Well, as Bob Bitchin' from Latitudes and Attitudes Magazine says "The difference between adventure and ordeal is attitude." So, I would have to say that yesterday was an adventure.

I my have mentioned in previous entries that I was having a mysterious issue with losing coolant. I was handling the problem OK and thought that I had actually fixed it while I was in Key West.

Well, I left yesterday morning at 0700 and three hours later (motoring dead into the wind...) my high water temperature alarm sounded. Fortunately, I was in a wide open area and was able to just shut the engine down and let Norma drift for a bit while I went below to check things out.

I had passed through a couple of pretty big weed lines so the first thing I did was check my raw water strainer. Sure enough, it was full of seaweed so I removed it and re-started the engine but the alarm kept sounding. I shut it down again and went back below to discover that I had no coolant in the engine at all.

I refilled the engine and the overflow tank and started the engine again the alarm did not sound. YAY! When I checked the overflow tank five minutes later, it was half-empty. I continued to lose coolant at such a rate for the entire 8 hour trip to Boot Key Harbor. Consquently I had to run below and add water to the tank every ten minutes for the entire trip.

I made it to the marina and into my slip and I'm waiting for a mechanic to show up as I type this. Since I was literally losing gallons of coolant at such a prodigious rate and I couldn't see it accumulating anywhere, I'm convinced that the problem is in the heat exchanger and the coolant is going overboard with the exhaust and the sea water. We'll soon see if I'm right.

Anyway, I'll be here in Marathon until this issue is fixed. Oh yeah, about half way through the trip my tachometer stopped working. I suspect I knocked the wires on the sending unit loose while continually opening and closing the engine compartment.... Stay tuned.