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.