Engine Maintenance is Important

I learned something Memorial Day weekend. We had a three day weekend and went down to worton and then across to the middle river with the intention of going to Schultz’s Crab house only to find that it was very stormy and so everyone spent the night aboard their respective boats.

Monday morning we fired up the engine, motored our to get some room and then raised sail. We sailed until the wind died and then fired up the engine as we were south of Poole Island and quite far from Home. 

After about thirty minutes the engine sputtered and died. A few attempts to start it indicated a probable fuel problem. I am not a diesel mechanic. I know how to change the oil and that’s pretty much it. It was time to learn.  We assumed, being neophytes, and also without a fuel gauge of any kind, that we were out of diesel. The tank is 50 gallons and according to my dead reckoning method of tracking fuel, we should have had 33 gallons. But hey. We all make mistakes. 

We put the 2.5 hp outboard on the dinghy and started pushing. It was about four miles to the nearest fuel dock and they offered no promises that we could get a diesel can to run diesel out to the boat. The approach was a dogleg that would be very hard with the push Boat so we resolved to anchor outside and dinghy in with a couple of random containers and hope the fuel attendant would fill them for us.

It took a significant bribe to a mechanic to borrow his crusty old diesel jerry can, which had leaves in it and no lid. Matt made multiple trips in and out, we tried to filter the diesel as best we could and decant it without getting too much gunk out of it.

We got about 13 gallons into the tank and it still wouldn't start.  I realized that we had run the system completely dry and would need to bleed it.  With no cell signal, I pulled out ye olde paper engine manual and read about the bleed points.  The problem was that the manual was good for the engine itself but I had no understanding of the rest of the system. 

The tank is below the engine, the only pump on the engine is a tiny lift pump to the filter.  I twiddled that pump for about an hour before I got diesel into the filter. I kept opening the racor (which is above the engine and the tank) and putting more diesel into it. 

Eventually, my thumb now red with the signature beta paint, the engine started.  We ran it home on pretty high throttle, and as soon as I reduced throttle to catch the mooring, the engine died.  Exhausted and without any energy to trouble shoot further, we went home.

The next weekend, the engine wouldn't start.  We added more diesel to the tank, scratching our heads in confusion.  We pumped the pump for hours.  It wouldn't start.

Finally a friend brought us an old hand primer from an outboard fuel tank, which we put onto the downstream barb for the racor, and pumped diesel out of a jug and into the system. Three squeezes in the bleed points were squirting diesel. Thank you jesus.  The engine started. 

We didn't really run it much that weekend as we were preparing for the upcoming spring cruise.

The following friday we wanted to set out for Lloyd's creek, but the engine wouldn't start.  We prepared to put the outboard primer back on while matt went in for a little more diesel in our loose jug to prime with, and left to myself, I decided to pull all the filters and lo and behold the racor filter was black and clogged . . . I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe that they last a lot longer than they do, but it was the original filter.  I pulled the engine filter too, replaced both, primed the system and voila! The engine is happy again . . .

So moral of the story -- ENGINE MAINTENANCE IS IMPORTANT. 

June 2018 Cruise

Night one, June 6th, was cold enough we lit both of our lanterns for warmth.  We left late in the day and made it only as far as Lloyd’s Creek on the Sassafras. 
Day two, June 7, we made it under the annapolis bridge in light wind and dropped anchor right inside Whitehall Bay. Something we had not attempted before. It was as a lot of fetch and by the time we went to sleep we were bouncing quite a bit, the beaches were not nearly as tempting from up close as they had appeared from a distance so we did not go ashore on the little neck to the peninsula.

Then we continued on south to the west and south rivers. We went into Galesville to visit our favorite liquor store- it says on the sign that the place is a deli. But it isn’t. It also says on yelp that it is permanently closed but it is not that either. The store is dirty inside and has the feeling of a neighborhood bodega in the Caribbean. When we first met the owner he was convinced that the townspeople were trying to drive him out because someone had put a dead mouse in his trash can. My suggestion that perhaps the mouse had met his demise there naturally was met with hard denial. No. The mouse could not have gotten there on its own it was clearly sabotage.  We later sent some friends into his store with instructions to ask about the mouse in the trash, which enraged the proprietor - he ran our friends out of the store without any booze.  Sorry, not sorry. 

Anyway this year when we visited for ice and prosecco he was on the phone with the court discussing his legal problems. Honestly the timing could not have been more perfect.  Can't wait to visit him again.  

We went to Pirates Cove for lunch and illicit showers,  then walked through “town” to Hartge boat yard to pick up some spare fuel filters. “Town” was an antique store and a post office. Won’t hear any complaints from me. 

Then we hauled anchor and made for the Rhode river. The plan was to go behind Big Island this time, a feat we had not previously dared to attempt. It was not bad. It would be a perfect hurricane hole. The approach was visually counter intuitive but we had deep water the whole way in and a lovely little spot to anchor.  

The next morning we headed out early to hit Cambridge Md all the way across the bay. We were going to try Knapp’s narrows. Unfortunately about an hour into the trip, just off Poplar Island, our fleet captain's vessel began to slow down.  He realized that his transmission was scorchingly hot and he had to stop.  We spent an hour or two drifting on the windless bay, trying to fish and failing.

Ultimately we decided to tow him around the north end of Poplar island so we could drop anchor near Loew's Wharf and dock bar.  The water was so shallow we had to anchor probably a mile out from the bar, but the dinghy in was fun and the bar was hopping.  They had rooms to rent and several food trucks.  It was reminiscent of a smaller, shallower Jellyfish Joel's.

We spent the night comfortably at anchor despite the strange location, and enjoyed seeing cow nosed rays gliding by.

The next day we parted ways, the fleet heading home under sail for repairs.  Hobo continued south.  We made Solomon's that night, grabbing nearly the last mooring available at Zahniser's.

The next day, for lack of any closer destinations, and since we had never done it before, we headed up the Patuxent from there.  There's a bald cypress swamp at the end of Battle Creek, so we did a little sailing and a little motoring all the way up as far as we could get and dropped the hook.  

Near the bridge up to the Patuxent the river is inexplicably and terrifyingly deep.  You could easily swim to shore where we took this depth reading.  

The next day we returned to Zahniser's for another night, checked out the Ruddy Duck Brewery via Uber/Lyft for gluten free beer and some actually really great food.  Tragically the Tiki Bar in Solomon's is presently closed.  The scuttlebutt is that the owner passed away and the boarded up building is now for sale for 3.9 million.  

The following day we made a long trip across the bay and up into the Choptank.  We had never stayed behind Saint Michaels and it turns out that is definitely the way to go.  We had a beautiful anchorage teeming with fish, extremely easy dinghy access to a town dock where we could walk about a block and reach town.  No dockage fees.  Unfortunately its a much longer haul from our home port to the Choptank than it is to the Miles River so it is definitely a treat we will not get to do again any time soon.  We spent two nights there. Did the winery tasting, wandered around town, ate ice cream, and took the dogs to one of the little islands for a run.  

We went from there to Annapolis, which was also a pretty long haul, but Friday night was apparently race night so we were in the thick of things, with people barreling into the harbor under full sail right and left.  It was very exciting to watch. 







Saturday we made for Still Pond for a final night on the hook and the usual glorious sunset over the bay, then back home to HPYC on Sunday for a sad fare-thee-well to Hobo for another week.