Tom arrived the night before to find an otter had defecated in the cockpit, requiring him to stay up and sanitize the cockpit. (Later, we learn that the cockpit drain’s hose clamps were loose and had introduced smelly water into the aft cabin)
Tom also checked the running lights and found the port light wasn’t working. I had checked this previously, and it was working weeks before, so we had an intermittent short somewhere in the anchor locker or a faulty light. This is common because this area is often wet and salty and therefore a terrible environment for electrical connections.
This is what too much food looks like.
Crew arrives with food, and the forecast looks like we will have a lot of wind if we wait to depart the following morning. It also looks like we might have to try and get down the Washington coast and in before a forecast southerly hits, so we plan to cast off just before the fuel dock closes instead of the following day.
From my log
Headsail on at the fuel dock (I had taken all the sails I thought we would need to the sail loft in town for a survey where they found that the headsail’s sun cover was ready for replacement.)
Fueled up with 73 gallons (Forward most fuel deckfill is dead-ended and we just filled the fill hose. (Will have to empty later.) Yay
Left from the fuel dock at 5:15 pm
No tachometer
No oil pressure (or not believable oil pressure reading)
Only oil pressure alarm and temp gauge working.. yay
Throttle slipping at 6:00 yay
Throttle not allowing full rpm at 6:20
Found that there was fuel starvation from the loose routing of fuel lines coming off the fuel filters mounted to the swinging door back of steps. Vac gauge recorded vacuum, and we are now closing the engine room door while watching from the side panel access.
Autopilot is not working. Was allegedly dock programmed and was only needing sea trial set up. Will have to do this later.
The throttle slips from our estimated cruising RPM because the fuel governor’s spring is too loaded. We have jury-rigged a wire to hold the throttle handle at the desired RPM at the binnacle. The former owner used clamps to put pressure on the throttle cables in two places, and it has resulted in allowing moisture into the cable housing and their subsequent deterioration. We don’t know the RPM as the tachometer is not functioning so using speed through water.
Speed through water not accurate..
There is an oil pressure solenoid manifold running off a splitter at the original oil pressure sender that houses two additional senders. It is leaking a little oil. We are watching this.
As we head to Port Angeles guest dock for the night the transmission slips out of gear.
Making the weather window is out of the question now so we will need to address what we can in Port Angelies.
Owner is updated and offers the crew a per deim for the work necessary the next day.
Oil solenoid manifold
One of the clamps on the throttle cables