in some of the bays we chose to hide from the storm. Trying (Dixon Entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound,)(8) Each day to see if we could get  through and on to Ketchikan. We had to tie the boat to two trees one time because the  winds and tides moved the boat in opposite directions  all night rolling and tossing almost out of bed. (9) No one slept. Doyal and Loyal were up all night upping and lowering these anchors trying to more favorable spots. The anchors would't hold the  boat at all. We had to allow enough slack in the lines  to allow the tides so we were in constant so we were in constant danger from the big rocks next to the boat. (10)


Everybody was so sore from pulling anchors they could scarcely walk. I can still hear the anchor chains above.  Loyal got in the dinghy on Monday to tie an anchor to a big rock on shore (11) He lost both oars and drifting away fast. The wind was blowing so bad Doyal couldn't do much.   We could have lost Loyal and the dinghy that time. The tides and wind is so fast and hard.


Tuesday May 12.  The anchors are stuck fast in the mud 110 feet down. With the mechanical wench and two men working a half hour, as hard as they could they finally freed the anchor and we pulled out from the lee of an island where we had anchored the last time.  The wind had finally died down enough that we made it this time and an hour or so later we were in a channel being one of the ordinary islands with reasonably calm water. So today we we finally made it. The ocean is  never kind to a small boat that pitches and rocks as this one did. Once inside the passage we felt relieved because in a matter of hours we would be seeing Ketchikan at  1 PM.  There was snow covering trees, houses and hills.   Very pretty but the local people hated it.  

Finally in Ketchikan.  On the dock.

Our PBY and jet to Seattle were ready 25 minutes after arriving in town and it was an enjoyable trip home.  We declined Loyal's and Dad's invitation to stay another night ob board. 


Believe me we all said our prayers on this trip or we wold never have gotten back.  During one storm our boat rocked so much the stove which is bolted to the concrete rocked so much we had to put out the fire.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Explanation by Doyal.  This might help an understanding of what Kay was not able to tell about. 
 Explanation 1  I think this shows the boat builder was right about rolling over.  The storm in Queen Charlotte sound wasn't really all that bad but with insufficient ballast and the round bottom it bounced around very easily.  However it never rolled over the entire time he had it and he even went out into the ocean off Straight of Juan de Fuca.  He had made this into a troller.


Regarding the danger of when we lost power off Vancouver Island. The channel there is narrow.  We had stayed the night anchored off the mainland.  As we started out  before dawn it was pitch black.  So when we lost electric power the engine just kept going but the steering wouldn't work because it also was electric.  One of Loyals inventions,   I don't know if he ever turned it into  conventional steering but I think he did.  When we lost steering on up in the Queen Charlotte Sound it  might have been because of the electric steering had put more strain on the rudder because of the manner power to it is applied. I cant remember the name of the bay we tried to take shelter in but it was no shelter when the wind was blowing straight down it. Which it was that night.  I had a small early tape  recorder (Norelco) and every time something would happen on the trip I would go to the recorder and make a recording of my impressions.I will include my real time descriptions plus the weather report and ocean conditions so you can see what we were up against.   As I recorded everything it would give a more complete description of our trip as it happened.  It was originally on 3  3  inch  reel to reel tapes made on the Norelco recorder.  Not much of a tape recorder but the best I could afford at the time.   But as we were heading into the narrow channel with no way to see where we were, we had to get the boat shut down.  All in the dark, He should have a flashlight though.  I am sure he finally found the oil valve and turned the fuel off.  The engine was damaged and he had to get it repaired in Ketchikan  before he went fishing because of running out of oil.  This was a brand new marine diesel too. A real shame.


Another indication of how the boat bounced around is the generator that got tossed overboard.  I don't know if it got tossed over the hand rail or under the hand rail.  But it was sitting on the hatch across the walkway from the railing.


If we had kept going another 15 minutes we would have been behind the lee of an island and safe.  But Loyal did not have the charts of that area out for viewing so did not take the time to go get the proper charts.  As a result we had an awful time because of that.  I had a double hernia operation when we got back.  Our main problem  while riding out the storm was that we had pulled into a cove that was just a little longer than the boat and we were sideways. Like up against the a dock. But we were up against a sharp rocky shore.  What would be considered two man rocks in the construction trade.   As you cant drive a boat sideways and we could not push the stern or bow out because of the waves meaning we also were being pushed onto the shore which was rocks almost straight up and down.   Most of the shorelines not open to the ocean are rocky.  This was the reason Loyal decided to take a line tied to the winch on the boat out to a tree on down the shore to in the dinghy.  In doing this he lost his oars and if the line-- had't been tied to the wench he would have been swept down the channel and probably lost.  But somehow he got it tied to a tree and we pulled the bow out headed into the channel and we went behind another island where Kay mentioned the anchor was stuck 110 feet down.


Kay mentioned going aground.  We had first taken  shelter in a bay which was  no shelter with the wind  in the wrong direction.  We had gone there because we did 't have much steering capability.  It was also very shallow and almost dry when the tide was out.  But he had to get the rudder fixed or we could not steer the boat.  So he had to get into the water and the only thing he could do was tighten up the bolt that held the rudder on if that was the problem   I don't remember now exactly what the trouble was.   The tides were the  reason we had to get out of there and to the lee of another island which we could see.  All this was available to him in the charts he had stored up above him in the wheel house.


We had another experience I'd forgotten about.  We had stopped at a little bay I cant remember the name of just at the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound near the tip of Vancouver island.  When entering the bay we could see the sandy bottom and the chart said 6.  It looked pretty close though then  Loyal noticed it was 6 feet and not 6 fathoms.  We wanted to be sure there was good weather when starting across the sound.


I don't think Kay ever fished a day in her life.


Yes. Loyal did some dumb things but even experienced sailors do stupid things too.  I went up to Juneau , Icy Strait, Sitka and so on with the purse seiner Lovey Joanne to make a film.  The day after I left the boat was anchored off a shore waiting for the season to resume and the boat capsized. It capsized because the captain piled his nets on deck and it was top heavy and tipped over.  Probably on account of a rip tide.  He was a very experienced fisherman even on the board of directors of Alaska Fish and Game.  But experience didn't keep him from making a bad decision .  Fortunately no one was lost in this incident but who knows if I had been on they would have had the same result.  But the result of his decision the boat was taken back to Seattle to make it shipshape.  He lost his season and Loyal lost any money he got from me when he repaired the damaged engine. Bob found the tapes except for one I lost and I will add them to this story as soon as I can figure out how to do it in an intelligible way. He is copying them on to a digital stick or DVD


Keep looking for an audio recording of the trip as it happened. Recorded while the trip was in progress.  Soon!