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.