Well, as planned, yesterday my friends Bill and Mary accompanied me on another sea trial. We motored for over two hours at 2900 RPMS my coolant level did not drop at all!

I noted that, during the previous day's sea trials with the mechanic that the coolant level dropped but not nearly as much as it had during my trip up from Key West last Wednesday so, here is my theory.

I believe that the leak that was causing the precipitous drops in the coolant level last week was in the loop of hose that goes beneath the floorboards to the water heater. I think that the small drop in coolant level that we saw during the two sea trials on Friday were due to the coolant system still having air pockets in it after being empty for two days while the heat exchanger had been removed. Thats why were werent finding dye anywhere... it wasn't leaking out!

I believe that running the engine cleared out the air pockets and caused the coolant to be drawn into the engine from the overflow tank, thus creating the small (about 1 inch) drop in the overflow tank that we witnessed on Friday. Then, when I topped it off on Saturday and we ran it again, no such drop occurred.

About 8 hours after the engine had been shut off, I observed less than a half-inch drop in the overflow. Certainly nothing like the hemmorhage I was experiencing last week. Everyone keep good thoughts but I think its fixed. I plan to continue on probably Tuesday or Wednesday after the cold front moves through tonight and things settle back down.