Seeker

[Godot]

Made it safely to Martha's Vineyard. I'm tired. I'll tell all about later.

[Captain Smollett]

Made it safely to Martha's Vineyard. I'm tired. I'll tell all about later.

Wonderful!  Can't wait to hear the trip report.

[w00dy]

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

Lol. This would be funnier if it didn't hit so close to home.

Thanks for the tank cleaning anecdote Norman, as well as good advice about a temporary tank solution. Neither is easy to implement, but when you add up the cost of changing 13 dollar filters.... The temporary tank shouldn't be too hard if you can get ahold of a few parts.

Good luck with it Adam. Please let us know how it works out.

[Godot]

I'm pretty sure the problem isn't contamination. I have a clear fuel/water separator on the Racor and after the first time haven't seen any gunk in it. I've also pulled and changed the filters just in case and the old filters did not look in the least dirty.

Best guess is that when I was trying to be proactive on maintenance, I broke a seal somewhere and small amounts of air is leaking in.

I can bleed the system very quickly now. Unfortunately, I seem to need to do it more and more often. I suspect this is because of the loosening/tightening/loosening/tightening sequence that has been repeated so often.

I think we are just going to hang here in Vineyard Haven for a day or two decompressing. The wind is up now, but at some point I'll dinghy into town and visit the West Marine (quite nearby) and buy a bunch of crush washers to replace pretty much all of them in the fuel system. If they have them, I'll buy some of the extra little plastic washers that live under the bleed screws, and may even buy new bleed screws from a Yanmar dealer on Monday if we are still here. I've cut off the questionable ends of the fuel lines and reclamped them already. I have several feet of new fuel line that I might try replacing here and there. I'm very tempted to pull the whole Racor off to look at real closely to make sure I didn't introduce a crack at some point.

Somewhere in here air is bleeding through. The system is pretty simple; but the point of failure hard to determine. I'm certain I'll find it eventually.

[Jim_ME]

I wonder whether you could drain and pressurize the system with compressed air to some safe pressure, and look for the leak with soapy water at all joints, that will bubble at an air leak, like they do for pressurized gas lines?

[Godot]

In Haven Vineyard I stopped by the yanmar parts dealer yesterday and bought a bunch of washers and gaskets and plugs and such. About seven dollars worth, so pretty affordable. Installed, fired the engine, and a little more than an hour later, right on schedule, it stopped.

Got drunk.

Woke up this morning with fresh eyes. The fuel line coming from the Racor to the Fuel Lift Pump (through a priming bulb) looked fine. But there was this funny little device strapped to it called a Fuelmaster. I pulled that off and the fuel line below it was all cracked and unhappy looking. Ah, ha! Replaced the fuel line, and squeezed the primer bulb which is now much firmer than it was. I think this is it.

Leaving Martha's Vineyard in a few minutes for Cuttyhunk island.

Cruise on!

[w00dy]

Aha! So thewhole time the problem was not getting drunk before attempting repairs! I must try to emulate your methods. ;D

[Cyric30]

 ;D

So it just needed some alcohol in the system to work ouot the problem :D

Aha! So thewhole time the problem was not getting drunk before attempting repairs! I must try to emulate your methods. ;D

[Godot]

I haven't been good about updates; but I have been keeping a reasonably decent log.

We will complete our month afloat tomorrow. I hope to get the log posted within a week or so.

It was a heck of a trip. We pushed too hard and motored more than I would have liked (a direct result of pushing too hard). We spent time offshore. We spent time driving the narrow channels of the nj ICW. We've had our issues. We've had our joys.

I'm not ready to come home. Not by a long shot. But work beckons.

More than ever I want to just take off. Monday is going to be painful.

[Frank]

"re entry" is always hard!  Look forward to the log update. Did the crew enjoy the trip? PICTURES!!!

[w00dy]

Just in case you don't already have a little devil on your shoulder, let me be the one to tell you:

"Chuck it!" Tell your boss something crazy like you're giving up all your worldly possessions to join the hari krishnas and just disappear off the radar!
Then, we could join forces and get the SailFar armada started.

[SeaHusky]

The "fuelmaster" reminded me of a book i recently read about an atlantic crossing in an Albin Vega.
At the start they had constant problems with the diesel despite cleaning and changing filters.
When consulting an engine guru in a small Norwegian fishing village he pulled the fuelline from the tank until it came to a stop and then pulled until it came away completely. It turns out that at the end of the fuelline in the tank was mounted a siv/filter which can't be cleaned or changed and when it is clogged you get grey hair.

[w00dy]

We may cruise up to B-more at some point in the next few months. If we make it up that far, I'll be sure to give you a shout and continue an excellent series of SailFar meetups/grogfests!

[Godot]

We may cruise up to B-more at some point in the next few months. If we make it up that far, I'll be sure to give you a shout and continue an excellent series of SailFar meetups/grogfests!

Looking forward to it!

[Godot]

I've finished compiling the logs from the trip, and posted them on my blog, with quite a few photos (for those who keep asking for them) at http://b29seeker.net/2014_cruise/.

I've also made a pdf version (approx 6mb), which I don't think is as nice; but which allows for some offline reading at: https://app.box.com/s/6ufpmamo2w7lh4vtjqyo.

I would have loved to have put the whole thing here as well; but linking all the photos would just be too much; and not having the photos would be a shame.

[Frank]

Nice blog...great pictures  ;D   Any plans for the next gettaway?

[jotruk]

very good read makes me want to leave now!

[Norman]

A trip to envy!

The persistant engine issues, which seem to be solved now, could have ruined the trip, but with a good attitude and rapidly improved skills, the trip was saved.  Enjoyed being invited along, and enjoyed the sailing with you and Lauren.

A solid sailboat is a fine platform for a nautical adventure, and your Bayfield seems to fit well with your choice of cruising destinations and discretion on when to travel and when to sit for better weather.

Your write up was excelent!

Norman

[Godot]

Thanks for the positive feedback on the write-up. It was a mostly fun trip. Too much motoring, though (somewhere around 155 hours...ouch). 

The total cost of the month was around $2500, I think, although I didn't keep strict records. Maybe it hit $3000. Lots of diesel. And more marinas than I'd normally take. And I spent a fair amount of time in expensive locations, and we ate out semi-regularly. If I was going for a longer stretch I think I'd be much more frugal.

I'm out of vacation time, so the next big trip is going to be a little while. No plans yet for next year. I will be taking a few days to sail to the SSCA Annapolis Gam again this year, weather permitting. Eventually I'm looking at a multi-year trip, where I will make it north to Maine (and maybe further north), and south to the Bahamas, with a likely stop in Bermuda (no particular reason except I want more offshore time).

The engine problems seem to be largely solved. There is a diesel leak (I'm going through a lot of oil soak pads). It might be a problem with the aluminum tank. I'll be pulling it this winter to check it out. I'm also going to replace the fuel return line. The Superglue repair seems to be holding on the Racor water separator. I'll likely still replace it, though. I'm not sure what diesel does to Superglue.

The automatic bilge pump blew up. Literally. Unexpected how that happened. I'll be installing a new one this weekend, I think.

With the engine running full tilt a fair amount of water makes its' way up the rudder shaft. Not sure how to stop that. I don't know if it is a new issue or not, since I didn't notice it until the automatic bilge pump died and the high water alarm went off. When under power I pumped the manual pump for five minutes every two or three hours.

I'm certain the Bayfield can handle far, far more than I took her through this time. I never put in more than one reef. I did try to keep the trip comfortable, though (I badly want Lauren to feel comfortable...it took until the second half the trip, I think, for her to truly settle in). And I never sail in lightening if I can avoid it. I've been in a severe t-storm in my Seafarer, and it was less than fun. I'm not comfortable with the age of the standing rigging. Once I replace that I think I'd feel fine with a more adventurous off-shore trip. I will do it eventually.

I've had a bad case of the Blues since returning. I really, really didn't want to come back. It's time to get serious about finding a way to do this long term.

[Godot]

Interestingly, I felt extremely healthy the entire trip. No back pains. Outside of the very first day, no migraines. Generally low stress (although there were plenty of stressful moments, the stress evaporated immediately upon the resolution of the stressor). I did injure my hand at one point (not sure how or when...I wore a wrist brace for a week or so); but it seemed to heal quickly. Lots of bruises, too; but nothing serious.

The day I returned my back starts hurting, I get a migraine, my carpal tunnel started acting up, and my sciatica started acting up.

I lost ten pounds over the month away. And I am now much more flexible (I can touch my toes without effort...something that surprised me).