Hiding Out

Deep Creek, Virginia
36 44.85 N  N 076 20.50 W

We got up early so that we could have a long, slow, liesurely ride up the Dismal Swamp Canal all by ourselves.   It was great.

Now we are just inside the fringe of the very dense urban area of Portsmouth/Norfolk Virginia.  

We're going to hide out here for two days to avoid a big festival going on in Portsmouth/Norfolk Harbors.  Opsail 2012 is a very big deal with tall ships, all the US Navy boats in the area, and thousands of spectator boats.  

We avoid all festivals, and boat shows because of the crowds.   We learned that local people who planned coming months in advance find all the good spots, and reserve anything reservable.  That leaves poor cruisers like us who just come in happenstance with little to choose from.  Best to avoid it.

We'll stay here at the Deep Creek Lock for two nights.  On the second night however, Karl and Laura from SV Ekotopia are going to join us for dinner.   They live nearby in Portsmouth.

On Friday, we'll move to Hampton, VA at the city dock where I managed to snag a reservation for one night.  

On Saturday, we hope to meet with Bob and Sandra from Carpe Diem.  After that, the plan is to go out to sea and to be in NYC before Tuesday night when the winds shift to the north again.

FLASH: I just rechecked the weather.  Everything has changed.  Now it seems that we should leave Thursday night and be in NYC before sunset on Sunday.  Ay ay ay -- we may have to junk all those plans.

Froggy Telegraph

Great Dismal Swamp Visitor's Center
36 39.41 N 076 21.36 W

We spent the afternoon and last night at our favorite anchorage on the whole East Coast.  It is a place we've been before, and which I've blogged about before.   I'm going to start calling it Pearly Anchorage because it is as nice as the Pearly Gates to Heaven must be.  I'm also going to start being selfish and not revealing its location.  A big part of the appeal is the total isolation.  If we were to go there sometime and find another boat anchored we would be very disappointed.

One feature of the Pearly Gates is the froggy telegraph.  Things start perfectly still.   Then one frog starts croaking.  Then a second frog joins in.  Within seconds, an entire frog clan of a dozen or more members in a small area are all croaking.  The sound is deafening.   It lasts for about two minutes before abruptly ceasing.   However, before it finishes, it triggers another bout of croaking from a rival frog clan down the river bank.  That triggers a third clan across the river, and a fourth further away and a fifth and so on.  We figure it carries the froggy message down the river, across the bay and down the Mississippit to the Gulf of Mexico.   What might the froggy message be?  Your guess is a good as mine.

Navigating a cruising boat needs diverse skills.  Everything from offshore techniques, to coastal navigation, channels, busy ports, meandering creeks.   Simplest of all though is vanishing point navigation such as on this canal.  See the picture that we took early this morning.  Just keep the bow pointed at the vanishing point and you're all set.

So What Really Happened?

Elizabeth City, NC

36 17.92 N 076 13.09 W

I promised to write more about our expensive heat exchanger problem.  Here goes.

The short non-technical answer is that it was my fault; my negligence.  The more technical answer follows the pictures.

The assembled heat exchanger.

Aft end with cap showing attached flange

End caps, note the pencil zinc sticking into the left cap.

Compare the two brass caps, What's the non-brass metal?

The aft end of the water box showing missing flange

See how the rubber O-ring can separate the brass from aluminum?

The damage to the water jacket was more extensive than I thought. The aft end cap actually has a flange that was part of the jacket stuck to it.  Looking at the metal in the flange, I see unmistakable signs of galvanic corrosion.

There is a pencil zinc that screws into the assembly.  It's function is to protect against galvanic corrosion.  I've replaced this zinc often in the past; several times per year.  However, no matter how many times I changed it, I never found more than a stub of zinc remaining.   I'm afraid that the answer is that I didn't change it often enough, and during parts of the the four years that we've owned that engine, the aluminum water jacket, not the zinc was being sacrificial.

The things I said before about the proximity of brass and aluminum, and of the difficulty of getting the O-rings exactly right are all true.  This is not the best design.   However, those things are secondary.  The primary cause of the failure was not keeping the zincs replaced sufficiently.

Oh well, it is always easier to find an explanation that puts the blame on someone else.   But as captain and owner, one simply can't hide from the truth.  It was my fault.

p.s. My friend Doug, posted a comment on the earlier blog saying that he made the same mistake on his Beta Marine engine and he also had to replace the whole expensive assembly.

Frustrated

Elizabeth City, NC
36 17.92 N 076 13.09 W

The delay caused by our heat exchanger caused and is still causing frustration.   If we left on schedule, we could have gone out to sea Friday night and we would have been in NYC by Monday.  

Today especially would have been a glorious day at sea.   Blue sky, great temperature, and great wind speed and direction.  We might have had a shot at matching our best day ever -- 180 nautical miles in 24 hours.  As is was, we had a very nice day motoring Saturday and a great day sailing today, albeit on the ICW.   It was perhaps our fastest transit of the North Carolina ICW.

Enough whining.  There were two very good reasons why we should not be out at sea today.  

First, with all the work and all the modifications we did on Tarwathie, a good trial run was needed before putting out to sea.   Others call them sea trials, we call them before-sea trials.  So far so good, everything seems to be working as it should, including the new engine cooling system.

Second, I'm a bit sick.  For the past 5-6 days  I've had gastric distress and diahre dyrea direathe the shits.  Given that, it was probably best not be offshore.   We just put in to Elizabeth City and my first stop was a drug store to buy Pepto Bismo.  Hopefully, that will fix my problem.

The frustrating part is that it looks like a whole week before favorable winds come again.   We're running short of time to make it for Sara's graduation on June 23 in Boonville, NY

Three Steps Forward Again

Sailcraft Boatyard, Oriental, NC
35 01.97 N 076 41.11 W

On Thursday, Tarwathie was on the Travel Lift on Thursday, ready to splash.  See the picture.  You can almost see her smile.  15 minutes later she was frowning mightily because of our heat exchanger problems.

Well, we waited two antsy days for the replacement parts to come from Beta Marine.  They came today at 1830.   I was doubly antsy because darkness was approaching and so were some severe thunderstorms.  My plan was to install the new stuff, put everything back together, put in new anti freeze, then see if the engine would run with cooling and without leaks.

Well, it is 2030 now, and all those things are accomplished.  Tarwathie is smiling once again. So is Libby.  So am I.

Darkness will  be here in 15 minutes, and the the thunderstorms in another hour.   We'll stay at the dock tonight and tomorrow resume our northward migration!!!!

By the way, I think I figured out the real cause of the trouble.  It was not what I said the other day.   I'll post more details later.  Right now, a  belated supper should be waiting.