We aren't supposed to be moving... This is not how the keys are supposed to be....

Anchor dragged five times in the night.  We moved a third of a mile.   Today we have a tornado warning.     


Locals say they don't get tornado warnings here and this is a first.  Sure.  They saved the crap weather for us.   Anchor holding now and storm is passing.  Maybe we will get out this afternoon....

Until then God is power washing the salt off the boat and dinghy.  They needed a good fresh water deluge.  
This all leaves me thinking 'wow, this is EXACTLY what I dreamed of when planning my great loop'.   Who doesn't want to monitor the anchor alarm, put trays down to catch water, sit in a rocking boat and clean diesel out of the bilge of your boat that spilled when you replaced the fuel filter in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico....  (Not a ton of fuel but it required many paper towels and oil absorbent rags, plus dawn dish soap, and some spot shot for the inevitable drip on the carpet).    Joy....

I figure this might be a good time for a story.   In Cortez during our stay I was working on a maintenance list.  We have pre filters on our boat that filter the diesel fuel even before it gets to the engine fuel filters ..these are big cartridge filters that are clear so one can see dirt or debris being filtered out.  

These filters have a screw/valve on the bottom that you can open by turning and drain out the gunk that settles to the bottom without having to completely disassemble and clean and reinstall the assembly ......

So I turned this valve ...a little diesel came out then stopped.. .then turned more.   A few more drops....  Another half turn.   Nothing....another turn....nothing.   

Finally I turn it another half turn and not only does fuel come out, the entire valve falls out of the assembly and diesel starts pouring on me, the engine bilge and anything downhill from the filter.   Pouring like a garden hose dumping $5 a gallon fuel in the bilge!

I'm panicked and trying to get the valve screwed back in ... No luck.  The threading would start but after about a turn and a half it would skip the thread and be loose and leaking again!    I turned off the valve for fuel. The fuel kept coming.. It turns out there is a valve to turn on the intake of the diesel but there is also a return valve that brings diesel back to the tank and a siphon means diesel goes downhill and would keep coming.  After slipping and falling on the slippery diesel and scraping and scratching my arm I got Teflon tape sufficient to bind the threads and get the plug stuck back in place and stop the flow.   I ordered a new valve and the todo list has replacing that high on the list.

This isn't an item I'm looking forward too.... but I'm building a plan to accomplish it.  I'm hoping I can affix a hose to the valve and get the diesel.in the filter to flow into a nice clean container so it can be reused next time.     We shall see.  I'm certain the 'next time' should be better now that I know that valve has an issue...

Again... The things I didn't dream of doing when I dreamed of a 10 month cruise around the eastern USA.....   It's not all about the scenery.   

Katie, in particular, really loves the smell of diesel and old fat man sweat in a cooped up boat. I think it's her favorite thing only improved on by being under a tornado warning, torrential downpour, bouncing on waves and spinning on our axis like a kids merry go round....   Faster faster faster... Sick.  

I think I found her.new favorite thing....we are trying to identify things that make her sick.  We are getting more and more successful...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Orillia ON to Severn Falls ON

Image
We are within sight of the last lock of our trip!    Today we left Orillia early under grey skies and wind. At least it wasn't raining.  We made our way to the north end of Lake Couchiching (Water with Many Winds in the native language) and into the narrows of the canal.   We soon came up on a railroad bridge.  And the sign (which is a new thing for us) said the next opening would be between 11am and 11:30am.   But it was just a little after 10am.   Ouch.  Trying to keep the boat in the middle of the channel for an hour with 20mph winds.... Not easy.  Fortunately there were trees and the trains blocked more while we waited.   We dropped anchor and used the engines to keep the boat reasonably straight in the channel (and off the huge rocks lining both sides).  Eventually the long trains stopped and they opened the bridge for us.   We've had it with locks and bridges ...  (We ...
Read more

Youngs Point ON to Fenelon Falls ON

Image
We left Youngs Point lock wall this morning about 8am with two hours of cruising to get to our first lock.   What a beautiful day.   We had two lakes to cross.  Clear Lake (which is clear)...   And Stoney Lake which is.... Granite.  The beaches are done and the navigation is critical.  It's a common thing to have solid granite just a few inches below the surface on both sides of the boat just 10-20 feet away.  As long as we are in the designated channel it's fine....   But prop repair and replacement is a big business here... Still... Driving past this kind of scenery all day would never get old... (Until it froze).  Eventually we journeyed through four locks today... And up to a fifth.    Lock 28, 30, 31, 32... And sitting just under lock 33.   Yes we are aware 29 is missing.  28 and 29 used to be a set of two (a flight lock) but in the 1960s they automated it (hydraulic controls rathe...
Read more

Ludington MI to Grand Haven MI - and Gold Looper Status!

Image
We are back at North Shore Marina!   The place we started and the place our boat calls home.  We have a new slip (next to where we were last year) and we have a port tie which is best for our boat.   How we tie up here will take some getting used to... We left Ludington today and it was a bit breezy (15-20 knot winds).  It was our best day to get home in the next five though so we went.   You can't see it but the waves were coming up high enough to splash us all the way on the top deck.   Lumpy for the first 30 miles.  Until we reached silver lake sand dunes.  Then we could turn about 30 degrees and quarter the waves a little.  The white caps died down also.  It was kind of foggy today so we couldn't see very far.  More of a haze as it didn't affect navigation but made pictures difficult.  That's the light house at Little Sab...
Read more