25

Twenty-five is the forecast low for tonight. Clearly we didn't get far enough south. At least, with Kintala still stuck at the dock, there is shore power available to run our little electric heater. That should keep the inside of the boat nice and toasty, at least 45 or so. Clearly we didn't get far enough south.

Not for lack of trying, but the Westerbeast's fuel leaks are being persistent little gremlins. With the offending line completely removed this morning one could get a close look at the fitting ends. One could even bring a magnifying glass into play which revealed absolutely nothing that would explain the size of the leak. So it was reinstalled with torque and alignment as perfect as my nearly 50 years of practice allowed. (I started young.) And with the motor running at idle the fuel still flowed at better than a drop per second into the bilge. This is not a minor weeping of wet, the source should be clearly obvious. The next step, come tomorrow morning, is to start taking parts off the newly overhauled pump until the "obvious" is found.

That probably should have been done this afternoon. Instead Deb and I spent several hours drinking tea aboard Princes Mia. Her heavily insulated steel hull was unmoved by the 20+ knots of cold north wind and her cabin was kept warm by the wood burning stove. This is a ship built for high latitude cruising; scurrying south to get out of the cold isn't much of much concern to her captain, Marty. (I did mention her helm station is inside the pilothouse, no?) Indeed, I suspect her black steel hull, tiny ports, and fully enclosed helm would be out of place in the tropics.

In any case Kintala has to be moving south soon, or at least off the pier. Our one month of dock rental runs out come Saturday and we simply can't keep leaking money like we have been leaking fuel. If I haven't slain all the gremlins by then Mary has offered to fire up Princes Mia and tow us out into the anchorage. There is no shore power out there for our little electric heater; so I guess I'd better get the engine fixed before then.