Facing fears...

Terror? HERE'S terror: engine trouble! 

OK, so I've had times sailing when I actually shook with fear... like at night, wondering if the weather “disturbance” had risen to a tropical storm and would drag me and my anchor onto a rocky shore with 6' waves... or when I faced a line of thunderstorms at midnight and tried to figure out my best route through them. Mostly, I think we fear the unknown, the thing we haven't faced before and aren't sure how to address. Now I know that my best option when I fear dragging is a second anchor and a location pin on the map and my best option in an impending night storm is reduced sail and a notepad with the heading to various storm cells to see if I am going into them or avoiding them. 

Now I'm facing a great fear and something I generally detest: engine work. Why do I dislike it? Well, engines epitomize much I dislike: they are noisy, smelly, polluting, dirty, complex, and expensive. Figuring out where the oil or fuel is leaking, how often to change the raw water impeller, where to find the sacrificial zinc, how to change the coolant, how to repair the alternator, how to even get TO the bolts on the fuel injector pump, how to prevent dust and rust and paint flecks from getting into the injectors.... UGH! 

This is all especially fraught since I have not dealt with most of these issues. SO! I have been trying to fix the fuel leak on my injector pump. In order to even get at this leak, I need to remove the exhaust header, starter, oil pressure sensor, the steel fuel lines, and the thermostat housing.

I had to grind down a wrench to reach a very inaccessible nut.

Taking this all apart and reinstalling it required three days: sometimes I'd wake at midnight, unable to sleep, and put in a few hours on it. FINALLY, I got it all back together... and the engine ran far worse and smoked,

the coolant leaked very badly, the salt water pump leaked badly from the pump shaft, the oil pressure gauge went nuts.... and fuel still leaked. 

UTTER DEFEAT! Is it time to abandon this fricking boat? Hire someone? Go 100% electric? UGH! Despair! Despondency!

Still.... More research and some scraping away paint to find the hairline timing marks helped me get the engine running well and stopped the smoking. This makes me SO happy! And it looks as though the fuel leak is a new one and easy to fix. Advice from my friend Asa helped me figure out my electrical issues:  the oil pressure sender is probably OK, so I can just get a new meter from West Marine. And I think I know how to seal the thermostat housing well this time and should replace the thermostat anyway. Not so bad, then: action, progress, success...

Today I'll remove the header again and see about installing the new “olives” that should stop the fuel leak,

a little work tomorrow should handle the thermostat & housing, Tomorrow I'll walk to the auto supply to get a thermostat and to West Marine to get a new oil pressure gauge (chilly day: good for Monty to go walking) and install those... I've gotten through the fear and loathing and into the calm waters of some knowledge and competency. What a relief!

And, of course, Monty has been walking an hour or two each day, some folks visited with their beautiful homemade dinghy,

and we often have wonderful sunrises..

Hello from St Augustine!

(Written January 9)

Monty and I survived the trip! This was my longest trip without autopilot, made far harder by single-handing. The only problem we had involved the winds picking up to an uncomfortable level on the first night. How bad was it? WELL.....

I had the choice of setting out just before dark and sticking close to shore or heading out earlier, when winds would force me to swing farther out to sea. I made the mistake of departing earlier. I have sailed in fairly high winds along shore, where waves did not have a chance to build up, and it worked well.... but that first night, the wind picked up and up and up, probably to 25, gusting 30knots.... although I didn't pull out the gauge to test things. I took down the main sail and sailed along under mizzen and 1/3 of the jib and it was still too much. The torrents of salt spray, the boat pitching, the crack and slap and creak.... Monty (who detests noises in the dark) repeatedly wanted to go out on deck to look for land and, after taking him out to (maybe) pee (again!) and seeing him getting washed toward the stern by a wave rolling along the deck, I dried him off and locked him in his crate overnight. With him out of the way, I could sail better and decided to heave-to. This reduced noise and chaos by about 2/3, a huge relief.... although occasional waves loomed up in the dark before tossing our 30,000 lbs around like a cork, moving about the boat was hazardous, and much in the cockpit was wet and salty before things calmed at the blessed sunrise.

The remainder of the journey felt nice and peaceful by comparison and, by Saturday PM, I sailed SLOWLY against the current into St Augustine harbor entrance, waited for the Bridge of Lions to open at 4:30 (they will only interrupt the busy street traffic at half-hr intervals), and sailed past mounds of oysters

to raft up with my friends Skip and Jane. Cynthia arrived the next day, Skip generously drove me to the airport to get her, and we spent the night rafted up to their boat.

Now I'm ten miles south of there, relaxing on the ICW with Cynthia, Monty, and Lucy.

Cynthia is cooking and talking about fishing, I'm planning to rip into engine repairs (alternator) once she is out of the galley, and the dogs are enjoying being aboard with their special humans. Monty especially is enjoying the leather-ette handbag I found on the beach in Charleston and uses it as a nest or seat...

Cynthia is STILL waiting to find out if her work will fall through or if she will return on Saturday as planned. I will head south asap, once I've made a few repairs and have received my new autopilot.... and maybe ship out the problematic one. Of course, the problematic one is working now...

I can't wait to get to Bahamas! I haven't been there since pre-Covid! Maybe by Feb 1? 

PS: Jan 16: Cynthia caught four very tasty bluefish on her visit and she and Lucy are now back in MI. Monty and I did a bunch of errands and dropped her off at the airport in a rented car, then enjoyed a party with Skip and his friends and family. Here is a bowl of local shrimp they cooked up:

Monty shows his anger at me by growling and showing his teeth: he seems upset that Cynthia and Lucy are gone and has gone back to sleeping in the cockpit away from me.

And I'm on a mooring in the busy harbor right out in front of St Augustine, watching the busy tourist scene and making repairs. I'm hoping to finish enjoying coffee in the morning sunshine before Monty gets too impatient to get to shore....

Next stop is either Ft Pierce or Bahamas, depending on weather window...

In a fog

Charleston Harbor. Monty and I arrived here a few days ago: tired, autopilot on the fritz, winds turning against us: time to relax, regroup, repair, and review options while awaiting favorable winds. Our final sunrise at sea was a knockout, something really special.

Yes, all three of those are the same sunrise!

I dropped anchor near Fort Sumpter, launched the dinghy, and rowed an ecstatic dog to shore to a vacant beach. Then we returned to the boat and slept and slept...

Every day we have awakened to heavy fog and have had to warn off boats a few times Sunday and Monday. People seem to just make their way slowly through the fog, but I can at least hear their engines as they approach.... and there are not many now that New Years weekend is done. 

I like the contrasts here: I look in one direction and see Charleston a couple miles away, look the other and see miles of salt marsh with low cedar trees on the higher bits.

I walk the beach and find deer tracks,

baby horseshoe crabs,

foraging shore birds, egrets, and a multitude of shells. As we row in or out (a quarter mile each way!), dolphins visit us in mild curiosity: last night I heard one coughing nearby...something I've never heard before and probably not a good sign for that individual. 

I love the windrows of shells on the beach: they tell such stories. I found shells of striated mussels, razor clams, jackknife clams, quahogs, jingle shells, and numerous cockles;

but by far the majority of shells here are oysters and some tiny clams I don't recognize: perhaps coquina?...

but those are supposed to be far more colorful. Hmm..

Speaking of oysters, a boat motored up and the folks offered me some oysters. I've been working on opening them since, typically sneaking a knife in when they open up to feed in the bucket of water. The really cool thing, however, is that I've found pea crabs in about half of them so far. In Stalking the Blue-eyed Scallop, Gibbons talks about these crabs, but I've never seen them, as far as I recall. Living their whole lives in the protection of an oyster shell, possibly eating bits off the oyster, these crabs need no hard shell, so are always soft. I fried them up like soft-shell crabs and they start out tasting like oysters, but after a few seconds the crab flavor comes through. Tasty! (Let's see if I can get a pic later today....nope, the final ones were crab free.)

Thunderstorms arrive around sunset today and winds will preclude a second trip to shore for Monty: sorry pup! I may, however, take him to shore tomorrow AM before departing on the outgoing tide. Since the autopilot is kaput, I plan to steer by balancing the sails, steering by hand, and by heaving-to as needed. This SHOULD work.... Also, my red navigation light is kaput (I use another light to light up the boat from that side for now), alternator has died, fuel injection pump is leaking, and the fog has left the interior of the boat very damp. Ah, the joy of boat life! 

Actually, I have parts being shipped to a friend in FL and am really looking forward to repairing things. I find a great satisfaction to getting things back in working order.

Monty and I should be in St Augustine by nightfall Saturday. Wish us luck!