Some days you just want to give up!
08 January 2019 | New Symrna Beach
Richard
Morning has broken.....and so have our engines. Doh!
Port engine water pump issue occurred last night so it was time to dive into the engine room. Belt was fine, sea strainer clean and water coming into it so off with the pump. Impeller had shed five of its six vanes, four were still lodged in the pump but one was missing. Took off the section of hose that runs from the pump to the heat exchanger and fished around in the entry to the bundle of pipes that makes up the cooling system. Yep lodged just before the entry into the bowels of the heat exchanger was the missing vane. Had to take a photo with phone to see what was occurring and after fashioning a hooky type device with a bit of stiff wire and some fishing about I snared the offending bit of rubber. Pumped re-assembled all was good. As I was in engine mode I thought I’d just check the oil both sides. Port good but when I lifted the lid on the Starboard engine I was greeted with 5 pints of diesel sloshing around in our usually very clean bilge. Having cleaned it up I checked everything and couldn’t find the culprit. Only thing that seemed a miss was the bleed screw on the bottom of the Racor filter was a quarter turn from snug. Set off and after a few checks the issue hasn’t as yet returned.
Sometimes cruising just feels like continual process of fixing stuff. Mostly I just get on and sort whatever is broken or misbehaving but after the last couple of days it can wear you down and you just seem to spend your entire day wondering what will fail next.
To avoid that we motored precisely 12miles chucked out the hook just south of New Symrna and headed into town for some lunch. At least if the boat isn’t moving mostly you can guarantee that it won’t add to your list of stuff to fix.
Gill has coined a phrase “Richie fix it" and generally he does, the language and unholy appeals to the Gods are all part of the process. But thus far my natural ability to solve problems, although tested severely on occasions, has never come up short and I’m sure in years to come I’ll be proud of what I am achieving. Maybe I know more than I think, Gill thinks I do but having taken this boat apart and put it back together there are still a myriad of unknowns when it comes to taking care of her.
Lunch was good as was a break from the trudge south and on returning to the boat we had a stunning late afternoon sky and for company 40plus dolphins snuffling around the boat. So life can’t be all that bad, can it!
South again tomorrow through mosquito lagoon on and down to Canaveral, engines permitting.