Mazu at my feet at the helm.
We motored out at 7 am on a beautiful sunny calm day. The most important thing for crossing 50 miles over to the Bahamas is to go with calm weather, no fronts, no storms, no high waves. If it isn't calm enough then crossing the Gulf Stream can be a nightmare.
We got 12 miles out when the engine just died, and we had to hail Tow Boat US . Chris of Tow Boat US, Fort Pierce came after a couple of hours. Fortunately we could have a little two hour sail.
I stayed at the helm while Drew tethered us to Tow Boat US (We have a membership that includes free towing. It is an insurance essential benefit like AAA for your car.) We got back to our slip around two pm.
Sad Mazu remained below panting not shaking even though the boat had no engine sounds.
Tom at Whiticar Boat Yard got us a mechanic pronto for the next day. There was too strong a vacuum in the fuel line. Daryl tested it at 40 when it was supposed to be 1. Daryl came and found the culprit at an easily accessible spot in the fuel line. When he opened the fuel line right at the tank the vacuum pressure went down to normal. He took everything apart and inspected the shut off valve. There he found it was blocked with a glob of stuff. Drew cleaned out the glop while Daryl completed the full inspection. He continued to take things apart to be sure there was good flow. When he put things back together the vacuum increased again so they opened up the shut off valve again and found it clogged again in the same spot. Some of the glop was hiding in crevasses. He took everything apart to clear it all out. This second time when he put it back, the vacuum stayed normal. We started up the engine and bingo it kept on running. Problem solved in one hour. They did it on time, now works, and price was right.
We will leave with the next weather window as predicted by Chris Parker, Passage Weather, Grib files, etc. Maybe Friday night or Saturday or...
1 comment:
Deborah and Drew, I am so glad it is nothing worse, because it could have been anything. Clogged fuel hose is fixable. We all have this happen eventually. We had it happen once and in all the years, it never happened again. Great job on getting it all fixed up and we will see you where and when we see you. I love the great selfie of you both. Beautiful photo. I also love the MAZU photos, sooooooooo cute.
Hayden
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