I don't even know where to start. I guess at the beginning. Thursday,
before I left I tried to get the laptop to connect to Mindspring
(now earthlink). Didn't work, so I was on the phone for an hour
with tech support and finally I was able to connect. We took off
after work on Friday and went down to the boat. Saturday we loaded
it up with enough beer for a 10 days, wine for a week food for
a week and rum for ???. Sunday: finished up the last minute maintenance
tasks and started the engine in preparation for take off. No go.
It died. To make a long story short, I had replumbed the fuel
lines, sealing some leaky fittings in the fuel polishing system.
When I reassembled it I reversed the supply and return lines.
The electric fuel pump was working against the engine pump. This
engine does not have a lift pump, only the injector pump, but
it is supposed to have enough stuff to move fuel anyway. I was
using the electric pump to help it along and bleed the air from
the system.
I tried to connect to Earthlink from St Simon's Island on Saturday,
but it didn't work. I didn't have access to a phone so I couldn't
call to get it fixed.Once I found out it was reversed and fixed
it, the engine ran fine. Off we went and anchored in a pleasant
little creek north of Darien somewhere.
Monday:
We left about 0830 and about 1100 we were south of Savannah when
I discovered that 1) I had a broken clamp on the hose connected
to the thermostat housing and 2) I had a fuel leak. Sue shut the
engine down and I replaced the clamp and tightened the leaky fuel
fitting. When we started the engine up again I noticed the oil
pressure was low. I was concerned, of course, so we went into
the DeLegal marina. I contacted a mechanic but he was an outboard
mechanic and not much help. I checked the oil and found that there
was way too much oil in the engine. I figured that in my attempting
to reverse the flow of diesel earlier I forced some into the oilpan
so I had the mechanic change the oil since I had no way of getting
oil or a filter. Big mistake. it cost me over $200. I could have
rented a car and come out cheaper. I had to show him how to do
it and furnish the pump and drain pan since all he brought was
bucket and a Crescent wrench.
By the time he finished on Tuesday it was raining cats and dogs
so we decided to stay one more night.
Wednesday:
It was a beautiful morning and we left about an hour before low
tide since there is supposedly 4.5 feet of water at low tide,
and we draw 4.5. There wasn't 4.5 feet anywhere near where we
were in the channel. So we sat for about two nd a half hours with
the Genoa out waiting to be blown out of the channel when the
tide came back in.
We made it to the New River for the night. Great spot. No bugs,
but then bugs don't much care for 10-15 knot winds. Cool night
for sleeping. We decided to make a quick get away and left about
0700.
Thursday. We made it to Beaufort, SC. We weren't going to stop
here, but the oil pressure decided to start acting funny again,
so I had Sue shut down the engine again and I checked the oil
level again. Yep, you guessed it. Lots more than it had been after
we changed it. Way over full. I called the Downtown Marina and
they said they had a mechanic on site. I arranged for a slip and
after a poor attempt at a starboard mooring (this thing backs
to port so seriously that you can't get into a starboard mooring
unless you don't ever use reverse) we found a slip that would
accommodate us. The mechanic took a look at the problem and informed
us a rebuilt injector pump would set us back $700 for the pump
alone and I'd better start pumping the cash machines 'cause he
only took green. So that's where we are. Beautiful downtown Beaufort,
SC., having lots of fun (sigh).
Earthlink problems. After multiple calls to tech support who transferred me to customer server who transferred me back to tech support who said (at least 3 times) the problem had been corrected, it finally works, as you can tell.
My LDG tuner has died. It won't even load a resonant antenna. I'm relagated to using a Hy Gain Hustler antenna mounted on the aft rail.
The new pump came in Friday. Gene (our mechanic) put it on and, guess what? It doesn't work. Now he's taken it off and is going to carry them both to Savannah tomorrow to see if he can get us a working pump. I've drained some of the oil/diesel mix out. I found a rubber stopper today at Lowe's that I'll drill and put a tube in so we I maybe can drain the oil directly from the pan. We rented a car Saturday morning and took a drive to Savannah to pick up things. The oldest winch handle handle rusted so I bought a new one. I picked up a couple of new fenders. One of ours has started to break down and leaves the biggest mess on the side of the boat. It is now in the trash. I exepect that we mat be out of here on Wednesday at the earliest. That is only if all goes as planned. It hasn't so far. Sue attemped to attend church services today, but when she got there she found the services were an hour earlier.
The 40 meter resonator apparently has water in it. I'm getting a 3.5:1 swr. I'm not getting into the net very well. HF communications seems to be bad, getting worse.
I gotta get this uploaded. More later.