Gulf Crossing Day 6 – Wednesday, Nov 12th

Position @ 08:00: 24 deg 26.06 min North, 85 deg 30.88 min West

The day we proved our mettle.

The waves finally aligned with the east wind. for the previous day or so, the waves had been out of the northeast, so our east-southeast course allowed us to take the waves on the beam. On day 6, the wind again got up to about 20, and the seas were on the nose. And of course, we were beating. Waves were occasionally broke over the bow of the boat. The solar vent on the forward head compartment allowed sea water down below. Everything was wet. I got nauseous. We abandoned the hot meals. We ate granola bars and drank water.

Then, around 22:00 (that’s 10:00 PM for you non-military time people) the motor dropped to idle speed, then resumed, then dropped to idle. I checked the vacuum pressure guage behind the primary fuel filter – 10 psi. In the red. Not good. After a hurried consulatation, we killed the motor and Dana and I began changing both fuel filters. In the dark. On a pitching, rolling boat. All while feeling slightly queasy.

I channeled my inner diesel mechanic. Dana found the right tools and ekpt the area clean. Walter got a jerry jug of diesel off the rail so we could fill the primary filter prior to installation. We filled the secondary filter with fuel using the manual lever on the lift pump. I didn’t now it at the time, but Nigel Clader’s book recommends this procedure so that the secondary filter is not filled with unfiltered diesel.

We muddled through the filter changes (I’ve never done it before. First time.) Yea, I know. Probably should have practiced this one time on the dock. Bleed the motor. Try for start. Cough, sputter, die. Bleed the motor again. Cough sputter die. Remember the bleed pump on the top of the Racor (thanks Pete.) Bleed the secondary again. Try for start. Sputter, sputter, run for 5 seconds, sputter die.

After the third attempt at a resart, I shut off all the electrics except the nav lights. It was beginning to look like we would have to sail the rest of the way to Key West with no way to recharge our batteries. Beverly was driving. I turned towards her, “Beverly, do you have faith in us?” “Yep.” She replied. “You’ll get it.” Back down to the motor. After soem consultation with Walter, we decided that we needed to change the filters again. The vacuum pressure guage was still showing 10 psi. Too high. Maybe something was clogging the fuel line? I tried the bleed procedure one more time before going for the spares. Cough, cough, sputter, vroom! We have engine start.

We monitored the vacuum pressure for ten minutes and ran the engine at various rpms. Success! We’d had our first major test of the crossing, and we passed. High fives and big grins all around.