Seeker

[Godot]

S/v Seeker, Bayfield 29, currently laying Middle River, MD. We are about to depart on a month long cruise north, with our initial destination being Martha's Vineyard.

We are running late. No surprise, we are always running late. For this reason I planned on three days to get to Cape May instead of just two.

Lauren should be arriving by two. Hopefully we will be setting off soon there after (fingers crossed).

Our SPOT tracking page (should we remember to turn on the device) is at http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0FgQzEXqumfYAPv8jFsLUsfAI8kNDIViJ.

Perhaps I'll even remember to update the blog at http://b29seeker.net on occasion (although I'll probably cross post everything here, so no need to jump off site).

Enjoy your month, folks. I'm going sailing!

[Captain Smollett]

I'm going sailing!

Excellent!

Have fun and fair winds to you.  Peace be the journey.

[Godot]

Delayed. Engine stopped working just as I was about to drop the dock lines. Bled the system, and busted a bleed screw. They have one waiting for me at the Yanmar dealer in Annapolis; but I can't get it until they open at 0800 tomorrow morning.

Assuming that turns out to be the problem, we will hopefully be on our way before noon and may be able to make out planned Friday night anchorage. Maybe. I haven't checked the tide/current tables for the C&D yet (no point until I know when I'm leaving).

Cruising. Boat repair in exotic locations your home port.  >:(

[Tim]

Seems to be a spate of that going around. Better to get it done now rather than later, hoping for the quick fix.

[Godot]

Definitely easier to deal with on port, that's for certain.

[w00dy]

We've acquainted ourselves with multiple Yanmar dealers on our trip east so far. Just visited the one here in Naples to pick up a load of fuel filters, a hand crank chain, and an oil drain plug. The filters were pretty ubiquitous, available everywhere. The hand crank chain turned out to be basically a single-speed sized bicycle chain, nothing special. The drain plug was the damnedest thing to get ahold of, though. It wasn't SAE, wasn't metric, it turned out to be e some kind of pipe threading....threw us for quite a loop.

Anyway, the journey begins, but with these old boats, the fun never ends! Hope you get moving soon! Enjoy!

[Godot]

I got the engine part this morning (bleed screw)b installed it and got underway. Fifteen minutes later the engine died. There was no fuel in the filter bowl. Not sure why. Trebled everything and now we are moving well. It's several hours until we get to the C&D canal so that should give us a good functional test of the engine before we get to where we absolutely need it.

Cruise on!

[Tim]

Hopefully just a little residual air in the lines.

[Jim_ME]

Cruise ON!  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdHg4QEmBvk

or...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gujhFGvulvw

[Godot]

Day one on our trip north, after a one day late start...

This morning I awoke at 6:30, jumped in the car, and got to the Yanmar dealer in Annapolis just when they opened up. I got the stupid bleed screw back to the boat, a quick engine repair, water tank fill, and ice replenishment later, we left the dock right around 10:30 AM.

Around 10:50 the engine died.

Tightened things, re-bled the system, and we were underway before long.

Not far from Pooles Island, the engine died again.

Frustrating, to be sure. So, we check the fuel system front to back and notice a lot of gunk in the Racor prefilter's water separator. Oddly, when I was doing engine maintenance in prep for this trip I didn't change this filter out (I'm not sure what I was thinking), so a quarter mile from Pooles Island it got done. And the engine worked!

Mostly anyhow. Periodically during the day the engine would lose RPMs, and after a few minutes would start running OK. Not too far from our anchorage for the evening the motor did slow enough to stall out. I bled the system (I'm getting really good at it...it took less than three minutes and I'm sure I can cut that in half), and the engine worked perfectly for the rest of the day.

We are now happily anchored in a little cove called Veazey off of the mouth of the Bohemia River, a short trip to the C&D canal. Lauren is making dinner as I type. I'm thinking a little swim might be in order later.

But what about tomorrow? We must transit the C&D under power.

I think we are going to go for it. What ever the problem is, bleeding the system seems to make the engine run fine. At least for awhile. Air is getting in somewhere (I suspect through the fuel filter...perhaps it needs a new O-ring), and I swear I'll find the culprit eventually. In the meantime, if we need to do a fire drill every few hours I think we'll be fine. Honestly, at this point I think we can bleed the fuel system before we lose steerage.

Not ideal, maybe; but that is what adventure is all about. Over coming obstacles.

[Frank]

Yep....it's all about attitude!!  :D  You'll do fine...let us know your "record time"   :) Funny how easy thing get after ya do them a few times!!  MARCH ONWARD!!!!! And post pics!!

[w00dy]

It sounds like you may be having problems with fuel obstruction do to algae or fuel oxidation. We are coping with the same issue at the moment and are looking into the best way for us to approach it. We've got some ideas, but since we're cruising and haven't gotten to a stopping point yet, the best we can do is carry extra filters and be prepared to change them at the drop of a hat.

When we get a chance, we want to install a vacuum gauge above the primary filter and possibly a polishing loop to help keep the fuel tanks clean. The best thing is to pump the tanks out and clean them out thoroughly, but unfortunately, ours are built in and quite inaccessible. I'm not quite ready to start cutting holes in the cockpit yet.

Hope your trip through the canal goes ok, and good luck with the fuel!

[Jim_ME]

We are now happily anchored in a little cove called Veazey off of the mouth of the Bohemia River, a short trip to the C&D canal. Lauren is making dinner as I type. I'm thinking a little swim might be in order later.

Good to read that even after a day with motor/fuel frustrations, your were happily anchored in the little cove, and ready to push on through the canal the next day. Expect that as I write this, you have already done that and well on you way to points farther North and East.

Fair winds.  :)

[Godot]

I'm tired. I'll write this quickly while everything is fresh in my head; but coherence may suffer tonight...

For those boaters with reliable engines, I have three words for you...

I. Hate. You.

Really.

No, not really. I am however a little envious.

Today we made it through the C&D canal. The engine only failed twice, or maybe three times, going through the canal. At one point we were about to go under a bridge, which was a little dicey. But I am getting really good at bleeding the engine and can usually get it running within a couple minutes.

On the way into the canal we were beset by forty or more high performance boats zipping out on a poker run, with spotter helicopters chasing from probably thirty feet off the deck. Woke us up for certain.

We did get waked pretty bad by an inconsiderate family in an overpowered cruising boat. We probably rolled thirty degrees port to thirty degrees starboard a dozen times. Anything not strapped down (and a lot wasn't...we were in the canal, not open water after all) was thrown across the cabin. A bottle of blueberry juice was amongst the litter. The juice was sprayed across the entire cabin, including the ceiling. We were annoyed.

Happily, the rest of the canal was a pleasant experience. Unhappily, it is really hard to talk about things that are boringly pleasant. Clearly, bad news is more interesting.

Our intent today was to stop behind Reedy Island (on the Delaware River) for the night. We got there so early, though, that stopping just seemed silly, so we decided to keep on going to shorten what would otherwise be a very long leg to Cape May.

I've been spoiled sailing the Chesapeake. I forgot about currents. The Delaware River was at times running north of two knots against us. It didn't turn to our favor until late in the day. This made progress slow. With light winds, and a fluky engine, progress was really really slow. By 18:00, the wind had filled in a bit, and the tide had turned so when the engine next failed we just decided to leave it off and deal with it in the morning. Around 20:30 we made it to our home for the night, the rather exposed, but adequate Cohansey Cove. We anchored (under sail) on the eastern side to protect ourselves from the expected NE winds. So far it seems fine. I let out lots of scope on the anchor just in case.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to make another attempt at figuring out what is going on with the engine, and then we are off to Cape May.

[CharlieJ]

As for the wake- Jerks like that I always thank  for waking us
on the VHF, on 16, by boat name

Several times.


Then I add - jerk!!

[Captain Smollett]

For those boaters with reliable engines, I have three words for you...

I. Hate. You.

There is no such thing.  Engines only do one thing reliably: FAIL

[Godot]

We made it to Cape May. We dealt with the engine problem by just not using it (until the Cape May canal, of course, when it failed once?it was quick to restart).

I once heard it said that the Delaware Bay is not cruised, but endured. Truth. The sailing was spirited. The Mal de mer unwelcome. The weather forecast was East winds 5 to 10 knots. My anemometer is not working; but the good folks at Utsch?s Marina (our home for tonight) told us that the wind was around 30 knots and everyone was getting beat up. I suppose we feel better knowing that we weren?t alone.

Still, we sailed fast. We remained safe. And we are going to sleep real well tonight.

Tomorrow I?m going to try and get a diesel mechanic to help me locate the problem with the engine. Air is getting in somewhere. I?m sure, given time, I could find the culprit. But it is time to stop mucking with the beast and for us to get on with the trip. So far it?s been too much worry and work. Hopefully, sometime tomorrow we will depart for Martha?s Vineyard. It?s time to start enjoying the cruise.

[Godot]

A hundred plus dollars later the engine has a clean bill of health from the mechanic. An hour after he left it stopped. The neck worth it. As I type on cell phone we are exciting info the ocean destination Martha's vineyard.

[Norman]

I have been on a diesel boat with the same symptoms as you are experiencing.

The problem was clumps of black growths living in the fuel.  Aircraft use fungicide to discourage it, some sailors do too.

We changed 5 filters in less than 10 hours of engine time.  In port, a careful exam thru the filler pipe disclosed the floating clumps of fungus.  The clumps were larger than the quarter inch fuel line, and blocked it without getting pulled in.  After we shut the fuel valve and started changing the filter, the rocking of the boat washed the clump away, and the engine would run again.

We removed most of the fuel, used a very flexible bristle brush to thrash around and break up the clumps, then used a portable electric pump and filter to recirculate the remaining fuel until there was no new dirt in the filter when we drained it.  The return fuel is sprayed around to assure that all the corners are flushed out.

That took half a day, but ended the repeating failures, as well as the cost of the Racors.  We also bought an optional Racors filter bowl that is clear, and has a drain screw.  With that bowl, daily exams of the bowl reveals any water or crud before it is deep enough to hurt the filter, and we drain it out with the screw valve.

Same Racors for more than a year after the clean out.  No more engine stoppages due to fuel flow failure.

Since you are embarked on a vacation, a temporary small tank, frequently refilled May be an alternative to a tank flush.

Very best wishes for a pleasant trip.

Norman

[CapnK]

Norman raises a good point - get a small tank, and then run both your feed and return lines to it, and your problem will probably go away until you have finished the cruise and can get the main tank and fuel cleaned. Go Adam! :)