After two weeks in the boatyard, much of it in 40 degrees and rain, cloudy and otherwise yucky weather, we are all very happy to be back on (and in) the water heading for warmer days.
Most of our want-to-get-done list was completed including replacing three broken through hull valves, a broken port in the hull, reapplying bottom paint, and fixing the refrigeration one more time and we are very pleased!
I have learned a lot about refrigeration! It had been acting up by defrosting itself (not supposed to do that but handy) and I knew something was wrong. In the end I figured that a little moisture had entered into the system during the emergency repairs last summer and was freezing at the orifice in the evaporator. To fix this is fairly simple. Just use a vacuum pump to suck everything out and recharge.
The problem was the quickest anyone could come do it was two weeks! So I ordered the pump to do it myself. Gotta love Amazon! Unfortunately Fedex missed their delivery so we had to hang around and wait until Tuesday. In the end, I learned how to replace the filter/dryer, vacuum, and recharge. Amazingly, it works and we are very pleased!
I was still checking it as we dropped the lines and headed out Tuesday around 4 pm. We figured a couple of hours with the swift outgoing tide would get a jump start on the trip out the river.
After we had settled in, and Yume seemed to be running well, I set the autopilot and went below to check the refrigerator. As I headed back to the cockpit, I could hear the alarm. Crap!
The water temperature had spiked during the three minutes I was below!
I shut down the motor and dove below to find the cause. It was easy to find as the salt water pump pulley was lying in the bilge…
Luckily the pulley, nut and shaft key were all right there and easily reassembled. Weird why it came off but who knows. We were back running in less that ten minutes.
However, somehow the engine which had not been leaking any oil now seemed to be pouring out of the starboard top of the oil pan.
That was enough. I steered over to the side of the river, dropped the anchor and got a rum.
During the night it occurred to me that I probably had too much oil in the engine, and that the overheating had allowed things to loosen up causing the leaks. I was up and working on it at 4 am as I wanted to catch the tide.
It took until 545 to pull, caulk and replace two bolts. They were very hard to get to but turned out to make a big difference. Still have the hardest one to do.
We were underway by 6am in the dark, but you could tell it was going to be a beautiful day! As Yume motored on a glass still river and we approached the I295 bridge around Jacksonville Fl – I realized what is was that made all the work we do worth every minute.
After 12 hours yesterday we made it to St Augustine, filed the fuel tanks, and dropped an anchor for the night. After a run on the beach for Goose and the crew early this morning, we are southbound again with plans to be in Ponce inlet by this afternoon.
I shot this video of St Augustine while waiting for the bridge. The audio is bad due to the engine. Sorry!
Goose and Shelly are up to something again!
