Watching the water go by

“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.” 
― Thomas A. Edison


We're  at the dock, waiting for the river to calm down and thinking, ever-thinking, about cruising some place where it's warmer.

Seeking to kindle some joy from past cruises, I start thumbing through Ms. Bettencourt's logbook. Instead of finding a pleasant tropical memory, I landed on this entry from November, 2013:

11/16/13
Aborted cruise with Dia (Bettencourt) and Farleigh (Jack Russell terrier) due to low RPM. Returned to dock. Throttle linkage appears OK. Fuel?

Thus began a cascade of mechanical blind corners and dead ends spanning the next three months that will eventually explain the reason for the Thomas Edison quote at the head of this post.

Follow along for awhile. Find out why my friend Hira calls me a "sequential thinker."

11/18/13
Suspecting fuel starvation. Changed primary fuel filter. No joy!

11/19/13
Checked air intake. Could be part of the problem. Burning plastic smell?

11/20/13
Checked antifreeze. Checked transmission fluid. Bled secondary fuel filter. Bled injection pump and all three injectors.

11/21/13
Under way to test after fuel system air purge. All gauges in the green, but engine speed less than 50%  normal at full power. Max RPM 1090. Max speed 3.8 knots. Shaft seal/stuffing box cool to touch. Docked uneventfully. Throttle linkage? Throttle cable? Injection pump? 

(Later)
John (next-door neighbor) calls to report the boat was making black smoke as it passed his dock. He says this is suggestive of a "dead cylinder," low compression or a bad injector.

This report triggered a lengthy worry spiral and saw the re-replacement of both fuel filters, the removal, testing and re-installation of all three fuel injectors and another trial run (also unsuccessful) with the engine fed from a jug of diesel fuel fresh from the pump at a nearby station.

Finally, I conclude I have exhausted all possibilities. Expecting the worst, I call in the Kubota engine people and, after two days, they prove that Thomas Edison was right.

12/3/13
Kubota techs find obstructed exhaust mixing elbow.

Now, with many repairs and varied tests completed, we're ready to go somewhere.  But conditions are not promising.

 The Army Corps of Engineers has been dumping a torrent from its massive upstream reservoirs at an average rate past our dock of about 30,000 cubic feet per second.

 Yesterday, Ms. Bettencourt went a few miles upstream. With her 24-horsepower diesel at full throttle, she made 5.5 knots over the ground as measured by the GPS. On the return trip she clocked 8.8 knots at the same throttle setting. This means the great volume of water moving downstream is generating about a 3 knot current.

Of course, this should not cancel a boat trip downstream. We could get far away in that direction relatively quickly. But coming home against a 3-knot current would be a v-e-r-y slow trip in a boat with a 6.5 knot hull speed.

So, we're sitting here in the cold, watching the water go by.

Probable sinkings

Sad things can happen on the water. And often sad incidents pass with little notice. Such was the case last week when persons unknown, said to be vandals, cut the docklines of a half-dozen boats tied up at Augusta's short-term parking dock on the Savannah River.

Six boats were set adrift. One, an old houseboat, was found hung up in overhanging tree branches and returned to the dock. The other five are still missing. And, here's the sad part: One of the five is the Avocet, a 40-foot 1950s era Matthews cruiser.

Avocet wasn't pretty, but she had nice lines.She was made of teak and mahogany, probably with cypress ribs. Someone had been working on her, off and on, for a long time. She needed a lot of work.

Avocet was a classic vessel; a survivor of a golden age of recreational boating.

She and the other inhabitants of her dock occupied neglected space on the waterfront. This is where one would often find boats in arrears on their marina rents. And, despite a purported 48-hour parking limit, many had been squatters there for months.

The upstream lakes are at flood pools and the Corps of Engineers is releasing water into the river at nearly 30,000 cubic feet per second.

The Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam is about 15 miles downstream from here. Ominously, a safety cable buoyed with big floats and stretched across the dam's spillway, was found to be breached the morning after the six boats were set adrift.

If wooden-hulled Avocet went over the dam, it is very unlikely she is still in one piece.

That's sad.