Engine starting problem after sailing...

The engine not starting after a good sail problem was significant, and meant we had a few times where we had to sail back to our dock spot. It was very annoying, and took away from the fun we had on our sailing trips.

Eventually I got to the source of the problem - somewhat by accident, and it was the wet-lift muffler, which was dramatically overfilling with water due to the wet lift pipe having melted away before we got the boat. The water was flowing back into the cylinders when we were on port tack, and the spark plugs were getting wet, and that prevented the engine firing up.

Anywhoo, in Nov and Dec I found the problem, formed a new wet-lift pipe and got everything working again. Thankfully, the engine is starting perfectly now. Even after some hard sailing on both tacks. It is a huge relief!

Ralph.

Detailed Report.

Christmas Weekend Cruise II

We left the boat ready to go on Saturday, and got out for a nice sail on Sunday. Did a Subscrub on the way out to clean off any grass that might be trying to call the hull of Silver Fox home! Some breeze when we first got out, but it died away pretty quickly.

Wind started off N, then went NW and faded away, with only occasional zephyrs. Then something started out of the NE and was 5 or 6 knots for a short while. Airport was reporting SE winds all afternoon, so we must have had some thermal action going on! Temp around 50 degrees, water temperature around 48 degrees.

We had a fun time and we had some great conversations and called Naomi & Ed for some good advice!

Put the boat away for winter again on the way back (removed all sails, skyed halyards, extra dock lines, etc), and left the boat in great condition. Again the engine was not an issue and we are happy to report that it worked perfectly!

Had a nice dinner & drinks at the Laughin' Gull Yacht Club (ex-PDX) after sailing.

Christmas Weekend Cruise 1

Godot in Kinsale was scheduled to go out on the annual boxing day race, and on this side of the Atlantic, we were going to do the same and toast each other, but they had ice in Ireland and did not race, but here in Norfolk we went sailing!

It was very foggy when we got up, and very, very moist air with mist when we went to the boat, which had an amazing interior soaking up to the point of the waterline. Dripping wet at everypoint from the waterline down, and forming a perfect waterline - on the interior of the boat! I first thought the boat had perhaps partially sunk before the self bailer kicked in and drained all the water. But that seemed to be impossible as the damage, etc did not lead to that conclusion. Then we figured it had to be condensation! Crazy! Probably because the air today was actually warmer than the sea water - which is a sudden inversion from normal.

Anyways, as we had expected, it took quite a while to set the boat up as it was in winter mode (sheets stowed, sails stowed, halyards skyed, etc, etc). We headed out in the cold mist, and had light airs out of the West, and a large rolling sea out of the East!

We sailed on a tight reach out to the 'middle' bouy, avoiding all the shipping that was appearing out of the fog as we crossed the channel, and then sailed back at close to the same sailing angle - ahead of abeam. The weather improved somewhat, and visibility improved dramatically.

There was a strong North to South tide running, which kept the water levels high at Cobbs, despite the ebb and flood!

Sailed upwind for a while on both tacks, with the boat well healed, to test the rebuilt muffler, and see if it had resolved the problem, and I am happy to say it seems to have done the trick! After the sailing there were NO engine starting issues - how sweet is that!!!

We came back to the dock and drank a toast to the family in Ireland, ourselves, and the crew of Godot!

Second November Sail

It was a nice-ish day and we were keen to get out on the water, so on Sat 11/21/09 we headed out on another adventure. I was working on the boat most of the morning and Brigite was catching up with her things. We got a late start around 1pm. We had prepared for an overnight trip, but with the short days, we had to find somewhere that was within 10 miles.

I wanted to visit the Kipoteake anchorage, and we decided to try that even though it was going to be a late arrival - around 1930, with darkness at 1800, because the 15 mile trip was straight upwind. We went with the big genoa, and the wind was just starting to create white caps. I decided that this is the upper end of this sail upwind. Wunderground reports it was between 12 and 15 mph.

It was quite chilly upwind, and after we ate, etc we decided that the overnight cruise to Kipoteake would have to wait. Instead we sailed out the first gap in the CBBT, tacked, hoisted the chute and sailed back. It was quite bumpy and we had our hands full. I could not leave the tiller for a second, as the boat would roll off course immediately. Brigite had her hands full with the boat at 20 degrees and pitching as she Teed up the Spinn.

Once up, it took a while to find the most comfortable and stable sailing angle, but after that it was smooth sailing - until the topping lift broke at one end! The pole fell to the deck, but we scrambled and attached it to the end of the pole and were off again. The lifting strop at one end broke, the wire just seems to have parted in the middle.

We had a great sunset in front of us as we sailed back to port, and took a ton of photos!

As usual after a sail - the engine refused to start! Dang it! And I was pretty confident my new starting technique would have fixed it! The symptoms only occur after sailing. At the dock or after motoring it starts great - but after some sailing; no dice.

So we sailed into our dock spot (again), and then after a while got the engine started. We had a glass of wine and a chat in the cabin with our clean cushions being very inviting.

Re the engine: I am now stripping the fuel system. I have the shut-off switch working again, cleaned the sediment bowl, and am replacing (and relocating) the fuel filter. Plus I will inspect the fuel tank for rust or other crud.

November Day Out

Thursday and Fri we got bashed by the Nov Noreaster (formerly Tropical Storm Ida). Saturday was the transition day, and Sunday the sun was shining! I took good care of Silver Fox during the storms, checking on her twice a day - except when we were trapped by the flooding (Friday). I had tons of lines holding her and monitored the tides that were 4 or 5 feet above normal!

Sunday was a completely different day, and made the previous 3 days seem like distant memories. We decided to go for a little sail. We mostly wanted to test the tempermental motor, which neither of us really felt we could trust to start at sea. I felt it was my starting technique that was partly maybe mostly at fault. The problem I had was that I did not respect the carburator. I did not pay enough attention to getting the fuel mix right to the engine conditions, and I believed I was flooding the engine. So this sail was to test my theories, and see if the engine would start when we needed it to. And it did. It behaved perfectly, and we now have more confidence in our girl!

It takes a while to get the boat prepped when she is in winter mode as the halyards are skied, and everything is put away. It was toasty warm, but there was little breeze when we got out. There was a big tideline just outside the entrance to the cut (see photo). We motored towards our place so we could drop the pick there, have lunch and then see if the engine would start - if not we could go ashore to the house!

We anchored and had a relaxing hour on the hook, but the leftover swells were abeam and could get a good roll going at times.

Then with the engine working great, we sailed for a bit in the 2 or 3 know breeze. We put up goofy, and full main and had a nice gentle sail back towards the cut, with a strong ebb helping.

Once again when needed the engine started on demand - giving weight to the theory that the problems may have been largly operator error in the past!

"Sea Trial" - 09/12/2009

We wanted to sail on Friday as it was a gorgeous day, and Brigite had the day off, but I had too much going on and couldn't get away. Then we were going to go Saturday, but the weather didn't cooperate. But on Sunday it all came together!

Wind was from the NE 13 kn and forecast to ease during the afternoon. We decided to sail out the southern gap in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) out into the Ocean, and come back in through the other (northern) gap in the CBBT, and then back to our dock at Little Creek.

We put up the #3 and one reef in the main, and the boat was well balanced. Underpowered in some of the bigger lulls, and Overpowered in the gusts - the wind was very unstable, which is rare from that direction. It was a lovely sunny afternoon in the high 70s.

Two other boats sailed out around the same time as us, a Hunter 33 and a beautiful big blue boat, that was like Silver Fox's big sister. She was being single-handed. Big Blue was called Blue Angel we later found out. She sailed the same trip with us.

We sailed out and opened a bottle of champers to celebrate Foxy's trip into the ocean! We toasted the boat and of course King Neptune.

There was a strange tide-line of small dead fish that was a bit weird and off-putting, but we sailed past it and didn't dwell on it too much.

On the other side of the CBBT we had good views of all the supertankers at anchor waiting for their instructions, plus we saw Cape Henry light and Cape Charles light.

We passed back in through the Northern passage, and over the tunnel, and then bore off and set the chute. Blue Angel also set a chute, but our little boat was much faster downwind, and we didn't have to worry about being left behind!

The wind continued to decrease, but was enough to keep the spinnaker pulling. At the mouth of the harbor entrance we doused, and the engine decided to act up, and took forever of cranking to finally start. Its a tempermental little bugger!




It was another awesome day cruise for Brigite, Foxy and Me!

Willoughby to Little Creek via Home. 10/3/09

Our time at Willoughby was up. The $99 first month promotion period was over for us, and we wanted to try out Little Creek marina as it was closer to our house (2 miles vs 5 miles). So we took this Saturday afternoon to move the boat over, and also stop and anchor outside our house.

Not much wind at all, so we put the sails up twice, but ended up motoring most of the time. We anchored in front of the house, and I cleaned the waterline and we inflated the dingy to go ashore. All good fun! We went ashore to the house for about an hour, then rowed back to the boat and continued on to Little Creek.

At LC we had left my bike so I could cycle to Willoughby to collect the car. We were in B40 at Willoughby and are in C36 at Little Creek. We like it at Little Creek, it is peaceful, protected, yet we are close to the action by being towards the end of our dock.

Cruise to house - 09/22/09

This was a trip I was really looking forward to make, since we bought the house last year! It was a nice late afternoon, and we wanted to have some fun as Brigite was starting work again the next day.

So we headed off, in a NNE breeze, close hauled from Fort Wool to our house, and we made it without tacking. We found a good transit line for crossing the spit off Fort Wool and that is to line up the water towers in Buckroe and Ocean View.

About 8 kn of breeze and we used the #1 and full main. We could only sail to the house, get a few pictures then we had to head back as it was getting dark.

But a fun sail, taking about 3 hours. And I loved being able to sail to our house!!!

Cruise to Middle Ground Light, 9/19/2009

Good breeze on this Saturday, and we decided to take the boat out for a day cruise. Wind was out of the N at 15kn +. With the ebb tide, we decided to go downwind to Middle Ground light against the tide and beat back with the tide under us.

On the way out there was a sailing dingy capsized by the Willoughby bank, and a lot of chatter on channel 16. Turns out the boat was from the naval station, and had to be towed back. We put up the #2 with one reef, and ate lunch under way.

It was completely overcast, but we had a cracking sail in the generous breeze. Down by the mark we changed to the #3 and put in the second reef. It was our first time sailing with the new to us mainsail from Canada, but it looked much better than what we had before. The only thing is that it is hard to reef at the luff, because the grommet is too close to the mast to fit over the reefing hook. But easily overcome with a sail-tie.

Nice tide assisted beat back to Willoughby.

Overnight Cruise - 9/12 - 9/14/09

Yesterday (Sat) I finally got Foxy's engine running. To run it needs: spark, air & fuel. I knew I had the first 2 - so it must have been fuel. I have been working on the engine all week, but finally on Sat with ether and Carb cleaning spray I got her going, and after letting her run under load for about a half hour, I figured the blockages must be cleared. You can have no idea how absolutely great it felt to get it running. The satisfaction is hard to beat! That afternoon we could finally leave on a cruise! We were very keen to start enjoying our new boat, and were very much looking forward to an overnight cruise! Brigite did a great job provisioning, especially since our plan was quite vague!

We headed off and with the NE wind, we headed up towards the Western shore, with Mobjack Bay as a target, but York River as the backup in case we run out of light. Had a nice sail up, skirting along the large shallow bank. The wind was quite light, and we used the #1 with full main, close hauled. Just around sunset with the dying breeze and not great sailing speed we fired up the donk, and put the sails away. We motored up into what looked like a nice quiet and protected shore with enough depth. It was close to the Coleman Bridge. We dropped the hook at 8:30pm and fired up the BBQ. A couple of steaks and a glass of wine later, and we could not have been happier! Brigite was responsible for the delicious meal, and found the galley quite functional, and she made peace with the alcohol stove!

It was a peaceful night, with only one noise that needed attention - the hanging lid of the BBQ was occasionally making contact with the topsides.

Woke up around 7am, quite refreshed, made coffee, and enjoyed the great feeling that waking up anchored in a protected cove offers! After an hour or so we decided to haul the anchor and take advantage of the N breeze to sail accross the bay to Cape Charles.

We had a nice breeze as we left the York river with the Spinn up. It was a lovely sail accross the Chesapeake Bay, and we caught a little fish, and another bigger fish broke our line and took off with our fishing tackle! Guess our line was not strong enough for trolling. It was a lovely port tack sail of just over 20 nm. We sailed up the channel to Cape Charles, as the engine would not start. It was the no-crank issue, which is an electrical problem. It was frustrating to say the least! We sailed into the Municipal Marina, and got the engine started about an hour later. We ate at the the great Irish Bar in Cape Charles, and their to-die-for chocolate cake! We had a good night and bought gas in the morning at the reduced prices they offer. We motored up the very thin channel to the Bay Creek Resort.

We docked there to check out rates and see if there were any anchorages around, and apparently up Cherrystone Inlet is a nice spot, which we will explore in the future! Then we set sail for home. Another nice sunny day, but the breeze a tad light for the 20+ mile downwind run. We found that our "goofy" sail is quite good in these conditions, as the symmetric was very unstable in the chop, but goofy managed to keep his shape, and pulling. We had very good tidal planning for the trip, and that helped us make good time. 7 miles out we decided we needed the motor, but before firing it up, I gave the waterline and rudder a scrub. We motored in with a good 2 knots or more of tide under us, and tied up in Willoughby around 4:30pm, after a most enjoyable two night cruise. Lets hope we have lots more of these in the future!