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!
Quote from: Godot on July 17, 2014, 01:24:08 PM
I'm going sailing!
Excellent!
Have fun and fair winds to you. Peace be the journey.
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. >:(
Seems to be a spate of that going around. Better to get it done now rather than later, hoping for the quick fix.
Definitely easier to deal with on port, that's for certain.
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!
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!
Hopefully just a little residual air in the lines.
Cruise ON! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdHg4QEmBvk
or...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gujhFGvulvw
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.
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!!
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!
Quote from: Godot on July 18, 2014, 07:04:54 PM
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. :)
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.
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!!
Quote from: Godot on July 19, 2014, 10:04:33 PM
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
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.
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.
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
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! :)
Made it safely to Martha's Vineyard. I'm tired. I'll tell all about later.
Quote from: Godot on July 24, 2014, 06:51:48 PM
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.
QuoteThere 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.
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.
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?
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 (http://www.fuelmaster.com/). 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!
Aha! So thewhole time the problem was not getting drunk before attempting repairs! I must try to emulate your methods. ;D
;D
So it just needed some alcohol in the system to work ouot the problem :D
Quote from: w00dy on July 29, 2014, 12:54:06 PM
Aha! So thewhole time the problem was not getting drunk before attempting repairs! I must try to emulate your methods. ;D
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.
"re entry" is always hard! Look forward to the log update. Did the crew enjoy the trip? PICTURES!!!
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.
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.
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!
Quote from: w00dy on August 19, 2014, 02:22:47 PM
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!
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.
Nice blog...great pictures ;D Any plans for the next gettaway?
very good read makes me want to leave now!
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
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.
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).
Quote from: Godot on August 20, 2014, 11:28:19 AM
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.
You have the often discussed problem..."re-entry".....the bad news is it gets worst every time :-[
Quote from: Godot on August 20, 2014, 11:39:22 AM
Interestingly, I felt extremely healthy the entire trip. No back pains. Outside of the very first day, no migraines. Generally low stress . 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).
Funny how that works. You're "away" from the normal BS and end up feeling healthier. I (and others) always feel like a kid again. Walking beach's, zooming around (well...as fast as my 2hp can zoom) on the dingy, climbing up/down docks and into/out of the boat. "All good!" I think the weight loss is pretty standard as well. I typically loose about 20lbs over the winter away....then regain it slowly after re-entry.
(better and more fun than a gym!)
Glad your lady eventually got comfortable aboard....makes life way easier. Have fun...keep the dream alive.
Enjoyed reading your cruise report, Adam. Great photos! Grog to you. :)
Wasn't familiar with the Bayfield 29 design, so was good to learn a bit about it. That cockpit enclosure looks handy!
Good to see you have a good time and that you kept going even with the diesel fuel line problem (as others have also said).
I've driven past the Mystic Seaport several times...always on a long trip and trying to get somewhere...but now see better what I've missed and will have to make it a destination in the future.
Pleasant surprise that you cruised through New York Harbor on your return trip. First photos that I have seen of the finished new tower without the cranes and staging around it, and of it as part of a restored NYC skyline.
I was surprised when you reported that it was 715 nautical miles. It seemed farther than that. Enjoyed reading your recent post looking back at the trip.
I would have had to be much more frugal (as you wrote that you might on a longer voyage)...but checking out the menu, I would be sorry to miss the Lucky Bones Backwater Grille...
Cape May Scallops wrapped with Bacon
Pepper bacon wrapped, horseradish-beet cream
$8.95
Yum. :D
Quote from: Godot on July 17, 2014, 05:24:43 PM
Cruising. Boat repair in exotic locations your home port. >:(
I've noticed the same thing of late, with impellers.
Pulled the carb yesterday morning. Cleaned jets. Reinstalled. Running fine. Managed 58 miles anyway. Of course i got hear at2230 grin