2008 Season Recap

Pre-season maintenance was the usual - nothing out of the ordinary.

This years summer vacation had it's challenges - but it still was a blast. It started as it usually does with a mad rush to load the boat with food, toys, kids and gear. We finally threw the dock lines off on Saturday and headed for Newport for the night. As I always do before a trip, I had checked and topped off fluids (including using a coolant that was red in color).

So the plan was to head to Menemsha on Sunday morning. Before departing, a quick check of the bilge revealed a small amount of red fluid. I figured it was the antifreeze - expanding and spilling out the overflow. Fast forward a couple hours, we're under power, rounding the Brenton reef R2 bouy, setting a course for Buzzards Bay tower, I go down to check things again - and my bilge is FILLED with red fluid. This time I check and it's diesel fuel. I can't determine the source - so shut down and sail back to newport.

Long story short, the leak turned out to be at the joint of the lift pump - a 0.60 crush washer was replaced and the leak was gone.

On the way back from vacation - on the way out of Cuttyhunk, the engine died.... Luckily there was sufficient wind and we had a great sail home. After spending a week trying to diagnose the problem and replacing all fuel filters, I called in the professionals. Turned out that my exhaust elbow was sufficently corroded as to cause excessive back-pressure, which stopped her from running. We replaced the exhaust elbow and hose and she runs perfectly again.