Progress!?

Last night the marina got pounded in heavy rain, maybe a little hail, and we sat through one tornado warning. Not sure what one is supposed to do with a tornado warning while on a boat. We huddled in the forward berth figuring that was about the best we could do. Whatever it was that spooked the weather watchers apparently passed to our south. The shore power flicked off for a few brief moments but that was it.

It took a good part of the day but the house battery bank along with the main current limiter and its power cable to the batteries have been replaced. As a result, all of our DC power circuits are working like they should without the lights going dim. It was reported that one of the old batteries was much, much lighter than the rest. All the magic electrical juice had disappeared. Thus the reason for our dimming lights and slow running pumps.

I say “reported” as I stayed out of the way of the young buck doing the repair. Which felt kind of weird. Wiring up a house bank of four six volt batteries into a twelve volt bank falls into the category of “electrical work 101”. But a pacemaker and 68 year old bones, joints, and back lifting those batteries in and out of the hole? They say discretion is the better part of valor. I'm not entirely sure I know what that means but it sounds like a good reason to let someone else handle the physical work. At least I was right about what was wrong.

Still, I am not entirely useless. Tomorrow will be the hunt for the last of the items currently on “The List.” Those being fuel leaks in the gen-set and starboard engine. Could be easy. Could be not so easy. They both appear to be leaks on the high pressure side of the fuel injection system so It will certainly be loud and hot trying to track them down. But as to the rest? Just have to see.

So when will “progress” be measured in miles under the keel rather than items off of the list? Not sure. It doesn't look like there is a weather window for going up the coast for a few days yet. But there is a big “Loopers Gathering” here this weekend. We may just hang around for the party. 

I don't think the mechanic will need to go to the gym after work today.

Out with the old...

...and in with the new.

The burn mark on the plastic cover was there way before we bought the boat.

The corrosion on the current limiter was not.

I loves me some Kady Krogen

Too close for comfort - TWICE!

We will be here for a little while as our electrical system gets brought back up fully functional. It looks like a new set of house batteries and a preventative replacement of the current limiter will have us up and running again. Like the starter battery, the house bank appears to be holding a charge right up until you put a load on it. Then the voltage drops like an anchor and everything goes dim. So it seems likely that leaving the boat in a yard that prohibited boats on the hard from being hooked up to power was a very expensive, and wrong, choice. It isn't a mistake I plan on repeating. In any case, it isn't likely the work will be finished today but we are making progress.

During the trouble shooting, I learned something new about the system. Two of the three volt meters we have on the boat were reading a full, no load charge of 14v, which agreed with the volt meter the mechanic was using to read the batteries directly. The third, which looks like the original analog meter in the electrical control panel, was reading 9v. At first I thought it was an ancient gauge that should probably be changed. But the mechanic spotted an open circuit breaker that I had missed yesterday when poking around myself. As soon a he closed it the 9v reading jumped right up to match the others. That seemed promising but, clearly, that volt meter is reading something other than the house bank voltage that both the solar controller and the inverter / charger controller are reading. But if I look at that meter and see it reading low, I'l know that breaker is open for some reason.

In the midst of this morning's goings on the marina folks asked if they could move our boat back closer to the boat behind us, making for a space big enough off our bow for another boat. The weather forecast suggests they are going to need all the room they can get for boats looking for a place to hide starting this afternoon. So, sure, no problem.

A little while later we saw another boat heading down the channel our way, the current running strong behind him. On the dock were marina personal ready to help him tie too. I'm not sure exactly what when wrong or who wasn't listening to who. But somehow the inbound boat got skewed stern close to the dock with the bow out in the current, a current that had him heading in our direction at a speed that all but ensured we were about to take a solid hit. The kind that causes major damage and ends trips. I called to Deb to hold on as she had moved out on the foredeck. She was calling the same thing to me.

Somehow, at the very last second, one of the guys on the dock got a hand on the starboard side stern line of the inbound crash boat and lashed it around a cleat with some magic flick of the wrist without even bending over. (I gotta learn how to do that some day!) The pressure on the line would surely have dragged our hero into the water. In fact I'm impressed that the cleat held. But it did. (Have I mentioned that this is a first class marina?) The line caught, stretched, and recoiled. The wayward boat's bow swung into the dock, so close to ours that our anchors banged together. But nothing got tangled up and no damage was done. Inches...we are talking inches, and the bow pulpit would have been ripped out of the foredeck, ending this trip right here.

But—no harm, no foul. I have certainly botched my share of approaches to a dock. As it turns out, the Captain on the wayward boat, who stopped by to apologize for the scare, doesn't have much experience with his new-to-him-trawler or with the kind of currents common to these parts.

So there I was, standing in the galley to pour a splash of rum. I looked up to see a sailboat gliding down the canal riding the ebb tide current. As I watched he tried to turn to starboard to turn his boat around, getting him broadside to the current. Deb and I jumped off our boat to see what we could do to help but he swept past our boat headed for the bridge less than 100 feet away. He got the boat moving forward and was then aimed to skewer the boat behind us, whose crew was sitting in their aft porch unaware they were about to be in an accident. At the last possible moment his tiny outboard managed to swing his bow up into the current, which had him aimed at First Light's hull. He came around just enough to brush by without actually leaving any marks but the current nearly had him stopped. By then the people on the boat in front of us had joined in the group of people trying to get this guy on the dock without damage. He started to aim is bow at the dock but Deb managed to talk him into keeping his bow into the current. Had he turned, he would have certainly crashed into the bow of the boat in front of us. He finally got abeam of the empty spot on the dock and tossed me a bow line. With that we got him forward and tied too. 

I'm glad this day is over and I hope nobody else tries to get in here tonight. I'm not sure I would handle another close call with any kind of aplomb.

No video because we were too busy fending off, but here's a pretty

photo for your enjoyment. I loves me some Maincat 47P!!

Here we don't go...again

Last night before going to the berth, I was working on a writing project with our newly installed salon LED lights aglow. We had done all the pre-departure prep work we could. Come morning all that was left to do was close the hatches, power up the helm station, toss the lines, and go. We were feeling pretty good. But then Deb pushed the button to flush the head. The electric macerator pump groaned but didn't flush, accompanied by all the lights in the boat going out. They came right back on but still, something was clearly amiss.

Our first thought was that we had replaced the seals and impeller in a head pump whose motor was going bad. But while mulling over the fact that our morning's departure wasn't very likely (since an operative head is kind of important) the boat's main water pump came on and the lights went dim again. Then the fridge tried to power up with the same result. There was no choice but to power down the DC panel and, this morning, open another work order.

Once upon a time, I was a pretty good electrical tech. But a pacemaker and stray electricity are not particularly compatible. Also, a reasonable guess is that the house battery bank has gone the way of the engine start battery. Hefting those things out of the hole is another task I probably shouldn't attempt if that is, indeed, the case. No matter what the actual cause, it will, as usual, take some time to gather whatever parts are necessary to the repair. It may also be a day or so before a tech will be available. Weekends, when all the pleasure boaters are out performing their stupid boater tricks, the techs are around to help clean up the carnage. They get Mondays off. So we are going to miss yet another perfect weather window.

While poking around looking for some obvious reason the DC system croaked, Deb noticed that the ship's water system strainer needed cleaned. As usual, cleaning it meant leaking a bunch of water so, when she was done, she went aft to clean up where it tends to pool under the dripless seals near the gen-set. While there, she thought she smelled fuel and asked me to check. Sure enough, the pan in the get-set was, once again, filled with soaked fuel diapers. This time, rather than a low pressure leak at the fuel pump inlet, there appeared to be a leak at a plastic plug at the top of the fuel filter housing. I got about a half turn out of that plug and, as soon as the electrical system is squared away, we will run the generator to make sure fuel isn't leaking from somewhere else.

I've lost track of the list of items that have kept us on this dock. On the one hand, it is getting to be a bit of a challenge to just keep rolling with this seemingly endless string of punches. On the other, what choice is there? The boat is our second home. It needs to be in St. Louis. The only ways to get it there are by water or truck. After trucking Kintala to the ocean I swore I'd never make that mistake again. It was expensive and the boat was damaged. Damage that nearly sank the boat and took several hard days of work to repair. But, if we get delayed too much more, there may not be enough time to get off the Great Lakes before winter. First Light is the definition of the proverbial “slow boat to China”. We really need to start logging miles under the keel pretty soon. “Pretty soon” as in last week.

Putting the boat up on the hard for yet another winter is something we really can't afford to do again. It is expensive in its own right. Worse, every time we do, there is the additional costs of getting it back into running order again. It may turn out that leaving the boat in a yard for six months that wouldn't allow it to be hooked to shore power is what trashed all of the relatively new batteries. Maybe this current (no pun intended) problem is something entirely different that simply popped up in the last couple of days. Who knows? What we do know is that we will be enjoying the Delaware City Marina for a couple of more days, at best. We may yet end up with the truck option, but that is not a decision to make in the midst of a mechanical maelstrom.

There is another thought as well. Within the last 12 hours, two friends of ours have taken serious blows far worse than our mechanical glitches. One lost a Son to an act of violence last night. The other, a member of the LBGTQ community and a good friend, (who was also instrumental in me surviving a cardiac arrest about a year ago) received a hate mail threat that was serious enough to be passed along to the police. Another good friend is still coming to terms with having lost his wife and being badly injured himself in a boating accident.

All we are dealing with is a broken boat that is going to cost us some money and a trip delay or, at worst, a cancellation. Yeah, hardly something to get too wound up about. Drink some coffee. Toast the sunrise. Get on with the day.

Departure Day!

...Or not.

Today was the day to be on our way. All pre-departure check lists run. A review of how we were getting off the dock with the slight current was made. All lines set, water tanks full, shore power stored away. Upper and lower helms powered up, chart plotters loaded with the route, batteries fully charged, everything stowed, all hatches closed.

The port side engine chuffed to life. The starboard side engine... The starboard side engine... Dead slow turn, no start. Emergency battery switch to “Both”. It almost felt like it was going to start but...no Even if had started, is that good enough? The next few stops are anchor stops. Dock fees north of us are also north of our budget. What if it will not start at anchor? Also, this place has maintenance and we know we can trust them. North of us, no clue. And then there is the weather. All indications are that, if we had made Cape May today we would be sitting either there or in Atlantic City for several days waiting out the weather. The larger picture suggests that leaving here today or leaving here a few days from now will not make any difference as to when we get to the Hudson River.

No, that is not my old bones wedged around that engine

It is my experience that it is rare that everything is working on any live-a-board boat when it leaves the dock. Kintala, First Light, friends' and customers' boats. If everything was reported as working perfectly that usually meant that someone didn't know something. There are a lot of things that can be broken that don't make the boat unsafe, but this boat had an intermittent engine so, it was rather seriously broken. Back in my aviation days I had a reputation for flying just about anything just about anywhere it needed to go to get fixed. But even I never took to the sky in an airplane where half the engines wouldn't start. Though, truth be told, I did launch a couple of times with engines that didn't keep running. Fortunately, except for one time, I always had two when that happened. The one time I only had one I was already over an airport. So that was just a glider landing. Anyway...

Leaving the dock in a seriously broken boat going "out there" is just silly. When we are “out there”, moving or on the hook, we are off the grid. Being off the grid and being seriously broken at the same time? Been there. Done that. Going to do my best never to do that again.

I was, shall we say, a little disappointed, particularly when the boats around us stated dropping lines and heading out. Rue the way life unfolds sometimes, but then? Drink a little coffee. Toast the sunrise. Take some pleasure out of making a good if really (really) annoying choice. Suck it up. Shrug it off. Next?

“Next” was getting a mechanic down in the hole. (Yes, a mechanic on a weekend!) Obviously the first step was to hit the starter button so he could hear what had happened. I did. He didn't. The starboard engine fired up almost instantly. So did the port side. Shut them down. Try again. Same result. Are you kidding me? One thing I know for an absolute certainty is that broken things don't fix themselves. I also know that intermittent problems are the worst. 

My original thought was starter or start relay. I have seen intermittent failures of those more times in my life than I can remember. But two starters and two relays at the exact same time? Don't bet on that. 

Another thought was the start battery, though intermittent batteries are a bit of a stretch. The things either have and hold electric juice, or they don't.  Besides, First Light has an emergency start system that ties starter and house bank together. We tried it and it didn't make any difference.

In the time that had passed between us trying to leave and when the mechanic climbed down in the hole, we had hooked back up to shore power. Is that why it started? But that didn't really add up as the boat had been on shore power for days until this morning meaning the battery should have been just a juiced as it was when the mechanic climbed down in the hole. Still, a test of the start battery suggested that it is near, if not a little past, its service life. It will take a full charge but, the instant you put a load on it, the voltage falls away. Why the battery failed early in the morning after being on the charger all night, but not after couple of hours on the charger after the aborted starts?  Beats me.

Another mechanics (two - on a weekend!) jumped in his car and headed off to get us a battery. The lead tech crawled back into the hole and changed the start relay on the starboard side. They had one in stock and the one on the engine looked to be an original part with a few rusty bits. When the battery was delivered I stayed out of the way while the two mechanics wrestled the old battery out and the new battery in. This beat up old bod of mine isn't up to that kind of task down in that kind of hole. With the new parts installed, both engines started just like they should. After a long look at the weather we decided that Monday is the next (planned) departure day.

I have to admit watching the boats parade out of here this morning was a bit depressing. But two of them who are traveling together came back. One of them hip tied to a Tow Boat US due to an overheating engine. His will not be quite as quick a fix as his parts will not arrive until tomorrow.  So, all in all, a trying day that ended up as good as it could. Tomorrow? Who knows?

Delaware City Marina Review

This was one of the very best stops we've ever made in many many years of cruising. From the first moment, the staff was courteous, knowledgable, professional and welcoming. The canal is narrow and has a strong current, but if you follow their detailed instructions it is very easy. The canal is well protected during any weather or wind state.

The day before arriving, call them on the phone to arrange dockage. They will instruct you to call again once you leave the C&D Canal. At that point they will instruct you to call on the radio as you arrive at Red 6A. They will then instruct you to stay within 40 feet of Green 1 then angle over toward the ferry dock and proceed down the canal. The marina is 4 long face docks to starboard. Be aware of the boat launch to port as you come down the canal, especially on the weekends as it's a very busy boat launch. The fourth dock is for transients with gas/diesel/ and a very strong pump-out at the head of the dock. Once you depart the fuel dock they will guide you to your place on the face dock and tie you up. Then they will turn your boat around using lines so that you are faced back out the channel for your departure. The whole process was quick and completely painless. Zach brought us in, but Charlie and Chris and Tim all handle the docking and are all extremely proficient. They have years of experience at this, so pay attention and all will be well.

As to the facilities: The docks are floating and in excellent condition. Power pedestals are well kept. Water is at the dock with excellent pressure even at the very end of the dock. The restrooms are clean and modern and well supplied. The laundry has two washers and two dryers at $1.50 each (2024). They are well maintained and efficient. The store at the office is well supplied with basic parts and if you need anything else most can be had by the next day. There are some snacks and ice and there is a small convenience mart a short walk away as well as many restaurants all within walking distance. It is a very pet friendly marina.

If you are a history buff, there are many historical markers to study along the canal walkway. You can also ride the ferry over to Fort Delaware where they have a Civil War reenactment. Ferry prices are reasonable at $12 each. You cannot land a private boat on the island where the fort is located.

As to the personnel: Tim Konkus, the owner, was unbelievably knowledgable and supportive throughout our outboard repair. He is the primary presenter for their daily weather briefing and route planning from the marina to Cape May down the Delaware River. The briefing was well written and full of helpful information for this area unfamiliar to us and delivered with a bit of humor. Foster, the harbor host for the area, also contributes frequently at the briefing with a lot of useful information and Zach and Charlie also present the briefing on occasion. Charlie, Zach, and Chris were very proficient at handling the docking and turning of the boats and very courteous.

As to the maintenance facility: Pricing was fair and the work was quality. The marina has a travel lift that can haul and launch even larger boats. There is a small storage yard. John is a Yamaha factory trained technician and was able to repair our Yamaha F9.9 outboard. While I don't know all the technicians that work here in the shop, the two I dealt with—John and James—were two of the most polite young men I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with in the marine industry. Having worked in customer service for over 30 years I can always tell the caliber of a manager by the quality of the people who work for him and by the camaraderie among the employees. Tim is clearly an excellent manager because this staff works well together and gets the job done.

I can't say enough good about this place. While we would have preferred not to be sitting here for ten days waiting on parts, it was a great place to be—entertaining, excellent services, great people, and a safe place for the boat. Highly recommend this as a stop.

Tim Konkus doing the weather briefing

Success!

We have success! The Dink has motivation. I walked up to the marina office this morning to discuss some kind of alternative to getting us back underway. One we had in mind was to rent a car, drive to the nearest Suzuki dealer, buy a new engine for about the same amount of money has we have already spent sitting here trying to get the Yamaha fixed, and be on our way. We would leave the Yamaha for them to do with as they pleased.

Much to my surprise I walked into the shop and there was the Yamaha puttering contently in the work stand. Not too long after that is was mounted back on the Dink and puttering contently once again. Some thought was given to making a hurried departure and being on our way to Cape May. When I say “some” I mean about 10 seconds worth. Pretty much every time we have made a hurried departure the day turned sour. There was weather that looked like it might catch us out in the middle of the bay and still and hour or more from our destination. More reason to spend another day or two here. But, knowing that we can leave rather than wondering when we will be able to leave makes all the difference. Besides, there was still a smelly leak in the head that would have been more than a little irritating to most people, let alone a couple of perfectionists. (Next to outboard motors marine heads have to be considered one of the most relentlessly troublesome and irritating systems on a boat.)

So, with nothing else much to do, Deb started the disassembly process. I offered to help but, truth to tell, the head on First Light is single occupancy only regardless of the purpose for the visit. Envision rebuilding anything mechanical and pretty gross while in a smelly phone booth with the door shut, and you will have a good idea of what kind of day she had. I kept asking if she needed anything and was around to help out any way I could. Which was mostly by reviewing the YouTube vid on the process and handing her parts and tools. By days end the head was working so much better, wasn't leaking any more, and the ambiance in First Light was much improved.

So now we are just waiting on the weather. One of the really helpful things about being at the Delaware City Marina is the daily “Captain's Meeting.” Each day at 1600 local they pull up the weather forecasts while offering the best information available, that of local knowledge. They know all the shallow spots, where and how the commercial traffic will be moving, the best bail out options in the bay, what the currents and tides do, and how those interact with prevailing winds to determine what kind of day it will be for those traveling by Looper style boats. Today's discussion suggested that tomorrow will be an okay day to go. But Deb and I are both pilots who spent nearly 6 years living on Kintala. We listen to what others have to offer but we make all own weather decisions. Our look at the weather suggested that tomorrow might be an okay day to go. At this moment there is a cold front lurking less than 100 miles to our west inbound. Two of the weather apps we use are suggesting winds in the 10 to 15 knot range for much of tomorrow. Ten to fifteen makes a sailboater smile. So far our experience suggest that 10 to 15 knots in 42 foot trawler, particularly with miles and miles of fetch, will make a trawler crew wish they were somewhere else. Have the wind and currents going nose to nose rather than moving side by side and the trawler crew will definitely wish they were somewhere else. So we are likely to be here another day or so. Still...

Success!

Patience

So the Yamaha that we hoped to have hanging on the back of the Dink today is still dead. It will be dead for some unknown amount of time yet. It looks like even a day's delay will lead to yet a longer delay as tomorrow's weather window is a one day only offer. The next opportunity to head down the bay without getting beat up by waves and wind? Maybe Thursday. Maybe Friday. Maybe not.

How did we get here? The first new part we ordered was the wrong part. The second new part that we ordered was delivered over a holiday weekend and wasn't installed until this morning. The engine ran for two minutes, died, and would not restart. The current theory is that a control module failure of some kind fried the first charge coil when we were in Chesapeake City. Now it has done in the new replacement charge coil as well. So a new control module and another new charge coil is on order. The new control module is due in tomorrow. A new charge coil? That remains a mystery. In the meantime, the fancy motor mount bracket on the dink remains empty.

One of the many things I didn't know about living on a boat is that it will leave one with just two options. Option first is to completely lose one's mind. Option second is to become a paragon of patience, acceptance, and calmness. I am caught somewhere in between the two. I haven't quite lost my mind. But it may have been temporarily misplaced. I am certainly not any kind of paragon of patience. But I don't have much choice in the matter. The fact is the world will unfold as it will with zero regard as to how I want, or intend, for it to unfold. All I can do is try to make the best decisions based on what I know at this very moment. That the next moment may render those decisions null and void is simply how the world works. It is how the world works for everyone.

So we will sit here for a while yet, holding with the idea that getting this motor fixed, whatever it takes and however long it takes, is the best decision. Had we known the future we could have spent the dock fees we have spent here at docks at the the end of each of the legs coming up. Had we done that we would likely be somewhere in the Hudson River right now, moving away from the coast and done with big water until we get to the Great Lakes. But that isn't what happened. So I guess, so long as we are sitting here watching our decisions fade into a past that didn't happen, I might as well hunt around and see if I can find what little of my mind remains.

We spend a lot of time doing this...

And cleaning things like the very very dirty bug/sun screens

And exploring the Delaware Fort State Park where we found this diving bell. I kid you not, someone had to be lowered under the water in this thing to do repairs on the locks. The only air they had was what was in the bell. Yikes.

And we watch the constant parade of boats that go by

Mostly I sit in the cockpit enjoying the breeze blowing down the side deck while I read and do my Duolingo Spanish lessons.

A view from the flybridge 

Yamaha Engine Blues

We have been sitting for several days trying to get our Yamaha 9.9 hp outboard repaired. It should have been a simple issue to resolve. Just replace a coil in the ignition system. The problem is getting the coil. The Yamaha dealership network apparently doesn't have a single one of them in inventory anywhere. The Factory will be glad to get one on its way, shipping time is anywhere from five to ten days, maybe more, depending on if they have to manufacture one before sending it to us. I never made friends with the Merc on Kintala's dink. After what looked like a budding relationship with Yamaha, our relationship appeared to hit a bit of a bump. I have little use for manufacturers who have such a skinny parts inventory on hand that a simple failure takes days to resolve. So who do I try next? Honda? Suzuki? We have had good relationships with motorcycles built by each. I wonder if their outboards are as good?

We found an after-market part that got here in two days but, as was not a total surprise, the part we ordered didn't actually fit. Then, as it turned out, that was not actually an after-market parts issue. The issue was that we were given the wrong part number to order. Having spent a good bit of my professional life trying to make sense of manufacturer's parts manuals, I can't find too much fault with that kind of mistake. And there is actually an upside. We could have ordered the number we were given from the factory (at five times the cost), waited five or more days, and then found out we had ordered the wrong part. 

This way we figured it out in two days. With the right part number in hand, Deb found another aftermarket one in stock. Word is it will be here Sunday. Okay. Unfortunately, it is a holiday weekend. The shop will not be working on the motor until Tuesday. That makes Wednesday the earliest we can leave. But at least we have a tentative date for being on our way. Which is better than not having a clue. In the meantime, we're enjoying being in a no-wake, protected channel over what promises to be a long holiday weekend of drunken boater antics. And for the moment, it doesn't get any better than that.

This is what a morning on the dock waiting looks like.

The facility here is really pretty. The grounds are landscaped nicely, there are a couple of parks along the waterway, and a brick path that walks the whole length of the channel.

There have been a pretty impressive collection of boats on this dock. 

An ounce of prevention...

There's a really good reason why clichés become clichés. There's always a huge amount of truth that went into the making of them. We've been trying to chase down a fuel leak in the starboard engine for a while now. It's enough to dampen an engine diaper in a long day's travel—not enough to be a huge problem, but enough to keep an eye on. So I went down into the engine room yesterday morning to change the diaper to a fresh one, and since I was only going to be down there a short minute I didn't bother putting on socks and shoes. Good thing, because when I stepped on the rubber mat that we have down the center aisle of the engine room, my foot was wet. Not hugely wet, but damp enough that it put a footprint on the dry part of the mat when I stepped forward to holler to Tim, and something I never would have noticed with shoes on. While he was working his way down, I lifted up the mat looking for the source. After a quick touch to my tongue from my finger (yes, ewwww...) I knew it was coolant not seawater. A few minutes later we discovered that a drain plug in one of the coolant pipes had shaken loose and was leaking coolant on the side of the engine and down onto the mat.

While we were sitting there, we went ahead and checked the fuel injection line nuts again, two of which seemed determined to shake loose. Not very loose mind you, 1/16 of a turn kind of loose, but this is the high pressure side of the fuel pump so it doesn't take much to lose some fuel in a place like that. The next leg will tell if we still have a problem. The Cummins 4BT3.9 engines are really reliable engines but they are notorious for shaking at lower speeds and we had to run just a bit over idle for quite a while on the way here because the following current was so strong it would have put us at the marina well before it had opened. Shaking does not encourage things to stay put.

While we were sitting there I also noticed that one of the clamps on the strainer to engine raw water intake was missing on the starboard engine and the backup clamp was pretty rusty. This led to all the clamps being checked, and a couple others being changed, something we had done not all that long ago. How we missed that missing clamp is beyond me, but it's a sinking item so it was a bit scary.

My point in telling this story is that you simply can't be too attentive when it comes to things like engine maintenance. I will often just go down there and sit for a bit looking around, not in a hurry, to see what seems out of place. In the case of boat engines, an ounce of prevention isn't worth a pound of cure, it's worth keeping many gallons of water out of the boat. And that's worth a few minutes of my time.

Learning the Loops

We rolled out of the berth just as the sun was rising. Not that we could see the sun. A dense fog had settled in, reducing visibility to three or four hundred feet. Waiting for the fog to lift was not an option as our departure time wasn't very flexible. Catching the currents going the right way in the destination marina was of prime importance and that window closed at 0930. The good news? I got me some RADAR complete with ASI and good charts, so the fog wasn't that much of a concern. Even with the current behind us we never did much more than then ten knots. The fog wasn't dense enough to make avoiding something we were approaching a problem. Anything moving in our direction resulting in a much higher closing speed would show up on the radar more than a mile away, giving us plenty of time to make for a safe pass. Running in the fog was actually kind of fun.

A tug pushing a large raft of barges through the canal was the only commercial traffic we saw in the C&D. Four sailboats took up in trail behind First Light and we passed one more along the way. The current behind us in the canal became the current on our bow as we turned north into the Delaware River. Shortly after joining the river was a turn to the SSW into the Branch Channel, home of the Delaware City Marina. That turn put a three knot current directly on our starboard side. There was a lot of online chatter about being careful when entering the Branch Channel because of that cross current. After making the turn the current moved to our bow, making docking much easier and the reason for our set departure time.

At the suggestion of Zack, who was working the docks and talking us in on the radio, we hugged the green marker at the inlet of the channel off the port side, then hugged the ferry boat on the starboard side, then idled up to the dock where he caught our line, tying us up to the fuel dock and pumpout station. Filled up and emptied out, we motored slowly down the face dock bow into the current. Zack then used the current to turn First Light around, putting us port side to the face dock and facing the exit for when we are ready to leave. It was all very low-key and pretty easy. Listening to and taking the advice of an expert is the way to go in a new situation.

The Delaware City Marina quickly climbed to the top of the list of our favorite places to dock. It is all face dock. According to Navionics the distance from our starboard side to the opposite bank is less than one hundred feet. I don't think we have been on a dock better protected than this one. Everyone working at the Marina has been friendly and professional. Another plus is the full-time mechanics on staff. We filled out a work order to have the gremlins in the Yamaha exterminated. Just a few hours later, one of the techs was at our boat pulling the cover off the outboard.

His original thought was the same as mine, some kind of fuel system problem. But after pulling the starter cord a few times I think he felt something I didn't have the experience to recognize. He plugged a spark checker in between the spark plug and its lead. Pulling on the handle produced no spark at all. No spark, no go. A few minutes later he and another tech pulled the motor off the Dink and hauled it to the shop. A little while after that we were told that a coil in the ignition system was toast. It looks like we will be here for a few days waiting for the part. It will be a more expensive stay than we had planned with several days on the dock, a maintenance bill, fuel, and pump-out. But we should leave here in good shape for the possibly challenging segments ahead. 

Yamaha Coil Lighting 68T-85533-10-00 New OEM

In the meantime, we will just enjoy this short stopover, putter around the boat some, and meet some more Loopers. So far we are finding the “Looper's community” to be as helpful and friendly as the Sailing Cruising community, though I don't know that we will make as many long time friends as we did with the Sailing Cruising community. It seems likely that the different cruising speeds of the boats will make it difficult to be in any one group for very long. At six knots First Light would seem to rank near the bottom of looper boat speeds. Then again, it also sounds like she is near the top of the list when it comes to miles per gallon. That's a trade off I can take.

We took a little tour of Chesapeake City before we left. I thought my granddaughters would get a kick out of seeing these houses that look so much like doll houses.

My grandsons would go nuts in this store. It's full of old train sets, old toy cars, antique toys of all kinds and since we played with most of them while growing up I'm guessing that means that we're antiques also.

There was an adorable little wedding chapel about a quarter the size of most of the Looper boats we've seen so far.

And a very very big chair that was just like the one I took a picture of my grandson in last summer when he was traveling with us from NC.

This one is for you Roo - I knew you'd never believe it unless I had photographic proof.

A favoring current is so amazingly sweet!

The Heroes

Any of you who have followed the blog for awhile were made aware of our good friend Mike's terrible tragedy in which he lost his wife and was badly injured. He was transported via Life Flight away from their catamaran in Staniel Cay, Bahamas, and taken to the hospital in Nassau. Later, he was transported via land medical transport back to his home in Colorado. This left one huge problem, how to get the boat back to the US to her home base.

I can't even begin to tell you how many people stepped up to the plate to offer help. Some folks guarded the boat in the anchorage so that it wouldn't get vandalized. Some took care of Mike's dog. Many many people donated to the GoFundMe effort. And many others offered their services free of charge to return the boat to NC.

In the end, it was Renee and her husband Chris of Oceanaire Yacht Delivery who brought the boat back to its home berth where it arrived yesterday. For Mike, this is a huge relief and some closure. For Renee and Chris it was a gift, a giving back, a paying forward, things that the cruising community are so wonderfully good at. And, in the end, I hope it deposits a huge ton of points in their Black Box.

So if you find yourself in need of a yacht delivery, please consider supporting these folks with your business.

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Oceanaire Yacht Delivery

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