Markus
07-Jun-2008, Under way towards Beaufort, NC

Slipped our mooring in Fort Pierce at high tide around noon today and had some very nice sailing so far...reached the Gulf Stream conveyor belt early last night with a few hours of 10 kn speed over ground... wind is dying now, so we're back to 6...7 kn SOG. Current position (0500 local time) is 29-25.6N 079-47.9W... all is well aboard.

04 - Puerto Rico to Maine

Comments [0]

Markus
05-Jun-2008, Fort Pierce, FL

Yes, we are indeed still in Florida, but we will leave tomorrow (so we think at least...). The injection pump for the engine was put back in place by Eric at 1900h tonight and everything looks like a "go" for a midday (high tide) departure tomorrow (Friday, 06JUN). The latest twist in the engine saga was that UPS first mis-sorted and then temporarily lost one of the spare parts for the pump that was shipped overnight (!) from AZ to FL on 30MAY and eventually made to the injection shop on 04JUN (UPS tracking number 1Z 448 024 01 4634 067 2 in case you want to see the odyssey on ups.com)... Material value of the spare: ~ 50 cents... just to show that there is no correlation between value and criticality for spares...

Once it became clear last Friday that we would have to stay put for yet another few days we decided to drive up to Cape Canaveral again to watch the Space Shuttle launch on 31MAY on-site which was quite awesome. It also gave us the chance to use our Sea World tickets for a free 2nd visit. So by now we feel we have done all the touristy things in Florida and are eager to move on! We'll go as far as the weather lets us, ideally all the way to Newport in one go. Stay tuned for updates along the way...

04 - Puerto Rico to Maine

Comments [2]

Markus
28-May-2008, Fort Pierce, FL

Just a quick update... Eric, the long awaited mechanic, was here on Monday (yes, he did indeed come out on Memorial Day!) and took off our diesel injection pump. Even with the pump and its counterparts in the engine in full view, we could not come up with any diagnosis that would explain all the different phenomena/strange engine behaviors we experienced on our way here. What seemed particularly puzzling was that our prime suspect, the control rack that the stop solenoid engages with, was not stuck but moved rather freely after we had full access to it. Hence it was decided to take the pump to an injection shop for a closer look. The shop's diagnosis after full disassembly of the pump: 3 of 4 plunger springs were disintegrating due to corrosion - a bit of a (nasty) surprise. On the positive side this does explain all of the engine's behavior in the recent past and makes a plausible root cause for all evil. Unfortunately, it also means we will only get the overhauled pump back on Friday or Saturday, so no departure before the weekend...

On the plus side again this gave us a chance to go to Sea World today where especially the Orca whale show was quite an experience (not only for Nicky). We can also make a few more fixes which we had originally saved for Maine: Fixing a very slow oil leak from the engine's raw-water pump, adding additional 1/2" spacers to the engine mounts (since I had to move the engine off its mounts for injection pump access anyway), installing AIS, ...

We're still optimistic that we will in fact leave here eventually ;-) To be fair: It's a convenient spot to be stuck in, with a very nice and friendly live-aboard community around us. Stay tuned for further updates...

04 - Puerto Rico to Maine

Comments [0]