Spring Has Sprung

Spring is definitely upon us; even here in the Pacific Northwest. As the daylight hours grow longer, the birds begin to chirp in the morning and the temperature warms up ever so slightly, I begin to get excited about what this summer’s Mother Goose experience will bring.

What can we expect to see on Mother Goose in terms of wildlife? We’re never sure what each summer will bring, but one thing we can be sure of is that the more we look, the more we will see! Over the course of the summer we are sure to see sea otters, humpback whales, sea lions and many different species of sea birds. If we’re lucky we may even get to see some Orca whales! On the shore we’ll be looking for brown and black bears. We will also be looking for the white elusive Spirit Bear! What these animals will be doing if we are fortunate enough to see them remains to be seen. In some ways, that’s the fun of it. The element of surprise and the excitement that comes with the chance encounter with these magnificent creatures only adds to the experience.

I never get tired of cruising out on the water with Mother Goose. We are blessed with so many spectacular sites and I am certain that this year will be no different!

Planes, trains and automobiles

On Leg #1 of Mother Goose, we will be taking clients from Bellingham to Ketchikan via the west side of Vancouver Island. It's a 25 day journey! Some of our clients can't be on the boat that long. You know... responsibilities back at home. I just figured out how to get someone from the west side of Vancouver Island to the airport in Port Hardy. Not as easy as you might think! It’ll be a float plane, taxi and airplane before our clients are back at home! Ahh… the beauty of being out in the wilderness!

Grand Banks: Quality and Pride of Ownership Makes the Difference

Grand Banks

Quality and Pride of Ownership Makes the Difference

By Mark Bunzel

Why does a Grand Banks stand out at any dock? Is it its well-drawn lines, trimmed with warm teak, and a gel coat that shines in the sun or a soft rain? The beauty is more than skin deep, as any owner knows. The systems are designed for serious cruising. Properly cared for, they will last a very long time and reward their owner with years of dutiful use, exploring some of the most beautiful cruising areas in the world. “I am continually amazed that people walk up to me on the dock and ask if my 1983 42’ Europa GB is a newer boat” said nautical writer and GB owner Bob Lane. “In my job I test a lot of cruising boats and I am hard pressed to find a boat that fits my needs better than my Grand Banks”, he added.

Grand Banks yachts are a special breed. They look great and stay in good shape due to a combination of quality materials and construction, and the care their owners give their boats. A GB is like a new or old Porsche. It just wouldn’t be right if the owner did not take good care of a Grand Banks.

The experts on Grand Banks maintenance is Northwest Explorations in Bellingham, Washington. They manage a charter fleet of 17 Grand Banks yachts of various sizes and vintages. The yachts are privately owned and Northwest Explorations books charters, provides training and manages the boats for their owners. Northwest Explorations is the largest volume brokerage for used Grand Banks yachts in the world. They are also well known for their Mother Goose cruises with flotilla charters up to and throughout Southeast Alaska, Desolation Sound, and coming up in 2011, the rugged and beautiful Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia. “We have a unique and discriminating clientele who are willing to pay a premium to charter from our exclusive fleet of Grand Banks yachts,” said Brian Pemberton, the owner of Northwest Explorations and a long time Grand Banks owner. “Our customers go to some of the most beautiful and remote places in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. Repair services may be days away and we need the fleet to perform for our customers” added Brian.

Each year Northwest Explorations takes five of their charter fleet up to Southeast Alaska for a total of about 12 weeks where charter customers can select from individual 2-3 week legs on the trip or can charter for the entire trip including the legs up and back. The trips are well planned with stops at all of the best must-see destination in Southeast Alaska and the Inside Passage. Participants can travel with the group or travel on their own for a day or two. The program includes a mother ship for the staff which includes a flotilla leader, a naturalist and mate. The mother ship GB is also equipped with sat phone, a large watermaker and laundry facilities that are available for participants. This year the Mother Goose fleet achieved a milestone passing the 25,000 mile mark for trouble free non-stop cruising.

“We have developed a maintenance program that has proven to work for our Grand Banks fleet” said Brian Pemberton. “We found that the key is a schedule of maintenance that includes the testing of our boats under sustained full power on the water.” Early in the spring each boat is taken out for several hours and test under full power with a mechanic in the engine room examining the engine. Small leaks indicate the need for adjustment or replacement of a needed component. A laser temperature gun is used to check exhaust manifold to look for indicators of internal corrosion. Any over-temp condition is investigated as it typically indicates an existing or upcoming problem. “We think the key is testing under full power rather than testing the boat while sitting at the dock” said Pemberton. “It is worth the extra effort since our boats may be running up to 500 hours in one season and our customers expect a trouble free experience from our fleet of GBs. We started this first with our boats going to Alaska and now have adopted this practice to our entire charter fleet as part of the annual maintenance cycle.”

       

The maintenance program goes beyond just the annual check. Northwest Explorations puts each of the boats it manages through an extensive checklist of all systems. Items like impellers are replaced annually in all engines and gensets. Fuel filters are changed every 200 hours. The oil and oil filters are also changed every 200 hours, even when up in Alaska.

The quality of a Grand Banks is also in the construction and selection of components designed into the boats. Diesel engines have evolved from the Lehmans in early GBs, through Cummins, Caterpillars and now John Deere, all quality engine suppliers. Properly maintained, the engines just keep going – just like their counterparts in the trucking industry. This is especially appreciated on critical open water crossings GB owners take either offshore in the Atlantic to the Bahamas or up the Inside Passage to Alaska. Head systems, water pumps, refrigeration, electrical systems, anchor systems – all quality components that should be checked annually. Northwest Explorations, for example, has the furnace or hydronic system removed and inspected as part of its spring maintenance cycle. It adds to the owner’s annual cost but is critical for cruising the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Some look at this level of maintenance as conservative and some think it is just a good practice.

For the exterior maintenance, teak rails are lightly sanded and two coats of Cetol are applied annually at Northwest Explorations. Any nicks or dents in the teak are filled and recoated with Cetol while underway. Water is the enemy to wood. Both Pemberton and Bob Lane agree that teak properly maintained each year can last five years or more before a more extensive complete refinish down to the wood is required. The fiberglass hull and topsides luster is maintained with an annual wax and polish job to protect the gel coat.

The result of all of this lavish care and maintenance is a yacht that looks great, runs without problems, maintains its value and often-even increases in value. Well-maintained brokerage Grand Banks yachts always carry a premium price over comparable boats in size and equipment. “My 1983 GB “Quadra” has increased in value by over 30% in the time I have owned it. Yes, I have invested in its maintenance but “Quadra” has taken me to incredible places along the Inside Passage that I could never have seen any other way. Owning and cruising my Grand Banks has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done” said Bob Lane.

The next time you walk down the dock and see a beautiful Grand Banks, tell the owner what you think. It is a lot of work and dedication and your comments will make it all worthwhile.

2010 Annual Owners' Meeting & Cruise

This weekend we held our annual owners meeting and cruise. The meeting was held at the Bellingham Yacht Club on Thursday afternoon. After a review of last year we introduced our new web based reservation software. This new addition allows guests and owners to have up to date access to availability of all our boats. Following the meeting we all adjourned for dinner at Anthony’s Hearthfire Grill.  The private room gave us the opportunity to talk across tables and get caught up with old friends. (As well as enjoy the spectacular sunset and great food!)

Friday morning we were off for Sucia Island. The entire island is part of the Washington State Park system. Back in the sixties, many of the local yacht clubs spearheaded a drive to help raise the money so this Island would be able to be used by boaters. Thousands of boaters have been able to take advantage of this beautiful park over the last forty years. One new feature is a building that has windows on all four sides and contains four large picnic tables. So, if the weather turns bad you have a place to continue the party. We did not have to avail ourselves to the inside; weather was spectacular but it was good to know it was there for backup. We feasted on oysters, chicken and salmon followed by carrot cake and chocolate cheese cake for dessert.


Saturday we cruised over to Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island.  The day was spent with typical boating activities; napping, going into the village bakery for the best ever latte, buying the knitting shop out of all the recently sheared local fleece and enjoying the relaxed nature of this special spot that has not yet been hit by excessive commercialism. On Sunday we gradually worked our way through the islands back to Bellingham. On the way, some of us stopped off at Decatur Island to get a firsthand look at the property that Scott and Alison had recently purchased. We all pitched in and piled the cut brush into a big pile in a clearing and practiced our skills with expired flares to start the fire. Bill Douglass, owner of Mystic Eagle, finally got the fire going by the old fashion method of laying some small dry wood at the base of the brush. A beautiful day with bright sunshine topped off this weekend as we cruised back across Bellingham Bay to NW Explorations' docks.

Annual Owners' Meeting

It's time for our annual Owners' Meeting which means the beginning of the 2010 charter season! We are very excited here at NW Explorations to get all of our owners together for the chance to catch up, share experiences, and thank them for helping to make NW Explorations the premier brokerage and charter company that it is. It's a beautiful day for dinner at Anthony's and looks like a it will be a gorgeous weekend for the owners cruise throughout the San Juans. Can't wait!!

Maintenance and Systems – ideas to share

Cool it

Do you have water cooled refrigeration? If you do, you have a water pump that pumps sea water through your compressor to help make the system more efficient than when it’s just cooling with the fan. However, if it’s cool inside the engine room, the cooling fan is generally sufficient, so there’s no need to run the water pump, adding extra power usage and hours on the pump. So what do we do?

Well, on Arctic Dream, a ’98 GB 42 classic in our fleet, the previous owner came up with a clever idea. He plugged his water pump for the refrigeration into a thermostatically controlled power strip and set the thermometer to 78 degrees. So when the engine room in 78 or cooler, the fan cools the compressor, but when the engine room is hotter (when you are underway), the water pump cools the compressor helping it run more efficiently in that hot environment!

Why owner Brian Pemberton continues to go to Alaska every year

After spending over 20 years as CEO I retired seven years ago. Six months after retirement my wife of 34 years informed me that she married me for better or worse; but not for lunch. She suggested that I should find a job, buy a company but for sure do anything that would get me out of the house. After feeling much unappreciated, a company found me and I bought what is now NW Explorations in 2004. Having held a Coast Guard License since 1962 and a long time Grand Banks owner, the transition to owner of the largest all Grand Banks Charter fleet felt very comfortable. My passion was cruising our Grand Banks. We found a way to participate in my passion that was complementary to our business; leading a group of Grand Banks to Alaska.

Beginning in 2005 we started the guided flotilla trips to Alaska. We have a licensed Coast Guard Captain, a certified Alaskan Naturalist and a deck hand aboard our lead boat. The lead boat has an abundance of navigation and communications equipment as well as spare parts for our fleet of Grand Banks. The summer is divided up into six separate “legs” or trips. The first leg starts in Bellingham and terminates in Ketchikan. These clients get off their boats in Ketchikan and new clients fly in and get on the boats for next trip and so on throughout the summer until the final leg and group of clients take the traditional Inside Passage trip from Ketchikan to Bellingham.

We are frequently asked, “Why do you keep returning to Alaska?” For me, it is three reasons: First, the anticipation, planning and preparing our boats is a spring ritual that would be missed. It is a great sense of accomplishment knowing that we have over 25,000 miles of cumulative cruising miles and never had a major system failure. It would not seem like spring if we were not headed north. Second is the absence of many of the day to day activities most of us our engaged in. The frequent rings of cell phones, office phones, home phones, e-mail, texting, tweeting, blogging, posting. The daily news cycles, balancing act with needs of families, friends and affiliations. When we are underway, most of the time we are out of cell phone and e-mail contact. There is no TV, newspapers or e-mail updates. We are interrupted only by breaching whales, magnificent scenery, the sighting of a brown bear or the soaring of an eagle. Third are the people that we meet and cruise with. We have made many new friends with the people whom we have cruised with. We have the time to simply sit and have a conversation. A dinner that is unrushed while we are at anchor in a pristine wilderness looking at the wolves on the beach. The chance for a couple to spend time together without interruptions. This is a trip of a life time that we get to enjoy six times a year.

2009 Mother Goose Daily Experiences

As we are getting prepared to leave on our sixth year of our Mother Goose flotilla, check out the daily blogs from our crew on the experiences they had in 2009. http://www.nwexplorations.com/guided_flotilla_news.cfm?ID=28&LID=0#86