From the lost ICW expedition.
Carolyn, Nick, and I had a wonderful trip down which I don’t know now if I’ll ever get around to writing up.
The engine ran beautifully, I checked the oil breather water trap and dipstick regularly. The night before last, I checked the oil in Hadley Harbor and it was perfect, clean looking and right at the full mark.
I anchored last night in Fall River after dropping of my crew and started out this morning under power for Bristol. I was right in the middle of Mount Hope Bay motoring along on a beautiful morning promising a perfect day and thinking that I was finally fully confident of the engine aga…..
The oil alarm went off. I shut down and looked in the engine compartment. There was oil all over the engine and the sides of the hull and the drip pan was full. This time, it isn’t black oil floating on top of water (I’ve been keeping the drip pan cleaned out religiously since in case of such an event) as it was in Solomons. It’s all the grey emulsion of water and oil beaten into a froth by the crank. The dipstick was pushed up out of its tube. Believe me, after all I went through in Maryland, I know it was seated when I last checked the oil. A few minutes later, it had fallen back all the way home without my touching it.
The water in the crankcase breather liquid trap tastes slightly salty although it’s hard to tell for sure with the oil and other stuff that comes out of the crankcase. I pulled the dipstick and it is coated with gray mousse. In my previous oil loss event, it looked normal. No question this time that I have an engine and crankcase full of water. It’s a raw water cooled engine so there is only one place it could have come from.
There are only three ways the oil could have gotten from the cooling passages to the crankcase:
1) Water pump seal failure. Pump was rebuilt last year.
2) Head gasket failure.
3) The raw water cooled engine has rusted through the block at some point and is now junk.
The thing that worries me at this point is that the only way to rule out number 3 is to spend a few boat bucks on a new head gasket and then see if it happens again. I looked in the engine compartment last night and the drip pan was clean although I did not check the oil level. Whatever happened here happened very suddenly.
Ironically, my plan was to end up here today to see Lee and Lynn when they get back from the boat show. Their boat has been at Quality Yacht Services here in Tiverton having some work done before they head south. Because of the wonderful things they have said about the place, one of my objectives was also to meet and get to know the yard in case I needed one in this area. It looks like that was prescient thinking. I sure do need a yard; probably one that can store a boat for the winter and put in a new engine, if I can afford it after doing some hard thinking. Actually, it doesn’t take any hard thinking to know I can’t afford a new engine in any rational sense that would be recognized as financial planning. I could do it but it would be crazy in my situation.
So, I sit here on mooring K 11 unable to get ashore because of the fast current and the need to be here in case the yard notices that there a boat on their mooring and comes to inquire. They are a service yard only so closed weekends but Lee and Lynn said he was around yesterday. Nothing to do all day but sit here and think about dashed hopes and the joy of shoveling snow again this winter.
Carolyn, Nick, and I had a wonderful trip down which I don’t know now if I’ll ever get around to writing up.
The engine ran beautifully, I checked the oil breather water trap and dipstick regularly. The night before last, I checked the oil in Hadley Harbor and it was perfect, clean looking and right at the full mark.
I anchored last night in Fall River after dropping of my crew and started out this morning under power for Bristol. I was right in the middle of Mount Hope Bay motoring along on a beautiful morning promising a perfect day and thinking that I was finally fully confident of the engine aga…..
The oil alarm went off. I shut down and looked in the engine compartment. There was oil all over the engine and the sides of the hull and the drip pan was full. This time, it isn’t black oil floating on top of water (I’ve been keeping the drip pan cleaned out religiously since in case of such an event) as it was in Solomons. It’s all the grey emulsion of water and oil beaten into a froth by the crank. The dipstick was pushed up out of its tube. Believe me, after all I went through in Maryland, I know it was seated when I last checked the oil. A few minutes later, it had fallen back all the way home without my touching it.
The water in the crankcase breather liquid trap tastes slightly salty although it’s hard to tell for sure with the oil and other stuff that comes out of the crankcase. I pulled the dipstick and it is coated with gray mousse. In my previous oil loss event, it looked normal. No question this time that I have an engine and crankcase full of water. It’s a raw water cooled engine so there is only one place it could have come from.
There are only three ways the oil could have gotten from the cooling passages to the crankcase:
1) Water pump seal failure. Pump was rebuilt last year.
2) Head gasket failure.
3) The raw water cooled engine has rusted through the block at some point and is now junk.
The thing that worries me at this point is that the only way to rule out number 3 is to spend a few boat bucks on a new head gasket and then see if it happens again. I looked in the engine compartment last night and the drip pan was clean although I did not check the oil level. Whatever happened here happened very suddenly.
Ironically, my plan was to end up here today to see Lee and Lynn when they get back from the boat show. Their boat has been at Quality Yacht Services here in Tiverton having some work done before they head south. Because of the wonderful things they have said about the place, one of my objectives was also to meet and get to know the yard in case I needed one in this area. It looks like that was prescient thinking. I sure do need a yard; probably one that can store a boat for the winter and put in a new engine, if I can afford it after doing some hard thinking. Actually, it doesn’t take any hard thinking to know I can’t afford a new engine in any rational sense that would be recognized as financial planning. I could do it but it would be crazy in my situation.
So, I sit here on mooring K 11 unable to get ashore because of the fast current and the need to be here in case the yard notices that there a boat on their mooring and comes to inquire. They are a service yard only so closed weekends but Lee and Lynn said he was around yesterday. Nothing to do all day but sit here and think about dashed hopes and the joy of shoveling snow again this winter.
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